THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


IN  MEMORY  OF 
MRS.  VIRGINIA  B.  SPORER 


THE 

HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA 

FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  1877 

BY 

ALFRED   RAMBAUD 

PROFESSEUR  A  LA  FACULTE  DES  LETTRES  A  NANCYJ  MEMBRE  CORRESPONDANT  DB 
L'ACADEMIE  DES  SCIENCES  DE  SAINT-PETERSBOURG 


TRANSLATED   BY 

LEONORA    B.     LANG 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOLUME  I. 

WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO 

HOOPER,   CLARKE  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


PREFACE. 


THIS  Translation  of  M.  Alfred  Rambaud's  "Historic  de  la  Kus- 
sie"  (Paris,  1878)  contains  a  number  of  emendations  by  the  Au- 
thor. M.  Rambaud  has  also  written  many  additional  pages  :  on 
Russian  ethnography ;  on  the  Esthonian  Epic ;  on  the  early  rela- 
tions of  England  and  Russia ;  and  on  the  Emperor  Paul's  project 
of  attacking  England  in  India.  The  Translator  has  to  express  a 
grateful  sense  of  M.  Rambaud's  constant  and  courteous  aid.  In 
whateA^er  is  hasty  or  inaccurate  in  these  volumes,  he  has  no  share. 
The  Translator  has  compiled  Genealogical  Tables,  of  which  M. 
Rambaud  has  approved.  The  French  book  has  no  index,  and  an 
attempt  has  been  made  to  supply  this  deficiency.  The  Translator 
regrets  that,  by  a  too  close  following  of  the  French  spelling  of  the 
ancient  tribal  names,  new  varieties  have  been  introduced,  where 
variety  was  already  too  plentiful  and  confusing.  There  seem,  for 
example,  to  be  about  thirteen  ways  of  spelling  "  Patzinak."  A  list 
of  some  of  these  names  as  here  printed,  and  of  the  forms  used  by 
Dr.  Latham  ("Russian  and  Turk,"  London,  1878),  is  subjoined: 

DR.  LATHAM. 

Tchouvach        ...  Tshuvash. 

Tcheremiss  Tsherimis. 

Mordvians         -  Mordvins  (otherwise  Mordwa). 

Tchoud  Tshud. 

Dregovitch       ...  Dragovitsae,  Dregoviczi. 

Polovtsi        ...  Polovcszi. 

latvegues  Yatshvings. 

Patzinaks    -        -  Petshinegs. 

Zaporogues     -  Zaporogs. 


2041575 


CONTENTS,  YOL.  I. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  RUSSIA. 
CHAPTER  L 

GEOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Eastern  and  Western  Europe  compared  :  seas,  mountains,  climate  — 
The  four  zones  —  Russian  rivers  and  history  —  Geographical  unity 
of  Russia,  -  13-23 

CHAPTER  II. 

ETHNOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Greek  colonies  and  the  Scythia  of  Herodotus  —  The  Russian  Slavs  of 
Nestor  —  Lithuanian,  Finnish,  and  Turkish  hordes  in  the  9th  cent- 
ury —  Division  of  the  Russians  proper  into  three  branches  —  How 
Russia  was  colonized,  24-37 

CHAPTER  III. 

PRIMITIVE  RUSSIA  :  THE  SLAVS. 

Religion  of  the  Slavs  —  Funeral  [rites  —  Domestic  and  political  cus- 
toms :  the  family,  the  mir  or  commune,  the  volost  or  canton,  the 
tribe  —  Cities  —  Industry  —  Agriculture,  -  -  38-44 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  VARANGIANS  :  FORMATION  OF  RUSSIA  ;  THE  FIRST  EXPEDITIONS 
AGAINST  CONSTANTINOPLE,   862-972. 

The  Northmen  of  Russia  —  Origin  and  customs  of  the  Varangians  — 
The  first  Russian  princes :  Rurik,  Oleg,  Igor  —  Expeditions  against 
Constantinople  —  Olga  —  Christianity  in  Russia  —  Sviatoslaf  — 
The  Danube  disputed  between  the  Russians  and  Greeks,  45-57 


PRINCELY  RUSSIA. 
CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CLOVIS  AND  CHARLEMAGNE  OF  THE  RUSSIANS  :   SAINT  VLADIMIR 
AND  IAROSLAF  THE  GREAT,   972-1054. 

Vladimir  (972-1015)  —  Conversion  of  the  Russians  —  laroslaf  the 
Great  (1016-1054)  —  Union  of  Russia  —  Splendor  of  Kief  —  Varan- 
gian-Russian society  at  the  time  of  laroslaf  —  Progress  of  Chris- 
tianity —  Social,  political,  literary,  and  artistic  results,  -  58-71 


CHAPTER  VI. 

RUSSIA  DIVIDED  INTO  PRINCIPALITIES  —  SUPREMACY   AND  FALL,  OF 
KIEF,    1054-1169. 

Distribution  of  Russia  into  principalities  —  Unity  in  division  —  The 
successors  of  laroslaf  the  Great  —  Wars  about  the  right  of  head- 
ship of  the  royal  family,  and  the  throne  of  Kief  —  Vladimir  Mon- 
omachus  —  Wars  between  the  heirs  of  Vladimir  Monomachus  — 
Fall  of  Kief,  72-83 

CHAPTER  VII. 

RUSSLA  AFTER  THE  FALL,  OF  KIEF  —  POWER  OF  SOUZDAL  AND 
GALLICIA,   1169-1224. 

Andrew  Bogolioubski  of  Souzdal  (1157-1174),  and  the  first  attempt  at 
autocracy  —  George  II.  (1212-1238)  —  Wars  with  Novgorod  —  Bat- 
tle of  Lipetsk  (1216)  —  Foundation  of  Nijni-Novgorod  (1220)  — 
Roman  (1188-1205)  and  his  son  Daniel  (1205-1264,  in  Gallicia,  84-94 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  RUSSIAN  REPUBLICS  :  NOVGOROD,  PSKOF,  AND  VIATKA,  UP  TO  1224. 

Novgorod  the  Great  —  Her  struggles  with  the  princes  —  Novgorodian 
institutions  —  Commerce  —  National  Church  —  Literature  —  Pskof 
andViatka,  -------  95-106 


THE  INVASIONS  FROM  THE  12TH  TO  THE  14ra  CENTURY. 
CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  LJVONIAN  KNIGHTS  :  CONQUEST  OF  THE  BALTIC  PROVINCES  BY 
TOE  GERMANS. 

Conversion  of  Livonia  —  Rise  of  the  Livonian  knights  :  union  with 
the  Teutonic  knights,  106-1 1 1 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  TATAR  MONGOLS  :  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  RUSSIA. 

'-  )ri^in  ;ind  manners  of  the  Mongols  —  Battles  of  tin-  Kalka,  of  Ria- 
zan,  of  Kolomna,  and  of  the  Sit  —  Conquest  of  Russia  —  Alexan- 
der Nevski  —  The  Mongol  yoke  —  Influence  of  the  Tatars  on  the 
Russian  development,  -  112-129 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  LITHUANIANS  :  CONQUEST  OF  WESTERN  RUSSIA  (1240-1430). 

The  Lithuanians  —  Conquests  of  Mindvog  (1240-1263),  of  Gedimin 
( i:51 5-1 340),  and  of  Olgerd  (1345-1377)  —  Jagellon  —  Union  of  Li- 
thuania with  Poland  (1386)  —  The  Grand  Prince  Vitovt  (1392-1430) 
—  Rattles  of  the  Vorakla  (1399)  and  of  Tannenberg  (1410),  130-137 


CONTENTS.  ix. 

MUSCOVITE  RUSSIA. 
CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  GRAND  PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW  :  ORGANIZATION  OF   EASTERN 
RUSSIA    (1303-1462). 

Origin  of  Moscow  —  Daniel  —  George  Danielovitch  (1303-1325)  and 
Ivan  Kalita  (1328-1341)  —  Contest  with  the  house  of  Tver  —  Simeon 
the  Proud  and  Ivan  the  Debonnaire  (1341 — 1359)  —  Dmitri  Dons- 
koii  (1363-1389)  —  Battle  of  Koulikovo  —  Vassili  Dmitrievitch  and 
Vassili  the  Blind  (1389-1462),  138-160 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

IVAN  THE  GREAT,   THE  UNITER  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  LAND  (1462-1505). 

Submission  of  Novgorod  —  Annexation  of  Tver,  Rostof,  and  laro- 
slavl  —  Wars  with  the  Great  Horde  and  Kazan  —  End  of  the  Tatar 
yoke  —  Wars  with  Lithuania  —  Western  Russia  as  far  as  the  Soja 
reconquered  —  Marriage  with  Sophia  Palaeologus  —  Greeks  and 
Italians  at  the  Court  of  Moscow,  -  -  161-174 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

VASSILI  IVANOVITCH  (1505-1533). 

Annexation  of  Pskof ,  Riazan,  and  Novgorod-Severski  —  Wars  with 
Lithuania  —  Acquisition  of  Smolensk  —  Wars  with  the  Tatars  — 
Diplomatic  relations  with  Europe,  175-181 

CHAPTER  XV. 

IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE  (1533-1584). 

Minority  of  Ivan  IV.  —  He  takes  the  title  of  Tzar  (1547)  —  Conquest 
of  Kazan  (1552)  and  of  Astrakhan  (1554)  —  Contests  with  the  Li- 
vonian  Order,  Poland,  the  Tatars,  Sweden,  and  the  Russian  aris- 
tocracy —  The  English  in  Russia  —  Conquest  of  Siberia,  182-208 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

MUSCOVITE  RUSSIA  AND  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

The  Muscovite  government  —  The  kin  and  the  men  of  the  Tzar  — 
The  prikazes  —  Rural  classes  —  Citizens  —  Commerce  —  Domestir 
slavery  —  Seclusion  of  women  —  The  Renaissance  :  Literature, 
popular  songs,  and  cathedrals  —  Moscow  in  the  16th  century, 

209-230 
CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  SUCCESSORS  OF  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE  :  FEODOR  IVANOVITCH  AND 
BORIS  GODOUNOF  (1584-1605). 

Feodor  Ivanovitch  (1584-1598)  —  The  peasant  attached  to  the  glebe 
—  The  patriarchate  —  Boris  Godounof  (1598-1605)  —  Appearanca 
of  the  false  Dmitri,  231-241 


x.  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THK  TIME  OF  THE  TROUBLES  (1605-1618). 

Murder  of  the  false  Dmitri  — Vassili  Chouiski  —  The  brigand  of 
Touchino  —  Vladislas  of  Poland  —  The  Poles  at  the  Kremlin 
—  National  rising  —  Minine  and  Pojarski — Election  of  Michael  Ro- 
mariof,  -  342-253 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  ROMANOFS:  MICHAEL  FEODOROVITCH  AND  THE  PATRIARCH 
PHILARETE  (1613-1645). 

Restorative  measures  —  End  of  the  Polish  war  —  Relations  with  Eu- 
rope —  The  States-general,  254  J< ;  j 

CHAPTER  XX. 

WESTERN  RUSSIA  IN  THE  17TH  CENTURY. 

The  political  union  of  Lublin  (1509),  and  the  religious  Union  (1595)  — 
Complaints  of  White  Russia  —  Risings  in  Little  Russia,  263-271 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

ALEXIS  MTKHAILOVITCH  (1645-1676)  AND  HIS  SON   FEODOR. 

Early  years  of  Alexis  —  Seditions  —  Khmelnitski  —  Conquest  of 
Smolensk  and  the  Eastern  Ukraine  —  Stenko  Razine  —  EcclesiaM  i- 
cal  reforms  of  Nicon  —  The  precursors  of  Peter  the  Great  —  Rei^n 
of  Feodor  AJexievitch  (1676-1582),  •„'  72-291 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

PETER  THE  GREAT  '.  EARLY  YEARS  (1682-1709). 

Regency  of  Sophia  (1682-1689)  —  Peter  I.  --  Expeditions  against 
Azof  (1695-1696)  —  First  journey  to  the  West  (1697)  —  Revolt  :in-l 
destruction  of  the  streltsi  —  Contest  with  the  Cossacks  :  revolt  of 
the  Don  (1706);  Mazeppa  (1709),  -  -  291-3)9 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GEOGRAPHY   OF    RUSSIA. 

Eastern   and   Western   Europe   compared :   seas,  mountains,  climate — The 
four  zones — Russian  rivers  and  history — Geographical  unity  of  Russia. 


EASTERN    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE    COMPARED  :    SEAS,    MOUNTAINS, 

CLIMATE. 

EUROPE  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  unequal  parts.  If  we 
give  4.000,000  square  miles  to  the  whole  of  Europe,  only  1,800,- 
ooo  belong  to  the  western,  2,200,000  to  the  eastern  part.  The 
former  division  is  shared  between  all  the  monarchies  and  repub- 
lics of  Europe,  Russia  excepted ;  the  latter  is  united  under  the 
Russian  sceptre.  Nature,  not  less  than  policy  or  religion,  has 
established  a  strong  opposition  between  the  two  regions,  between 
Eastern  and  Western  Europe. 

The  shores  of  the  latter  are  everywhere  broken  up  by  inland 
seas,  pierced  by  deep  gulfs,  jagged  with  peninsulas,  isthmuses, 
capes,  and  promontories ;  islands  and  crowded  archipelagos  are 
thickly  sprinkled  along  the  coasts.  Great  Britain  and  the  Greek 
peninsula  particularly,  which  have  a  coast-line  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  their  area,  contrast  with  the  impenetrable  compact  mass 
of  Eastern  Europe.  This  strongly-marked  outline  of  the  western 
lands  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  European  geography,  while 
the  immense  spaces  of  which  Russia  is  composed  seem  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  plains  and  plateaux  of  Northern  and  Central 
Asia.  No  doubt  Russia  is  washed  by  many  seas  :  in  the  north 
by  the  Icy  Ocean,  which  bites  deep  into  the  country  through  the 
great  fissure  of  the  White  Sea ;  in  the  south  by  the  Caspian,  the 


!4  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Sea  of  Azof,  and  the  Black  Sea ;  in  the  north-west  by  the  Baltic 
and  the  gulfs  of  Bothnia,  Finland,  and  Livonia  ;  but,  with  all 
these  seas,  it  has  only  a  comparatively  meagre  share  of  sea- 
board. While  the  rest  of  Europe  has  about  15,525  miles  of 
coast,  Russia,  with  a  much  more  considerable  surface,  possesses 
only  5514  miles  of  coast;  and  of  this  nearly  half  (2680  miles) 
belongs  to  the  Icy  Ocean  and  the  White  Sea.  Now,  these  two 
seas  are  only  navigable  during  a  few  months  of  the  year,  from 
June  to  September,  at  furthest.  The  Baltic,  in  its  two  most 
northern  gulfs,  freezes  easily;  armies  have  been  able  to  cross 
on  the  ice,  with  all  their  artillery  supplies ;  navigation  is  stopped 
from  the  month  of  November  to  the  end  of  April.  The  Caspian 
often  freezes,  especially  in  its  northern  half,  which  includes 
Astrakhan,  its  most  flourishing  port.  The  Sea  of  Azof,  here  and 
there,  is  little  better  than  a  marsh.  It  may  be  said  that,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Euxine,  the  Russian  seas  have  an  anti-European 
character;  they  cannot  be  of  the  same  use  as  our  western  seas. 
From  this  point  of  view  Russia  is  worse  endowed  by  nature  than 
any  other  European  country  ;  compared  with  the  privileged  lands 
of  the  West,  she  might  be  styled  continental  Europe,  in  opposition 
to  maritime  Europe. 

Western  Europe,  so  jagged  in  its  contour,  is  no  less  broken 
in  its  surface.  Without  speaking  of  the  vast  central  mass  of  the 
Alps,  there  is  not  one  European  land  which  does  not  possess, 
either  in  its  length  or  breadth,  a  great  mountain  system  forming 
the  scaffolding  or  the  backbone  of  the  country.  England  has 
her  chain  of  the  Peak  and  her  Highlands ;  France  has  her 
Cevennes  and  her  central  support  in  Auvergne ;  Spain  her 
Pyrenees  and  the  Sierras;  Italy  her  Apennines;  Germany  her 
ranges  in  Suabia,  Franconia,  and  the  Hartz ;  Sweden  her  Scan- 
dinavian Alps  ;  the  Greco-Slav  peninsula  has  the  Balkan  and 
Pindtis.  What  mountains  Russia  possesses  on  the  other  hand, 
are  banished,  as  it  were,  to  the  extremities  of  her  territory.  She 
is  bounded  on  the  north-west  by  the  granitic  system  of  Finland, 
on  the  south-east  by  the  branches  of  the  Carpathians,  to  the 
south  by  the  rocky  plateaux  of  the  Crimea  with  the  Yali'a  and 
Tchardyr-Dagh  (5183  feet),  by  the  Caucasus,  extending  over  687 
miles,  where  Elburz  (18,000  feet)  surpasses  by  more  than  2000 
feet  the  highest  mountain  in  Europe,  Mont  Blanc.  To  the  east 
is  the  Oural  range,  the  longest  chain  of  mountains  (1531  miles) 
in  Europe  or  Asia,  running  parallel  to  the  meridians  of  longitude, 
with  peaks  6233  feet  high.  In  the  Tatar  language,  the  word 
Oural  signifies  girdle,  but  it  is  not  only  the  Ourals  which  may  be 
called  the  mountain  girdle  ;  all  the  mountains  of  Russia  deserve 
this  name.  They  bound  her,  they  confine  her,  but  have  only  a 
slight  influence  on  the  configuration  of  her  interior  and  the  dis- 


HISTOR  Y  OF  K USSIA.  1 5 

tribution  of  her  waters.  From  the  Carpathians  and  the  Cauca- 
sus only  secondary  rivers  flow,  while  the  four  great  Russian 
streams  take  their  rise  in  hills  not  300  feet  high.*  We  must  ob- 
serve also  that  none  of  these  great  mountains  form  a  separate 
system  ;  they  are  nearly  all  fragments  of  systems  belonging  to 
other  countries.  The  empire  of  the  Tzars  is  thus  a  huge  plain, 
which  is  continued  on  the  west  by  the  level  lands  of  Poland  and 
Prussia,  and  on  the  east  by  the  limitless  steppes  of  Siberia  and 
Turkestan,  and  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the  rugged  and  multi- 
form soil  of  the  west.  From  this  point  of  view,  Russia  may  be 
defined  as  the  Europe  of  plains,  in  opposition  to  the  Europe  of 
mountains. 

Uniformity  of  surface  is  never  quite  complete,  and  Russia 
does  present  inequalities  of  soil,  though  these  are  far  less  notable 
than  the  depressions  and  elevations  of  the  West.  In  the  faintly- 
marked  soil  of  Russia,  we  must  notice,  in  the  centre  of  the 
country,  a  kind  of  square  table-land,  called  the  central  plateau, 
or  the  plateau  of  Alaoune,  from  the  name  of  its  northern  part. 
The  north-eastern  angle  is  formed  by  the  heights  of  the  Valdai 
plateau,  where  the  hills  are  300  feet  high ;  the  western  side  of 
the  central  plateau  by  the  small  hills  of  the  Dnieper,  which  ex- 
tend as  far  as  the  Cataracts ;  the  southern  side  by  the  heights 
which  reach  from  Koursk  to  Saratof ;  the  eastern  side  by  the 
sandy  stretches  which  extend  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Volga 
and  the  Kama  ;  the  northern  side  by  the  undulations  of  the  land 
which  separate  the  basin  of  the  Volga  from  the  rivers  that  drain 
into  the  Icy  Ocean.  The  central  plateau  is  besides  divided  into 
two  unequal  parts  by  the  deep  valleys  of  the  Upper  Volga,  of 
the  Oka,  and  their  tributaries. 

Considerable  depressions  correspond  to  this  swelling  in  the 
centre  of  the  Russian  plateau  : — i.  Between  the  plateau  of  the 
Valdai'  and  the  north-east  slope  of  the  Carpathians  lies  a  deep 
valley,  in  which  during  the  quaternary  age  the  Baltic  and  Euxine 
mingled  their  waves.  It  is  traversed  on  the  north  by  the  southern 
Diina  or  Dwina,  and  the  Niemen  ;  on  the  south  by  the  Dnieper, 
and  its  affluents  ;  it  reaches  its  lowest  level  in  the  wide  marshes 
of  Pinsk.  2.  Between  the  low  rocks  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Volga  and  the  spurs  of  the  Oural  (pbchtchiisirf),  the  soil  gradu- 
ally sinks  throughout  the  whole  length  of  the  Volga,  and  reaches 
the  level  of  the  sea  at  the  Caspian,  which  is  80  feet  lower  than 
the  Black  Sea  :  here  are  the  steppes  of  Kirghiz,  the  lowest  part 
of  European  Russia,  formerly  the  bed  of  a  great  inland  mere 
which  was  gradually  dried  up,  and  of  which  the  Caspian,  the 
Lake  of  Aral,  and  other  sheets  of  water  are  only  the  remains. 

*  iieo  feet  above  the  leve1  of  the  s«a. 


1 6  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

If  the  Caspian  could  only  regain  the  level  of  the  Black  Sea,  a 
large  part  of  this  sterile  plain,  now  covered  with  saline  efflores- 
cence, would  be  inundated  anew.  3.  The  third  great  depression 
of  the  Russian  soil  is  the  slope  of  the  north,  covered  with  lakes 
and  marshes,  where  the  frozen  toundra  are  lost  amongst  the  ice- 
fields of  the  Polar  Ocean  and  the  White  Sea.  4.  The  region  of 
the  lakes  Sa'ima,  Onega,  Ladoga,  which  is  continued  by  the 
sandy  tracts  of  the  Baltic,  and  which  forms  a  series  of  deep 
cavities,  where  the  waters  of  the  Baltic  and  the  White  Sea  must 
once  have  found  a  meeting-point. 

From  the  fact  that  Russia,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  only  a  vast 
plain,  it  follows  that  her  surface  is  swept  by  Polar  winds,  which 
no  mountain  barrier  keeps  out,  for  the  Oural  chain  runs  in  a 
direction  parallel  to  their  course.  From  the  fact,  again,  that 
Russia  is  only  washed  by  seas,  small  in  proportion  to  the  extent 
of  the  land,  it  results  that  the  temperature  is  modified  neither 
by  sea-breezes,  which  in  the  West  warm  in  winter  and  refresh 
in  summer,  nor  by  the  aerial  and  marine  current  of  the  Gulf 
Stream,  which  finally  expires  on  the  coasts  and  on  the  mountains 
of  Scandinavia,  without  being  able  to  influence  the  shores  of 
the  Baltic.  In  parallel  latitudes  this  Scandinavian  mountain- 
chain  makes  a  notable  difference  between  the  Norwegian  and 
the  Swedish-Russian  climate. 

Russia  then,  like  the  interior  of  Asia,  Africa,  or  Australia, 
has  to  undergo  the  effects  of  a  purely  continental  climate.  The 
first  of  these  effects  is  a  violent  contrast  between  the  seasons. 
The  Russian  plain  is  subject  in  turn  to  the  influences  of  Polar 
regions  and  to  those  of  Central  and  Southern  Asia,  of  the  deserts 
of  ice  and  the  deserts  of  burning  sand.  "  Under  the  latitude 
of  Paris  and  of  Venice,"  says  M.  Anatole  Leroy-Beaulieu,  "  the 
countries  situated  to  the  north  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian 
have  the  temperature  of  Stockholm  in  January,  and  the  tempera- 
ture of  Madeira  in  July.  At  Astrakhan,  in  the  latitude  of 
Geneva,  it  is  by  no  means  rnre  for  the  temperature  to  vary  from 
70  to  75  degrees  *  in  a  period  of  six  months.  On  the  coasts  of 
the  Caspian,  in  the  latitude  of  Avignon,  the  cold  descends  to 
30°  below  freezing ;  in  summer,  on  the  contrary,  the  heat  rises 
to  upwards  of  40°.  In  the  steppes  of  the  Kirghiz,  in  the  lati- 
tude of  the  centre  of  France,  the  mercury  is  sometimes  frozen 
for  whole  days  ;  while  in  the  summer  the  same  thermometer,  if 
not  carefully  watched,  bursts  in  the  sun.  Near  the  shores  of 
the  Sea  of  Aral  these  extremes  of  temperature  reach  their  maxi- 
mum ;  there  are  intervals  of  80°,  perhaps  of  90°  centigrade, 
between  the  greatest  cold  and  the  greatest  heat."  Even  at 
Moscow,  they  have  had  cold  of  33°  and  heat  of  28  °;  at  St, 

4;  Centigrade. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  ^ 

Petersburg,  the  temperature  may  shift  between  the  extremes  of 
from  30°  to  35°  of  cold  to  31°  of  heat. 

The  second  consequence  of  the  continental  climate  of 
Russia  is  that  the  winds  do  not  reach  the  country  till  they  have 
lost  on  the  way  part  of  their  humidity.  Russia  suffers  gener- 
ally from  dryness.  At  Kazan  the  rainfall  is  only  half  that  of 
Paris  ;  it  is  for  this  reason  that  Russia  contains  so  many  barren 
and  unwooded  plains,  while  this  absence  of  forests  all  through 
the  south  is,  in  its  turn,  an  obstacle  to  the  formation  of  hills 
and  springs  and  to  the  development  of  a  healthy  moisture. 

St.  Petersburg,  situated  on  the  6oth  parallel  of  northern 
latitude,  is  the  most  northern  capital  of  the  whole  world.  The 
longest  day  in  this  city  lasts  18  hours  45  minutes;  the  sun  rises 
on  that  day  at  20  minutes  to  three,  and  sets  at  25  minutes  past 
9,  but  the  twilight  is  prolonged  to  the  moment  of  dawn.  For 
two  months  there  is  no  night.  The  shortest  day  is  5  hours  47 
minutes;  the  sun  rises  at  5  minutes  past  9,  and  sets  at  8  min- 
utes to  3.  The  Aurora  Borealis  is  frequent  in  the  north  of 
Russia,  while  the  mirage  is  often  seen  in  the  steppes  of  the 
south. 

Russia  being  a  country  of  plains,  the  geological  beds  of 
which  the  soil  is  formed  are  nearly  always  horizontal ;  no  raising 
of  the  soil  has  broken  them,  rent  the  beds  of  stone,  and  driven 
the  fragments  through  the  lavers  of  mould  or  sand.  It  follows 

O  O  r  % 

that,  except  in  the  neighborhood  of  mountains,  stone  is  very 
scarce  in  Russia.  This  fact  has  had  much  influence  on  the  econo- 
mic and  artistic  development  of  the  country.  The  people  were 
obliged  to  build  with  other  materials  than  in  the  West.  The 
public  buildings  were  everywhere  of  oak  and  pine,  or  of  brick  ; 
the  old  churches,  the  palaces  of  the  Tzars,  the  ramparts  of  the 
towns,  were  of  wood  ;  of  wood  are  the  present  houses  of  the 
citizens,  and  the  isbas  of  the  peasants.  Russian  villages,  and 
most  of  the  towns,  are  a  collection  of  combustible  materials  : 
hence  the  fires  which  break  out  periodically,  and  justify  the 
saying  that  Russia,  as  a  rule,  was  burned  every  seven  years. 
Buildings  of  such  materials  cannot  assume  the  colossal  propor- 
tions of  the  castles  of  the  Isle  de  France,  or  of  the  Rhenish 
cathedrals  ;  the  old  churches  of  Russia  are  small.  It  is  only 
since  the  conquest  of  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea  that  the  em- 
pire has  had  cities  of  stone.  Peter  the  Great  gave  Russia  her 
first  stone  capital.  From  the  geological  point  of  view,  then, 
Russia  may  be  defined,  according  to  the  expression  of  M.  Solo- 
vief,  as  the  Europe  of  wood,  in  opposition  to  the  Europe  of  stone. 


ig  HISTORY  OF  KVSSfA. 

RUSSIAN   RIVERS   AND   HISTORY. 

In  a  country  so  extensive  and  so  destitute  of  seaboard  as 
Russia,  rivers  have  an  immense  importance,  and  with  rivers 
Eastern  Europe  is  well  endowed.  It  is  her  watercourses  which 
prevent  Russia  from  being  a  continent  closed  and  sealed,  like 
Africa  or  Australia.  In  place  of  arms  of  the  sea,  she  has  great 
rivers  which  penetrate  to  her  centre,  and  have  sometimes  almost 
the  proportions  of  seas.  In  the  level  plains  they  have  not  the 
impetuous  current  of  the  Rhone,  they  flow  peacefully  through 
great  beds  cut  in  the  sand  or  clay,  The  rivers  were  for  a  long 
while  the  only  means  of  communication.  When  the  Russian 
princes  wished  to  make  a  progress  through  their  dominions,  or 
begin  a  campaign,  they  had  either  to  take  advantage  of  winter, 
which  from  the  Dnieper  to  the  Oural  gave  them  a  flat  surface 
for  their  sledges,  or  await  the  thaw  and  follow  the  course  of  the 
rivers.  Boats  in  summer,  sledges  in  winter,  were  the  only 
means  of  conveyance  ;  in  spring,  the  thaw  and  floods,  which 
transformed  the  plain  into  a  marsh,  brought  the  raspoutitsa  (the 
season  of  bad  roads).  Commerce  followed  the  same  routes  as 
war  or  government.  The  rivers  which,  in  Russia  especially,  are 
"  the  roads  that  run,"  explain  the  rapidity  with  which  we  see 
the  characters  of  Russian  history  traverse  immense  spaces,  and 
go  as  easily  from  Novgorod  to  Kief,  from  Moscow  to  Kazan,  as 
a  French  king  from  his  good  city  of  Paris  to  Rheims  or  Or- 
leans. The  rivers  are  the  allies  of  the  Russians  against  what 
they  call  "  their  great  enemy  " — space.  Russian  conquest  or 
colonization  has  everywhere  followed  the  course  of  the  waters  ; 
it  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Oka,  the  Kama,  the  Don,  and  the 
Volga,  that  the  Russian  element  of  the  population  chiefly 
gathered,  the  aboriginal  races  everywhere  retreating  into  the 
thickness  of  the  primitive  forests. 

The  plateau  of  Valdai  is  the  dominant  point  in  the  river-sys- 
tem of  Russia.  It  is  near  this  plateau,  in  the  lake  Volgo,  that 
the  Volga,  which  ultimately  falls  into  the  Caspian,  takes  its 
rise.  In  this  neighborhood  also  are  the  sources  of  the  Dnieper 
(flowing  to  the  Black  Sea),  the  Niemen,  the  Dwina,  which  falls 
into  the  Baltic,  the  VelikaTa,  a  tributary  of  the  Pei'pus,  the  rivers 
forming  lake  Ilmen,  and  those  which  feed  the  lakes  Ladoga  and 
Onega,  whence  rises  the  Neva.  The  hydrographic  centre  of 
Russia  being  at  the  north-west  angle  of  the  central  plateau,  it 
follows  that  the  slopes  are  turned  to  the  south  and  to  the  < 
a  disposition  which  has  had  its  influence  on  the  development  of 
the  national  history.  This  history,  indeed,  begins  in  the  north- 
west, near  the  Vakln'i  >lnteau  ;  on  ihc  Pei'pus  and  the  Ilmen  the 
old  commercial  cities  of  Pskof  and  Novgorod  are  established. 


t/lS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSTA.  I  g 

What  is  their  ope.iing  to  the  sea  ?  Not  the  Narova,  which  falls 
out  of  lake  Pei'pus,  and  of  which  the  course  is  broken  by  cata- 
racts, but  the  network  of  rivers  and  lakes  which  terminates  in 
the  Neva,  the  Thames  of  Russia,  a  river  of  little  length  but  im- 
mense breadth,  on  which  St.  Petersburg,  the  Novgorod  of  the 
1 8th  century,  was  afterwards  to  be  built.  In  primitive  times 
Novgorod  was  safer  in  the  centre  of  this  network  of  rivers  and 
lakes  than  she  would  have  been  on  the  Neva.  By  the  Volkhof 
her  vessels  sailed  from  the  Ilmen  to  the  Ladoga,  and  by  the 
Neva  from  the  Ladoga  to  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  and  the  great 
Baltic  Sea.  Other  small  rivers  put  her  in  communication  with 
the  lake  Onega  and  the  White  Lake  (Bie'loe-Oze'ro) ;  by  the 
Soukhona  and  the  northern  Dwina  she  had  relations  with  the 
White  Sea,  where  later  the  port  of  Arkhangel  arose.  By  the 
tributaries  of  the  Dwina  the  Novgorod  explorers  penetrated 
deep  into  the  northern  forests,  peopled  by  aboriginal  races,  on 
whom  they  imposed  tribute.  The  watersheds  between  the  slope 
to  the  White  Sea,  the  basin  of  the  Novgorod  lakes,  and  the 
basin  of  the  Volga,  are  scarcely  marked  at  all.  The  rivers  seem 
to  hesitate  at  their  rise  between  two  opposite  courses  :  some  of 
them  never  make  up  their  minds,  like  the  sluggish  Cheksna 
which  connects  the  White  Sea  and  the  Volga.  This  interlace- 
ment of  the  water-system,  which  makes  the  northern  Dwina,  the 
Neva,  the  Niemen,  and  the  southern  Dwina  mere  prolongations 
of  the  Volga  and  the  Dnieper,  and  puts  the  four  Russian  seas 
in  unbroken  communication,  is  in  itself  a  sufficient  explanation 
of  the  extent  of  the  conquests  and  great  commercial  position  of 
Novgorod  the  Great. 

On  the  Dnieper,  Russia,  to  rival  the  Russia  of  Novgorod, 
founded  at  a  very  early  date  the  Rouss  of  Kief.  She  too  fol- 
lowed the  line  marked  out  for  her  by  the  course  of  the  Dnieper, 
which  necessarily  led  her  to  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Byzantine 
world. 

It  was  by  the  Dnieper  that  the  fleets  of  war  descended 
against  Constantinople  ;  it  was  by  this  river  too  that  Greek 
civilization  and  Christianity  reached  Kief.  The  Dnieper,  which 
had  made  the  greatness  of  Kief,  hastened  its  decay.  As  a 
medium  of  communication  it  was  imperfect.  The  celebrated 
cataracts  below  Kief  formed  an  insurmountable  barrier  to  nav- 
igation, and  consequently  the  city  could  not  remain  the  politi- 
cal and  commercial  capital  of  Russia. 

The  Don,  notwithstanding  its  length  of  621  miles,  has  had 
little  influence  on  the  evolution  of  Russian  history.  During  the 
whole  period  of  the  growth  of  the  nation  it  remained  in  the 
power  of  the  Asiatic  hordes.  In  later  years  it  fell,  with  Azov, 
into  the  possession  of  the  Turks.  The  sandy  shallows  near  its 


ao  H1STOK  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

mouth  would  in  any  case  have  proved  fatal  to  its  cpmmercial 
importance.  The  Dwina  and  the  Niemen  also  remained  till  the 
1 8th  century  in  the  hands  of  the  native  Finns  and  Lithuanians, 
or  of  the  German  conquerors. 

The  river,  par  excellence,  of  Russia  is  the  Volga  —  the 
"  mother  Volga,"  as  the  popular  singers  call  it.  If  the  Neva, 
with  the  great  lakes  which  feed  it,  may  be  compared  to  the  St. 
Lawrence,  the  Volga  may  be  compared  to  the  Mississippi.  With 
a  length  of  2336  miles,  it  has  a  course  250  leagues  longer  than 
that  of  the  Danube.  Many  of  its  tributaries  may  be  reckoned 
among  the  great  rivers  of  the  world.  The  Oka,  with  its  633 
miles  of  length,  surpasses  the  Meuse  and  the  Oder ;  the  Kama, 
1266  miles  long,  outvies  all  other  European  rivers  except  the 
Danube  ;  for  the  Elbe  is  only  643  miles,  the  Loire  68 1,  and  the 
Rhine  812  in  length.  The  junction  of  the  Volga  and  Oka  at 
Nijni-Novgorod  is  like  the  meeting  of  two  arms  of  the  sea  ;  it  is 
an  imposing  spectacle  to  contemplate  from  the  hill  on  which  the 
upper  town  is  built,  while  the  lower  town  or  the  fair,  with  its 
100,000  fluctuating  inhabitants,  spreads  its  buildings  on  the 
banks  of  both  rivers.  The  Volga,  which  near  laroslavl  is  2106 
feet  broad,  has  a  breadth  of  4593  above  Kazan  ;  towards  Sa- 
mara sometimes  it  decreases  to  2446  feet ;  sometimes  it  spreads, 
with  its  tributary  streams  and  lateral  branches,  over  a  breadth 
of  17  miles.  At  the  Caspian  it  divides  into  seventy-five 
branches,  forming  numerous  islands,  and  its  delta  spreads  over 
93  miles.  This  immense  river,  the  waters  of  which  abound 
with  fish  as  large  as  sea-fish, — sturgeon,  salmon,  lampreys, — 
and  where  the  sterlet  sometimes  weighs  1073  pounds,  would  be 
the  wonder  of  Europe,  if  it  was  not  frost-bound  during  many 
months  in  the  year.  But  at  the  thaw  the  ports,  the  dockyards, 
the  wharves,  are  full  of  life.  Two  hundred  thousand  workmen 
ilock  from  all  parts  of  Russia  to  its  banks.  Fifteen  thousand 
ships  and  500  steamboats  plough  its  waters.  Kostroma,  Nijni- 
Novgorod,  Kazan,  Simbirsk,  Samara,  Saratof,  Astrakhan,  are 
filled  with  noise  and  movement.  The  whole  life  of  Russia 
seems  concentrated  on  the  Volga. 

The  basin  of  the  Volga  and  its  tributaries  embraces  an  ex- 
tent of  surface  nearly  treble  that  of  France.  The  basin  of  the 
Oka  alone  has  three  times  the  extent  of  the  basin  of  the 
Loire.  In  her  vast  domain  the  Volga  included  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  Russia  of  the  i6th  century,  and  has  ex- 
ercised an  irresistible  influence  over  the  destiny  of  the  land. 
From  the  day  that  the  Grand  Princes  established  their  capital 
on  the  Moskowa,  a  tributary  of  the  Oka  and  sub-tributary  of  the 
Volga.  Russia  turned  to  the  east,  and  began  her  struggle  with 
the  Turks  and  Tatars.  TJie_P_nieper  made  Russia  Byzantine, 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  a  I 

theJVoJga .made  her  Asiatic  :  it  was  for  the  Neva  to  make  her 
Eurageaiu.  The  whole  history  of  this  country  is  the  history  of 
its  three  great  rivers,  and  is  divided  into  three  periods:  that  of 
the  Dnieper  with  Kief,  that  of  the  Volga  with  Moscow,  that  of 
the  Neva  with  Novgorod  in  the  8th  century,  and  St.  Petersburg 
in  the  i8th.  The  greatness  of  this  creation  of  Peter  I.  con- 
sisted in  his  transporting  his  capital  to  the  Baltic,  without 
abandoning  the  Caspian  and  the  Volga,  and  in  seeking  for  the 
great  Eastern  river  a  new  outlet  which  should  open  a  communi- 
cation with  Western  seas.  Thanks  to  the  canals  of  the  Tik- 
vinka  and  of  the  Ladoga,  which  furnished  that  outlet,  the  Neva 
has  become,  as  it  were,  the  northern  mouth,  the  European 
estuary  of  the  Volga. 

THE  FOUR  ZONES — THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  UNITY  OF  RUSSIA. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  production,  Russia  may  be  divided 
into  four  unequal  bands,  which  run  from  the  south-west  to  the 
north-east,  namely  :  the  zone  of  forests,  that  of  the  Tchernoziom 
or  Black  Land,  that  of  the  arable  steppes  or  prairies,  and  that  of 
the  barren  steppes. 

1.  The    most  northerly  and    largest  zone   is   the  poliessa  or 
Russian  forest,  which  borders  on  one  side  on  the  frozen  marshes 
and  the  toundra  of  the   icy  shore,  and  on  the  other  on  the    wide 
clearings   formed  by  the    agricultural    enterprise  of  Novgorod, 
Moscow,  and  laroslavl.     In  the  north  the  forest  begins  with  the 
larch ;  in  the  centre  resinous  trees,  with  their  dark  foliage,  alter- 
nate with  the  small  leaves  and  white  bark  of  the  birch  ;  further 
south  come  the  lime,  the    elm,  and  the  sycamore,  and  the    oak 
appears  at  the  southern  limit. 

2.  The   Black  Land  extends  from  the  banks  of  the  Pruth  to 
(he  Caucasus,  over  the    widest  extent  of  Russia  ;  it  even  passes 
the    Oural  and   the  Caucasus,  and  is  prolonged  into  Asia.     It 
derives  its  name  from  a  deep  bed  of  black  mould  of   inexhaust- 
ible  fertility,  which   produces  without  manure  the  richest  har- 
vests,   and    may  be  compared    to  a  gigantic   Beauce,   375,000 
miles  square,  a  corn-field  as  large  as  the  whole  of  France.  From 
this  alone    twenty-five  millions  are  fed,  and  the  population  in- 
creases daily.     From  time   immemorial  this  soil  has  been  the 
granary  of  Eastern  Europe.     It  was  here  Herodotus    placed  his 
agricultural  Scythians,  and  hence  Athens  drew  her  grain. 

3.  The  zone  of  arable  steppes  lies  parallel  to  the  Black  Land; 
to  the  south  it  descends  nearly  to  the  sea:  the  country  is  fertile, 
though  it  cannot  do  without  manure.     It  formed  before  tillage 
a  bare  grass-grown  plain,  completely  devoid  of  wood,  and  with 
its  375,000   miles  square    recalls  the  American    prairie.     The 


J2  HISTORY  OF  RVSSTA. 

vegetation  of  the  steppe,  where  men  and  flocks  can  hide  them- 
selves as  in  a  forest,  is  often  five,  six,  and  even  eight  feet  high. 
This  monotonous  steppe,  unbroken  except  by  the  barrows  that 
cover  the  bones  of  early  races, — this  steppe,  which  is  an  ocean 
of  verdure  in  spring,  but  russet  and  burnt  up  in  the  autumn,  is 
very  dear  to  her  children.  It  was  for  long  the  Russia  of  heroes, 
the  property  of  nomad  horsemen,  the  country  of  the  Cossack. 
The  Black  Land  and  the  prairie,  which  is  nearly  as  fertile,  have 
a  superficies  of  750,000  miles  square,  or  300,000,000  of  acres  of 
excellent  earth,  a  surface  equal  to  that  of  France  and  Austrian 
Hungary  united. 

4.  The  fourth  zone,  that  of  the  barren  steppes,  steppes  which 
are  sandy  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dnieper,  clay  to  the  north  of  the 
Crimea,  saline  to  the  north  of  the  Caspian,  only  contains  1,500,- 

000  inhabitants  in  its  whole  extent  of  250,000  miles.     "Unsuited 
to  agriculture,  and  in  a  great  degree  to  civilized  life,"  says  M. 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  "  these  vast  spaces,  like  the    neighboring  plains 
of  Asia,  seem  only  fit  for  the  raising  of  cattle  and  the  nomad  ex- 
istence.    Of  all  Russia  in  Europe,  these  are  the  only  parts  which 
even  at  the  present  day  are  inhabited  by  the  Kirghiz   and  the 
Kalmucks,   nomad  tribes  of  Asia,  and  up  to  a  few  years  ago  by 
the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea   and  the   Nogals.     Here  the  Asiatics 
appear  as  much  at  home  as  in  their  native  country." 

The  productive  parts  of  Russia  are  these :  the  prairie,  the 
Black  Land,  and  in  the  zone  of  forests  the  agriculture  and  in- 
dustrial region  of  Novgorod,  Moscow,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and 
Kazan.  Were  the  sea-level  to  rise  and  drown  the  northern  part 
of  \\\£poliessa  and  the  barren  steppes  of  the  south,  nothing  would 
be  taken  from  the  real  force  and  riches  of  Russia. 

These  alternations  of  low  plains  and  plateaux,  this  diversity 
in  the  direction  of  the  great  rivers,  this  division  into  forests  and 
barren  and  arable  steppes,  does  not  hinder  Eastern  Europe  from 
presenting  a  remarkable  unity.  None  of  the  parts  of  Russia 
could  remain  isolated  from  the  others ;  the  plains  admit  of  no 
barrier,  ro  frontier;  those  which  the  rivers  might  impose  would 
be  effaced  in  winter  under  the  chariot-wheels  of  armies,  when 
the  land  is  ice-bound  from  the  White  Sea  to  the  Euxine,  and  the 
climate  is  almost  as  severe  at  Kief  as  at  Arkhangel.  All  these 
regions,  which  resume  their  different  characters  in  spring,  are 
kept  together  by  economical  interests  and  needs.  The  forest 
zone  needs  the  corn  of  the  Dnieper,  the  cattle  of  the  Volga  ;  the 
steppes  of  the  south  need  the  wood  of  the  north.  The  commerce 
with  Europe,  which  was  conducted  by  means  of  the  northern 

1  hvina,  the  Neva  and  the    southern    Dwina,  was  completed  by 
that  with  the  south  and  the  east,  carried  on  by  the  Dnieper  and 
the  Volga. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  ,3 

Only  the  region  of  Moscow,  where  fields  and  woods  alternate, 
was  long  sufficient  for  its  own  wants;  but  since  Moscow  has 
turned  to  industrial  arts,  she  needs  help  from  others.  In  early 
times  she  united  the  products  of  the  north  and  the  south  ;  she 
thus  formed  the  connecting  link  between  them,  and  ended  by 
becoming  their  ruler.  Even  Novgorod  was  forced  to  acknowl- 
edge her  dependence  on  the  princes  established  on  the  Oka, 
who  had  only  to  forbid  the  transportation  of  corn  from  the  Upper 
Volga  to  the  region  of  the  lakes  to  reduce  the  Great  Republic 
to  obedience. 

The  wide  plains  of  Russia  are  as  evidently  destined  to  be 
united  as  Switzerland  to  be  divided.  Between  the  Carpathians 
and  the  Ourals,  between  the  Caucasus  and  the  system  of  Finland, 
nature  has  marked  out  a  vast  empire  of  which  the  mountain 
girdle  forms  the  framework.  How  this  framework  has  been  filled 
in  is  the  lesson  that  history  has  to  teach  us. 


U1STOBY  OF  KUSS1*. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ETHNOGRAPHY  OF   RUSSIA. 

Greek  Colonies  and  the  Scythia  of  Herodotus — The  Russian  Slavs  of  Nester 
-—Lithuanian,  Finnish,  and  Turkish  hordes  in  the  ninth  century — Division 
of  the  Russians  proper  into  three  branches — How  Russia  was  colonized. 


GREEK  COLONIES  AND  THE  SCYTHIA  OF  HERODOTUS. 

THE  early  Greeks  had  established  factories  and  founded 
flourishing  colonies  on  the  northern  shores  of  the  Black  Sea. 
The  Milesians  and  Megarians  built  Tomi  or  Kustenje,  near 
the  Danube,  Istros  at  its  mouth.  Tyras  at  that  of  the  Dniester, 
Odessos  at  that  of  the  Bug,  Olbia  at  that  of  the  Dnieper,  Cher- 
sonesos  or  Cherson  on  the  roadstead  of  Sebastopol,  Palakion 
which  afterwards  became  Balaclava,  Theodosia  which  became 
Kaffa,  Panticapea  (Kertch),  and  Phanagoria  on  the  two  shores 
of  the  Strait  of  lenikale,  Tanai's  at  the  mouth  of  the  Don,  Apa- 
touros  in  the  Kuban,  Phasis,  Dioscurias,  Pityus  at  the  foot  of 
the  Caucasus,  on  the  coast  of  ancient  Colchis.  Panticapea, 
Phanagoria  and  Theodosia  formed,  in  the  4th  century  B.C.,  a 
confederation  with  a  hereditary  chief  called  the  Archon  of  the 
Bosphorus  at  its  head,  whose  authority  was  also  acknowledged 
by  some  of  the  barbarous  tribes. 

Russian  archaeologists,  and  quite  recently,  M.  Ouvarof,  have 
brought  to  light  many  monuments  of  Greek  civilization,  funeral 
pillars,  inscriptions,  bas-reliefs,  statues  of  gods  and  heroes.  We 
know  that  the  colonists  carefully  preserved  the  Greek  civiliza- 
tion, cultivated  the  arts  of  their  mother  cities,  repeated  the 
poems  of  Homer  as  they  marched  to  battle,  loved  eloquent 
speeches  as  late  as  the  time  of  Dion  Chrysostom,  and  offered  a 
special  cult  to  the  memory  of  Achilles.  Beyond  the  line  of 
Greek  colonies  dwelt  a  whole  world  of  tribes,  whom  the  Greeks 
designated  by  the  common  name  of  Scythians,  with  whom  they 
entered  into  wars  and  alliances,  and  who  served  them  as  mid- 
dlemen in  their  trade  with  the  countries  of  the  north.  Herodotus 
has  handed  on  to  us  nearly  all  that  was  known  of  these  bar- 
b-firms in  the  5th  century  B.C. 
.  The  Scythians  worshipped  a  sword  fixed  in  the  earth  as  an 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  t$ 

i;nage  of  the  god  of  war,  and  bedewed  it  with  sacrifices  of  human 
gore.  They  drank  the  blood  of  the  first  enemy  killed  in  battle, 
scalped  their  prisoners,  and  used  their  skulls  as  drinking-cups, 
They  gave  their  kings  terrible  burial-rites,  and  celebrated  the 
anniversaries  of  their  death  by  strangling  their  horses  and  slaves, 
and  leaving  the  impaled  corpses  to  surround  the  royal  kourgan 
with  a  circle  of  horsemen.  They  honored  the  memory  of  the 
wise  Anacharsis,  who  travelled  among  the  Greeks.  Their  noma  I 
hordes  defied  the  power  of  Darius  Hystaspes. 

Among  the  Scythians  properly  so  called,  Herodotus  distin- 
guished the  agricultural  Scythians  established  on  the  Dnieper, 
probably  in  the  tchernoziom  of  the  Ukraine  ;  the  nomad  Scyth- 
ians, who  extended  fourteen  days'  journey  to  the  east  ;  the 
royal  Scythians  encamped  round  the  Sea  of  Azof,  who  regarded 
the  other  Scythians  as  their  slaves. 

The  barbarism  of  the  inland  tribes  became  rapidly  modified 
under  the  influence  of  the  powerful  cities  of  Olbia  and  Cher- 
sonesos,  and  the  Greco-Scythian  state  of  the  Bosphorus.  In  the 
tombs  of  the  Scythian  kings  of  what  is  now  the  government  of 
Ekaterinoslaf,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  Greco-Scythian  princes 
of  the  Bosphorus,  works  of  art  have  been  found  which  show  the 
genius  of  the  Greeks  accommodating  itself  to  the  taste  of  the 
barbarians,  precious  vases  chiselled  for  them  by  Athenian  artists, 
and  all  the  jewels  which  at  present  enrich  the  museums  of 
Kertch,  Odessa,  and  St.  Petersburg. 

The  Hermitage  Museum  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  particular, 
possesses  two  vases  of  an  incomparable  artistic  and  archaeologic 
value.  They  are  the  silver  vase  of  Nicopol  (government  of 
Ekaterinoslaf)  and  the  golden  vase  of  Kertch,  and  date  from  the 
4th  century  B.C.,  or  about  the  period  when  Herodotus  wrote  his 
history,  of  which  they  are  the  lively  commentary.  The  Scythians 
of  the  silver  vase,  with  their  long  hair,  their  long  beards,  large 
features,  tunics  and  trousers,  reproduce  very  fairly  the  physiog- 
nomy, stature  and  costume  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  the 
same  countries  ;  we  see  them  breaking-in  and  bridling  their 
horses  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  they  do  it  to-day  in  those 
plains.  The  Scythians  of  the  golden  vase,  notwithstanding  their 
pointed  caps,  their  garments  embroidered  and  ornamented  after 
the  Asiatic  taste,  and  their  strangely-shaped  bows,  are  of  a  very 
marked  Aryan  type.  The  former  might  very  well  have  been 
the  agricultural  Scythians  of  Herodotus,  perhaps  the  ancestors 
of  the  agricultural  Slavs  of  the  Dnieper  ;  the  latter,  the  royal 
Scythians  who  led  a  nomad  and  warlike  life.  The  philological 
studies  of  M.  Bergmann  and  M.  Mullendorf  tend  to  identify 
the  Scythian  idiom  with  the  Indo-European  family  of  languages. 
"  They  were  then,"  says  M.  Georges  Perrot,  "  in  spite  of  many 


26  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

apparent  differences  of  language,  customs  and  civilization,  nearly 
related  to  the  Greeks,  and  this  kinship  perhaps  contributed, 
without  the  knowledge  of  either  Greeks  or  barbarians,  to  facili- 
tate the  relations  between  Hellenes  and  Scythians." 

Herodotus  takes  care  to  make  an  emphatic  distinction  be- 
tween the  Scythians  properly  so  called,  and  certain  other  peoples 
about  whom  he  has  strange  stories  .'to^tell.  These  peoples  are 
the  Melanchlainai,  who  wear  black  raiment ;  the  Neuri,  who, 
once  a  year,  become  were-wolves~  the  Agathyrsi,  who  array 
themselves  in  golden  ornaments,  and  have  their  women  in 
common  ;  the  Sauromati,  sprung  from  the  loves  of  the  Scythians 
with  the  Amazons  ;  the  Budini  and  Geloni,  slightly  tinged  with 
Greek  culture  ;  the  Thysagetae,  the  Massageae  the  lyrx,  who 
lived  on  the  produce  of  the  chase  ;  the  Argippei,  who  were  bald 
and  snub-nosed  from  their  birth  ;  the  Issedones,  who  used  to 
devour  their  dead  parents  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony  ;  the 
one-eyed  Arimaspians  ;  the  Gryphons,  guardians  of  fabled  gold  ; 
the  Hyperboreans,  who  dwell  in  a  land  where,  summer  and 
winter,  the  snow-flakes  fall,  like  a  shower  of  white  feathers. 

It  seems  probable  that  among  all  these  peoples  there  may 
be  some  who  have  since  emigrated  westwards,  and  who  may  be- 
long to  the  German  and  Gothic  races.  Others,  again,  may  have 
continued  to  maintain  themselves,  under  different  names,  in 
Eastern  Europe,  such  as  the  Slavs,  the  Finns,  and  even  a  certain 
number  of  Turkish  tribes.  M.  Rittich  believes  he  can  identify 
the  Melanchlainai  of  Herodotus  with  the  Esthonians,  who  still 
prefer  dark  raiment ;  the  Androphagi  with  the  Samoyedes,  whose 
name  is  derived  from  the  Finnish  word  suomeadnce  ;  the  Issedones 
with  the  Vogouls,  who  may  very  well  have  dwelt  on  the  Isseta, 
a  sub-tributary  of  the  Obi  ;  the  Arimaspians  with  Votiaks,  whom 
the  Turks  now  call  Ari  ;  the  Argippei,  Aorses,  and  Zyrians  of 
Strabo  with  the  Erzes  or  Zyrians  ;  the  Massagetes  with  the  Bach- 
kirs.  M.  Vivien  de  Saint-Martin  recognizes  the  Agathyrsi  in 
the  Agatzirs  of  Priscus  (A.D.  449),  and  Acatzirs  of  Jornandes, 
who  are  the  Khazars.  The  Finns,  then,  have  formed  the  most 
widely-spread  race  of  Scythia. 


THE   RUSSIAN  SLAVS   OF    NESTOR   THE   CHRONICLER — LITHUANIAN, 
FINNISH,   AND   TURKISH   CLANS   IN   THE   NINTH    CENTURY. 

The  great  barbaric  invasions  in  the  4th  century  ot  our  era 

formed  a  period  of  change   and  terrible  catastrophe  in  Eastern 

Europe.     The  Goths,  under  Hermanaric,  founded  a  vast  empire 

n    Eastern   Scythia.     The   Huns,  under  Attila,  overthrew  this 

Gothic  dominion,  and  a  cloud  of  Finnish  peoples,  Avars  and 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  2j 

Bulgarians,  followed   later  by  Magyars  and    Khazars,  hurried 
swiftly  on  the  traces  of  the  Huns.     In  the  midst  of  this  strife 
and  medley  of  peoples,  the  Slavs  came  to  the  front  with  their 
own  marked  character,  and  appeared  in  history  under  their  pro- 
per name.     They  were  described  by  the  Greek  chroniclers  and 
by  the   Emperors   Maurice   and   Constantine  Porphyrogenitus. 
They  clashed  against  the  Roman  Empire  of  the  East ;  they  be- 
gan the  secular  duel  between   the  Greek  and  Slavonic   races,  a 
duel  which  is  still  being  waged  for  the  prize  of  mastery  in   the 
peninsula  of  the   Balkans.     Certain  tribes  formed  a  separate 
group   among  the  others,  and  received  the  name  of  the  Russian 
Slavs.     Nestor,  the  first   Russian  historian,  a  monk  of  Kief,  of 
the  1 2th  century,  has  described  their  geographical  distribution 
as  it  existed  two  hundred  years  before  his  time.     The  S/ws, 
properly  so  called,  inhabited  the  basin  of  the  Ilmen,  and  the 
west  bank  of  Lake  Pei'pus ;  their  towns,  Novgorod,  Pskof,  Izborsk, 
appear  in  the  very  beginning  of  the  history  of  Russia.     The  Kri- 
vitches,  again,  were  settled  on  the  sources  of  the  Dwina  and 
the  Dnieper,  round  their  city  of  Smolensk.     The  Polotchans  had 
Polotsk,  on  the  Upper  Dwina.     The  Dregovitches  dwelt  on  the 
west  of  the  Dwina,  and  of  the  Upper  Dnieper,  and  held  Tourof. 
The  Radimitches  abode  on  the  Soja,  a  tributary  of  the  Dnieper, 
and  possessed  the  old  cities  of  Ouvritch  and  Korosthenes  ;  the 
Viatitches  on  the  Higher  Oka  ;  the   Drevlians,  so  called  from 
the  thick  forests  which  covered  their  territory,  in  the  basin  of 
the  Pripet.     Between  the  Desna  and  the  Dnieper  the  Severians 
were  established ;  their  towns  were  Loubetch,  Tchernigof,  and 
Pereiaslavl.     The  Polians  faced  the  Severians  on  the  right  bank 
of  the   Dnieper ;    Kief  was  their  centre.     The    White  Croats 
abode  between  the  Dniester  and  the  Carpathians  ;  the  Tivertses 
and  the  Loutitches  on  the  Lower  Dniester  and  the  Pruth ;  the 
Doulebes  and  the  Boujans  on  the  Bug,  a  tributary  of  the  Vistula. 
Nestor's  list  of  the  Russian  Slavs   shows  that,  in  the  gth  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  when  their  history  begins,  they  occupied  but  a 
small  part  of  the  Russia  of  to-day.     They  were  almost  completely 
penned  in  the  districts  of  the  Dwina  and  the  Upper  Dnieper,  of 
the  Ilmen  and  the  Dniester.     In  all  the  immense  basin  of  the 
Caspian,  their  share  was  only  the  land  they  occupied  around  the 
sources  of  the  Volga  and  the  Oka. 

On  the  west  and  north,  the  Russian  Slavs  bordered  on  other 
Slavonic  tribes,  which,  about  this  period,  acquired  distinct 
national  names.  Some  groups,  scattered  about  the  Upper  Elbe 
and  the  two  banks  of  the  Vistula,  after  the  invasion  of  the 
Tcheques  and  the  Liakhs  or  Lechites  (from  the  4th  to  the  7th 
century),  formed  themselves  into  the  States  of  Bohemia  and  Po- 
land. 


28  HIS  TOK  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Other  tribes  on  the  March,  or  Morava,  made,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Moravia,  their  first  attempt  to  secure  political  existence  (9th 
century).  Certain  others  scattered  on  the  Lower  Danube 
formed  the  kingdom  of  Bulgaria,  after  the  invasion  of  the  Bul- 
garians under  Asparuch  (680).  In  a  more  distant  land  on  the 
Adriatic,  the  Servian  and  Croatian  tribes  were  preparing  to 
organize  themselves  into  the  kingdoms  of  Croatia,  Dalmatia, 
and  Servia.  On  the  Baltic  were  the  Slavs  of  Pomerania,  of 
Brandenburg  (Havelians),  and  Sprevanians  of  the  banks  of  the 
Elbe  (Obotrites,  Wiltzes,  Lutitzes,  and  Sorabians  or  Sorbes),  all 
one  day  to  be  absorbed  by  the  German  Conquest. 

At  this  period  there  was  little  difference  between  Russian 
and  Polish  Slavs.  M.  Koulich  thinks  that  conquests  achieved 
by  two  different  races  of  men ;  that  the  adoption  of  two  irrecon- 
cilable creeds  (those  of  Rome  and  of  Byzantium) ;  that  the  in- 
fluence of  two  rival  civilizations,  the  Greek  and  the  Latin,  with 
their  separate  literatures  and  alphabets ; — that  all  these  influ- 
ences created  two  antagonistic  peoples  in  the  midst  of  a  race  of 
one  blood,  and  stamped  on  the  inert  and  unconscious  material 
of  the  Slavonic  kindred  the  impress  of  two  hostile  nationalities. 
The  Slav,  moulded  by  the  Lechites,  converted  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  and  subject  to  the  influences  of  the  west,  became  the 
Pole.  The  Slav,  moulded  by  the  Varangians,  converted  to  the 
Greek  church,  and  subject  to  Byzantine  influences,  became  the 
Russian.  In  the  beginning,  on  the  Vistula  as  on  the  Dnieper, 
all  were  Slavs  alike  ;  all  practised  the  same  heathen  ritual ;  all 
were  governed  by  the  same  traditions,  and  spoke  almost  the 
same  language.  Indeed,  the  affinities  of  the  Russian  and 
Polish  idioms,  between  which  the  dialects  of  White  Russia,  of 
Red  Russia,  and  of  Little  Russia  serve  as  links,  sufficiently  de- 
monstrate an  original  brotherhood,  which  the  strifes  of  churches 
and  of  thrones  have  destroyed. 

The  Russian  Slavs,  before  taking  possession  of  all  the  domain 
assigned  to  them  by  history,  had  to  struggle  in  the  north  and 
cast  against  the  nations  belonging  to  three  principal  races,  the 
Letto-Lithuanians,  the  Finns  and  the  Turks,  in  whom  Finnish 
and  Tatar  elements  were  more  or  less  mingled.  The  Finns 
and  the  Turks  belong  to  that  branch  of  the  human  family  which 
has  been  named,  from  its  twofold  cradle  of  the  Oural  and  the 
Altai,  Ouralo-Altaic.  The  first  of  these  races  belongs  to  the 
Aryan  family,  but  is  nevertheless  distinct  from  the  Germanic 
or  Slav  races,  and  its  dialects  have  more  resemblance  to  San- 
scrit than  any  other  European  tongue.  The  Tjnouds  and  the 
Lithuanians,  properly  so  called,  dwell  on  the  Niemen,  the  lat- 
vi::g;ues  on  l!>  P-i  the  western  shore  of  the  Gulf  of 

Ri?i  and  on  the  Baltic,  the  Korses,  who  give  their  name  to 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA .  2Q 

Courland,  are  to  be  found,  while  the  Semigalli  inhabit  the  left 
bank  of  the  Dwina;  and  (he  Letgols,  from  whom  are  descended 
by  a  mingling  with  the  Fin nisn  race  of  Livonians,  the  Letts  of 
Latiches  of  Southern  Livonia.  The  Livonians  on  the  Gulfs  of 
Livonia  and  Finland,  and  the  Tchoud-Estonians.  who  gave  their 
name  to  Pei'pus,  the  Lake  of  the  Tchouds,  belong  to  the  Finnish 
race.  They  are  the  ancestors  of  the  present  inhabitants  of 
Northern  Livonia  and  Esthonia.  The  three  so-called  German 
provinces  of  the  Baltic  are  then  Lettish  in  the  south,  Finnish  in 
the  north.  The  Narovians  were  established  on  the  Narova, 
which  is  a  territory  of  the  Pei'pus  ;  the  Votes  or  Vodes.  between 
the  Volkhof  and  the  sea,  in  a  country  called  by  the  Novgoro- 
clians,  Vodskaia  Piatina ;  the  Ingrians  or  Ijors,  on  the  Ijora  or 
Ingra,  a  tributary  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Neva.  The  Tchoud- 
Estonians  at  the  present  day  number  719,000,  the  Livonians 
2540,  the  Vodes  5000,  and  the  Ingrians  18,000. 

Finland  or  Suomen-maa  (land  of  the  Suomi)  is  still  inhabited 
by  the  Suomi,  who  were  divided  into  three  tribes,  the  lames  or 
Tavasts  on  the  south-cast,  round  Inamburg  and  Tavastehus  ; 
the  Kvins  or  Kai'ans,  on  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia ;  the  Carelians, 
who  were  moTe~numerous  than  the  two  other  nations  put  together, 
occupied  the  rest  of  Finland.  These  three  peoples  at  present 
amount  to  a  total  of  i,  450,000.  The  north  of  Finland  was  and 
is  inhabited  by  the  Laps  or  Laplanders,  who  form  a  special 
division  of  the  Finnish  race,  and  reckon  in  Russia  about  4000 
souls.  The  shores  of  the  Icy  Ocean,  from  the  Ji'Iezen  to  the 
Yenissei,  have  been  always  occupied  by  the  Samoyedes,  a  very 
wide-spread  but  far  from  numerous  people,  who  amount  in  Europe 
to  about  5000  souls.  In  the  time  of  Nestor  the  Vesses  dwelt  on 
the  Cheksna  and  the  White  Lake  ;  the  Mouromians  (whose 
name  is  repeated  in  that  of  Mourom)  on  the  Oka  and  its  afflu- 
ents, the  Moskowa  and  the  Kliazma  ;  the  Merians  on  the  Upper 
Volga  around  the  Lake  Klechtchine  and  Lake  Nero  or  Rostof. 
These  three  tribes  have  completely  disappeared,  having  been 
absorbed  or  transformed  by  the  Russian  colonization,  but  leave 
behind  them  innumerable  kourgans  or  tumuli.  Between  1851 
and  1854,  M.  Ouvarof  and  M.  Savelief  excavated  7729  in  the 
Merian  country  alone.  Besides  these  monuments  and  the 
remains  which  they  contain,  the  only  traces  left  of  these  tribes 
are  to  be  found  in  names  of  places,  and  in  certain  peculiarities 
of  the  local  dialects.  It  was  around  their  territory  that  the 
Muscovite  State  and  the  Russian  empire  were  formed.  The 
Tchoud-Zavolotchians  were  encamped  on  the  Lower  Dwina ;  the 
Krzes,  or  Zyrians,  inhabited  the  basin  of  the  Petchora  ;  the  Per- 
sians, the  source  of  the  Dwina  and  the  Kama;  the  Votiaks  or 
Ari  lived  on  the  Viatka,  where  the  town  of  Viatka  still  preserves 


jO  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

their  name.  These  races  form  what  is  called  the  Permian  branch 
of  the  Finnish  nation  ;  their  country  was  named  by  the  Scandi- 
navians, Biarmia  or  Biarmaland,  and  "  Great  Permia  "  by  the 
Muscovites.  Biarmaland  was  discovered  in  the  gth  century  by 
the  Norwegian  navigator  Other,  who  not  long  afterwards  entered 
the  Service  of  Alfred  the  Great,  king  of  England,  and  has  left 
in  Anglo-Saxon  an  account  of  his  travels.  This  narrative  proves 
that  the  Permians  were  then  a  civilized  people,  who  traded  with 
Tndia  and  Persia.  The  temple  of  their  god  loumala  was  so 
richly  ornamented  with  precious  stones,  that  its  brilliance  illu- 
minated all  the  surrounding  country.  The  Erzes  number  at  the 
present  day  only  80,000,  the  Permians  70,000,  the  Votiaks 
234,000. 

The  Ougrian  branch  is  composed  first  of  the  Ostiaks,  amount- 
ing to  20,000  and  of  the  Voguls  (  7000).  On  the  east  they  in- 
habit the  Ourals,  and  only  border  on  Europe.  Formerly  they 
lived  more  to  the  south.  The  Magyars,  who  made  Europe  tremble 
in  the  loth  century,  and  founded  the  kingdom  of  Hungary,  be- 
longed to  this  race. 

Between  the  Kama  and  the  Oural  were  already  to  be  found 
the  Bach-Kourtes  (shaven-heads)  or  Bachkirs  of  the  i6th  to  the 
1 7th  centuries,  originally  a  Finnish  people,  no  doubt  of  the  Ugrian 
branch,  but  profoundly  Tatarized,  with  whom  were  mingled  the 
Metcheraks,  a  tribe  named  by  Nestor.  There  are  at  present 
500,000  Bachkirs,and  100,000  Metcheraks.  On  the  Middle  Volga 
dwelt  the  Tcheremisses,  the  Tchouvaches,  and  the  Mordvians  ; 
the  Tcheremisses  are  found  again  to-day  in  the  government  of 
Kazan,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  Viatka  ;  the  Tchouvaches  in  Kazan, 
Nijni- Novgorod,  and  Simbirsk;  the  Mordvians  in  Kazan,  Tam- 
bof,  Pensa,  Simbirsk,  Samara,  and  Saratof,  but  these  are  now 
only  small  islets  amid  the  Russian  colonization,  whereas  in  the 
time  of  Nestor  they  formed  a  compact  mass.  The  Tcheremisses 
now  only  number  165,000,  the  Tchouvaches  430,000,  and  the 
Mordvians  500,000  ;  all  the  rest  have  become  Russians  except  a 
few  who  have  become  Tatar. 

All  s'eems  strange  among  these  ancient  peoples.  The  type 
of  countenance  is  blurred  and,  as  it  were,  unfinished ;  the  cos- 
tume seems  to  have  been  adopted  from  some  antediluvian 
fashion  ;  the  manners  and  superstitions  preserve  the  trace  of 
early  religions  beyond  the  date  of  any  known  paganisms  ;  the 
language  is  sometimes  so  very  primitive  that  the  Tchouvaches 
for  example  do  not  possess  more  than  a  thousand  original  words. 

The  Tcheremiss  women  wear  on  their  breasts  two  plates  form- 
ing a  cuirass,  and  ornamented  with  pieces  of  silver,  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation.  A  numismatist  would  mal;e 
wonderful  discoveries  in  these  walking  museums  of  medals 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


3« 


They  drape  their  legs  in  a  piece  of  tightly  "  tied  back  "  black 
cloth,  and  think  that  modesty  consists  in  never  showing  the  legs, 
just  as  the  Tatar  women  make  a  point  of  never  unveiling  the 
race. 

The  Tchouvach  women  cover  their  heads  with  a  little  peaked 
cap  like  a  Saracen  helmet,  carry  on  their  backs  a  covering  of 
leather  and  metal,  like  the  trapping  of  a  war-horse,  and  wear  on 
fete-days  a  stiff  and  rectangular  mantle  like  a  chasuble.  Among 
this  singular  people,  "black  "  and  "  beautiful  "  are  synonymous, 
and  when  they'  wish  to  revenge  themselves  they  hang  them- 
selves at  their  enemy's  door. 

In  spite  of  three  centuries  of  Christian  missions,  these  tribes 
dwelling  in  the  heart  of  Russia  and  on  the  great  artery  of  the 
Volga  are  not  even  yet  complete  converts  to  Christianity. 

There  are  still  some  pagan  districts.  It  may  even  be  said 
that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Tcheremisses,  Tchouvaches, 
Mordvians,  and  Votiaks  remain  attached  to  the  worship  of  the 
ancient  deities,  which  they  sometimes  mingle  with  the  orthodox 
practices  and  the  worship  of  St.  Nicholas.  Their  religion  consisted 
essentially  in  dualism :  the  good  principle  is  called  by  the 
Tchouvaches,  Thora;  louma  (the  "  loumal  "  of  the  Finns) 
by  the  Tcheremisses  ;  Inma  by  the  Votiaks,  etc.  The  bad  prin- 
ciple was  named  Chai'tan  or  Satan.  Between  the  two  is  a 
divinity  whom  men  had  in  former  times  cruelly  offended,  who 
is  called  Keremet.  From  the  good  god  proceeded  an  infinity  of 
gods  and  goddesses ;  from  Keremet  a  numerous  progeny  of 
male  and  female  Keremets,  genii  more  mischievous  and  ma- 
levolent, to  whom  the  aborigines  offer  pieces  of  money,  and 
sacrifice  horses,  oxen,  sheep,  swans,  and  cocks  and  hens,  in 
sanctuaries  also  named  Keremet,  built  in  the  depths  of  the 
forests  and  far  from  Russian  spies. 

Human  sacrifices  have  been  talked  of.  The  worship  of  the 
dead  inspired  ideas  which  guide  the  savage  everywhere.  Men 
have  preserved  the  custom  of  wife-capture,  or  buying  brides 
from  the  fathers  by  paying  the  kalym  ;  they  practise  agricu'uir  :1 
communism.  In  a  word,  the  life  of  these  races  of  the  Volga 
in  the  igth  century  is  the  living  commentary  of  the  accounts  of 
Nestor  of  the  Russian  Slavs  of  the  gth  century. 

It  is  probable  that  Slavs  and  Russians  then  lived  in  an 
absolutely  identical  state  of  civilization,  and  had  almost  the 
same  religious  ideas  and  the  same  customs. 

There  remain  two  Finnish  peoples  still  to  be  spoken  of,  who, 
mentioned  by  Nestor,  have  at  present  disappeared,  but  who  were 
far  more  remarkable  than  any  of  the  preceding.  These  are  the 
Khazars,  who,  although  mingled  with  Turkish  elements,  were 
essentially  Finnish.  Remarkable  for  their  aptitude  for  civiliza« 


^  2  VIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSTA. 

tion,  they  had  for.ned  in  the  gth  century  a  vast  empire,  which 
embraced  the  regions  of  the  Lower  Dnieper,  the  Don,  and  ihe 
Lower  Volga,  round  the  Sea  of  Azof  and  the  Caspian ;  they  had 
built  Itil  on  the  Volga,  and  Sarkel  or  the  White  City  on  the 
Don  ;  they  had  sometimes  governors  at  Bosporos  and  Cherson 
in  the  Taurid  peninsula;  in  the  Kuban  they  possessed  the 
Tamatarchia  of  the  Greeks.  They  had  commercial  and  friendly 
relations  with  Byzantium,  the  caliphate  of  Bagdad,  and  even  the 
caliphate  of  Cordova,  the  only  civilized  states  of  the  then  known 
world.  The  Khazars  had  flourishing  schools,  and  tolerated  all 
religions  besides  the  national  paganism.  Mussulman  mission 
aries  appeared  in  the  yth,  Jewish  missionaries  in  the  8th  century, 
and  Saint  Cyril  arrived  about  860  at  the  court  of  their  Chagan. 
A  Jewish  Chagan  of  the  name  of  Joseph  interchanged  some 
curious  letters  with  the  Rabbi  Hasdai  of  Cordova,  announcing 
to  him  that  the  people  of  God,  the  Israel  Khazar,  ruled  over 
nine  nations  of  the  nineteen  of  the  Caucasus,  and  thirteen  of  the 
Black  Sea,  and  that  he  did  not  allow  the  Russians  to  descend 
the  Volga  to  ravage  the  territory  of  the  Caliph  of  Bagdad.  The 
Israelitish  Khazars  became  afterwards  mingled  with  the  Kha- 
raite  Jews,  and  the  Moslem  Khazars  with  the  Tatars  of  the 
Crimea.  Among  the  vassal  nations  of  the  Khazars  enumerated 
by  the  Chagan  Joseph,  were  the  Bourtass  and  the  Bulgars  of 
the  Volga  the  latter,  kinsmen  of  the  Bulgars  who  were  sub- 
jected by  the  Danubian  Slavs,  and  apparently  nearly  related  to 
the  Tchouvaches,  were  a  mixture  of  Finnish,  Turkish,  and  even 
Slav  elements,  according  to  an  Arabian  account.  Sedentary, 
industrious,  and  destined  to  inherit  the  commercial  splendor 
of  the  Khazars,  they  blended  with  the  native  superstitions  the 
Islamism  which  was  preached  to  them  in  922  by  missionaries 
from  Bagdad,  and  possessed  in  the  loth  century  a  flourishing 
state.  Their  capital  was  Bolgary  or  the  "  Great  City,"  on  the 
junction  of  the  Volga  and  the  Kama.  They  also  owned  the 
cities  of  Bouliar  or  IJiliarsk,  Souvar,  Krementchoug,  &c.  Their 
descendants  were  fused  with  the  Tatar  conquerors  of  the  i3th 
century. 

The  Finnish  racesa_eyen_inoi;e  than^the^Sl^aySj^re  thg_real 
abongin  is  «f  kus>;a.  In  the  5:11  century  BJC,  I k-nxlotus  writes 
of  them  as  already  long  possessed  of  the  soil.  Everywhere  in 
these  wide  regions  the  traces  of  their  occupation  are  visible. 
At  different  periods  they  extended  from  the  Livorian  Gulf  to 
the  Ourals,  and  from  the  Icy  Ocean  to  the  Black  Sea.  They 
withdrew  at  various  times,  especially  from  the  5th  to  the  gth 
centuries,  to  allow  the  passage  of  the  great  migrations  and  of  the 
great  invasions  ;  but  in  the  loth  century  they  occupied,  with  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  33 

Khazars,  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Azof  and  of  the  Caspian,  while 
the  Finns  of  Esthonia  held  the  Lithuanians  in  check. 

The  Turkish  races,  on  the  contrary,  made  their  appearance 
much  later  in  Russia.  In  the  gth  century  the  Lower  Volga  and 
the  Lower  Oural  began  to  fall  a  prey  to  the  Patzinaks,  incor- 
rigible brigands  who  marched  over  the  bodies  of  the  Khazars 
to  establish  themselves  on  the  Lower  Dnieper.  After  them  ap- 
peared the  Polovtsi  or  Koumans,  the  Ouzes  or  Torques.  The 
invasion  of  the  Tatars  was  more  Turkish  than  Mongolian.  The 
nomads  vanished  or,  according  to  Nestor,  were  absorbed  by  new 
arrivals,  namely  the  Nogai's,  formed  in  the  i3th  century  of  the 
remnants  of  the  Polovtsi,  and  of  the  Turko-Kanglis,  at  present 
numbering  50,000  ;  the  Kirghis,  who  entered  Europe  about  1721, 
and  to-day  amount  to  about  82,000  souls  ;  the  Kalmucks,  who 
are  Mongols  not  Turks,  belong  to  the  CEleutes  or  Western 
Mongols,  invaders  of  Russia  in  1636,  number  87,000  in  the 
provinces  of  Astrakhan,  Stavropol,  and  the  Don,  and  in  spite  of 
the  efforts  of  Christians  and  Mussulmans  have  remained  La- 
maists.  As  to  the  Tatars,  properly  so  called,  or  sedentary  Turks 
(more  or  less  a  mixture  of  Finnish  and  Mongol  elements),  who 
inhabit  the  governments  of  the  Volga,  Kazan,  and  Astrakhan,  as 
well  as  those  of  Stavropol  and  the  Crimea,  they  number  altogether 
about  1,420,000  heads. 


DIVISION   OF   THE   RUSSIANS   OF   TO-DAY   INTO   THREE   BRANCHES — 
HOW    RUSSIA    WAS    COLONIZED. 

In  the  time  of  Nestor  (end  of  the  nth  century),  the  Russian 
Slavs  confined  between  the  Lithuanians  on  the  west,  the  Finns 
on  the  north,  and  the  Turks  on  the  east,  hardly  occupied  one- 
fifth  part  of  Russia  in  Europe.  To-day  we  see  the  Russian 
race  extend  from  Finland  to  the  Oural,  from  the  Icy  Ocean  to 
the  Caucasus  and  Crimea,  amounting  to  56,000,000  men,  be- 
sides 3,000,000  colonists  in  the  Asiatic  provinces.  The  Letto- 
Lithuanians  on  the  contrary  are  reduced  to  2,420,000  souls ; 
the  Finns,  including  the  inhabitants  of  Finland,  to  less  than 
4,000,000  ;  and  the  Turko-Tatars  to  less  than  2,000,000.  The 
Russians  form  six-sevenths  of  the  population  of  Russia.  The 
proportions  are  more  than  reversed.  What  a  change  has  been 
wrought  in  ten  centuries  !  The  present  Russians  may  be 
divided  into  three  branches,  deriving  their  names  from  certain 
historical  circumstances,  i.  The  name  of  White  Russia  is 
given  to  the  provinces  conquered  from  the  i3th  to  the  i4th 
century  by  the  Grand  D;;lccs  of  Lithuania.  These  were  the 
ancient  territories  of  the  Krivitches,  Polotchans,  Dregovitches, 


34  fffSTOKY  OF  KUSSTA 

Drevlians,  Doulebes,  now  forming  the  governments  of  Vitepsk, 
Mohilef,  and  Minsk.  The  governments  of  Kovno,  Grodno  and 
Wilna,  at  present  unequally  Russicized,  were  originally  Lithu- 
anian. The  Lithuanian  territories  of  Grodno,  Novogrodek  and 
Belostok  were  sometimes  called  Black  Russia.  2.  Little  Russia 
includes  the  country  of  the  ancient  Severians  and  Polians  in- 
creased by  colonies ;  that  is,  the  governments  of  Kief,  Tcher- 
nigof,  Pultowa,  Kharkof,  Volhynia,  and  Podolia.  It  even  ex- 
tends beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  empire  into  Red  Russia  or 
Old  Gallicia  (Galitch,  laroslavl,  Terebovl,  Zvenigorocl,  Lemberg, 
or  Lvof),  belonging  to  Austria,  and  peopled  by  3,000,000  ot 
Ruthenians  or  Russians.  3.  Great  Russia  grouped  around  the 
ancient  Muscovy,  and  occupying  the  place  held  in  the  gth  cen- 
tury by  many  Turkish  or  Finnish  tribes.  To  Great  Russia  be- 
long Northern  Russia  (Arkhangel),  Eastern  Russia  (the  Volga, 
Kazan,  Astrakhan),  and  New  Russia  or  South  Russia  (Cherson, 
Ekaterinoslaf,  Kharkof,  Odessa,  the  Crimea).  Great  Russia  as 
a  whole,  apart  from  Novgorod  and  Pskof,  \vas  won  from  foreign 
races  by  Russian  colonization.  It  was  a  colony  of  Kievian 
Russia,  an  1,  though  for  a  time  subjugated  by  the  Tatars,  was 
able  to  shake  off  their  yoke,  while  Kief  still  remained  a  Lithu- 
anian province.  It  continued  to  extend  its  conquests  in  the 
East;  then  turning  to  the  West  in  the  lyth  and  i8th  centuries, 
was  able  to  recover  White  Russia  and  Little  Russia. 

In  the  empire  the  White  Russians  number  3,000,000,  the 
Little  Russians  12,000,000,  and  the  Great  Russians  41,000,000. 
There  are  dialectical  differences  between  the  idioms  of  these 
three  families,  which  historical  and  literary  influences  easily  ex- 
plain. Some  writers  have  been  anxious  to  establish  the  existence 
of  a  profound  difference  between  Great  Russia  and  her  two 
neighbors.  They  have  reserved  the  name  of  Russians  and  the 
character  of  Slavs  for  the  White  Russians  and  the  Little  Russians, 
and  have  pretended  to  see  in  the  "  Muscovites  "  nothing  but 
descendants  of  Finns,  Turks  and  Tatars,  in  a  word  Turanians, 
Russian  only  in  language.  The  Muscovite  Empire,  founded  in 
the  midst  of  Vesscs,  of  Mouromians,  and  of  Merians,  extended 
at  the  expense  of  the  Tchouvaches,  the  Mordvians,  Tatars  and 
Kirghiz,  with  its  two  capitals  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg  in  the 
Tchoudic  region,  is  not,  if  these  writers  are  to  be  trusted,  even 
a  European  state.  A  more  careful  study  shows  us  that  Muscovy 
was  formed  in  the  first  place  by  the  migrations  of  Russia;; 
onists,  in  the  second  place  by  the  assimilation  of  certain  f<>; 
races,  i.  When  the  steppes  of  the  south  became  the  prey  of 
Asiatic  nomads,  the  Russian  population  (lowed  back  in  a  vast 
wave,  from  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper  to  the  Upper  and  Middle- 
Volga.  We  see  the  princes  of  Souzdal  calling  to  their  aid  the 


HiS  rOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  3  5 

inhabitants  of  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper,  while  in  the  forests  of 
the  north  new  cities  are  constantly  founded  by  the  people  of 
Novgorod.  The  Russia  of  Kief  once  destroyed,  a  new  Russia 
begins  to  form  itself,  almost  out  of  the  same  elements,  at  the 
opposite  extremity  of  the  Oriental  plain.  The  names  given  to 
the  new  towns  of  Souzdal  and  Muscovy  must  be  noticed.  There 
is  a  Vladimir  on  the  Kliazma  as  there  is  a  Vladimir  in  Volhynia, 
a  Zvenigorocl  on  the  Moskowa  as  on  the  Dniester,  a  Galitch  in 
Souzdal  as  in  Gallicia,  a  laroslavl  on  the  Volga  as  on  the  San. 
Souzdal  and  Riazan,  like  Kief,  have  their  Pereiaslavl ;  that  ot 
the  former  bears  the  title  of  Zaliesski,  or  "  beyond  the  forests." 
In  a  different  land  and  under  another  sky  the  emigrants  clearly 
tried  to  restore  the  name,  if  they  could  not  find  the  image  of 
their  native  country.  Is  it  not  thus  that  the  English  in  America 
founded  New  York,  and  the  French  New  Orleans  ?  Moreover, 
when  we  have  seen  a  population  of  3,000,000  Russians  gather  in 
the  Caucasus  and  in  Siberia — when  we  see  that  the  steppes  of 
the  south  which  were  deserts  in  the  time  of  Catherine  II.  reckon 
to-day  their  5, 000,000 to  6,000,000  inhabitants, — it  is  easy  to  un- 
derstand how,  at  a  more  distant  epoch,  the  basin  of  the  Volga  was 
colonized.  As  for  saying  that  the  inhabitants  of  New  Russia 
are  nothing  but  Finns  and  Russified  Turks,  one  might  as  well 
pretend  that  the  30,000,000  or  40,000,000  of  North  America  are 
Red-skins  who  have  learnt  English  and  embraced  Protestantism. 
We  must  recognize  that  the  Russian,  almost  as  much  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  has  the  instinct  which  drives  men  to  emigrate  and 
found  colonies.  The  Russians  do  in  the  far  East  of  Europe 
what  the  Anglo-Saxons  do  in  the  far  West  of  America.  They 
belong  to  one  of  the  great  races  of  pioneers  and  backwoodsmen. 
All  the  history  of  the  Russian  people,  from  the  foundation  of 
Moscow,  is  that  of  their  advance  into  the  forest,  into  the  Black 
Land,  into  the  prairie.  The  Russian  has  his  trappers  and  set- 
tlers in  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,  Don,  and  Tereck  ;  in  the 
tireless  fur-hunters  of  Siberia  ;  in  the  gold-diggers  of  the  Oural 
and  the  Altai ;  in  the  adventurous  monks  who  ever  lead  the  way, 
founding  in  regions  always  more  distant,  a  monastery  which  is 
to  be  the  centre  of  a  town  ;  lastly,  in  the  Raskolnicks,  or  Dissen- 
ters, Russian  Puritans  or  Mormons,  who  are  persecuted  by  laws 
human  and  divine,  and  seek  from  forest  to  forest  the  Jerusalem 
of  their  dreams.  The  level  plains  of  Russia  naturally  tempted 
men  to  migration.  The  mountain  keeps  her  own,  the  mountain 
calls  her  wanderers  to  return ;  while  the  steppe,  stretching  away 
to  the  dimmest  horizon,  invites  you  to  advance,  to  ride  at  advent- 
ure, to  "  go  where  the  eyes  glance." 

'it  and  monotonous  soil  has  no  hold  on  its  inhabitants; 
they  wiU  rip-d  as  bare  a  landscape  anywhere      As  for  their  hovel, 


3*  ttlSTOK  Y  OF  k USSIA. 

how  can  they  care  for  their  hovel?  it  is  burned  down  a 
often.  The  Western  expression,  the  "  ancestral  roof,"  has  no 
meaning  for  the  Russian  peasant.  The  native  of  Great  Russia, 
accustomed  to  live  on  little,  and  endure  the  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold,  was  born  to  brave  the  dangers  and  privations  of  the  emi- 
grant's life.  Wilh  his  crucifix,  his  axe  in  his  belt,  and  his  boots 
slung  behind  his  back,  he  will  goto  the  end  of  the  Eastern  worhl. 
However  weak  may  be  the  infusion  of  the  Russian  element  in 
an  Asiatic  population,  it  cannot  transmute  itself  nor  disappear — 
it  must  become  the  dominant  power. 

History  has  helped  to  make  this  movement  irresistible. 
When  the  Russian  took  refuge  in  Souzdnl,  he  wns  compelled  to 
clear  and  cultivate  the  very  worst  land  of  his  future  domain,  for 
the  Tchemoziom  was  then  overrun  by  nomads.  How  could  he 
escape  the  temptation  to  go  and  look  in  the  south  for  more  fer- 
tile soil  which  without  labor  or  manure  would  yield  four  times 
as  great  a  harvest  ?  Villages  nnd  whole  cantons  in  Muscovy 
have  been  known  to  empty  themselves  i.i  a  moment,  the  peasants 
marching  in  a  body,  as  in  the  old  times  of  the  invasions,  towards 
the  "  Black  Soil,"  the  "Warm  Soil"  of  the  south.  Government 
and  the  landholders  were  obliged  to  use  the  most  terrible  means 
to  stop  these  migrations  of  the  husbandmen.  Without  these  re- 
pressive measures  the  steppes  would  have  been  colonized  two 
centuries  earlier  than  they  actually  were.  The  report  that  the 
Tzar  authorized  the  emigration — a  forged  ukase,  a  rumor — any- 
thing was  enough  to  uproot  whole  peoples  from  the  soil. 
The  peasant's  passion  for  wandering  explains  the  development 
of  Cossack  life  in  the  plains  of  the  south  ;  it  explains  the  legis- 
lation which  from  the  beginning  of  the  i6th  century  chained  the 
serf  to  the  glebe  and  bound  him  to  the  soil.  In  the  i3th  cen- 
tury, on  the  other  hand,  the  peasant  was  free.  His  prince 
encouraged  him  to  emigrate,  and  hence  came  the  colonization 
of  Eastern  Russia. 

2.  The  Russian  race,  it  is  true,  has  the  faculty  of  absorbing 
certain  aboriginal  stocks.  The  Little  Russians  assimilated  the 
remnants  of  Turkish  tribes,  the  Great  Russians  swallowed  up 
the  Finnish  nations  of  the  East.  There  must,  however,  be  no 
religious  barrier  between  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered,  for 
the  Tchoud,  while  still  heathen,  is  easily  assimilated;  but  once 
converted  to  Islamism,  he  is  a  refractory  element  that  can 
scarcely  be  brought  to  order.  A  baptized  Tchouvach  inevitably 
becomes  a  Russian,  a  circumcised  Tchouvach  inevitably  be- 
comes a  Tatar.  We  have  seen  the  Vesses,  the  Mouromians, 
the  Merians  disappear  without  leaving  a  trace  ;  the  Tchouvaches, 
the  Mordvians,  the  Tcheremisses  become  more  Russian  every 
day.  The  successive  stages,  and  the  steps  which  lead  to  the 


'  OF  RUSSIA.  37 

accomplishment  of  this  change,  were   lately  observed  by  Mr. 
Wallace,  an  English  traveller  : — • 

"  During  my  wanderings  in  these  northern  provinces  I  have 
found  villages  in  every  stage  of  Russification.  In  one  every- 
thing seemed  thoroughly  Finnish  :  the  inhabitants  had  a  reddish- 
olive  skin,  very  high  cheek-bones,  obliquely-set  eyes,  and  a  pe- 
culiar costume  ;  none  of  the  women  and  very  few  of  the  men 
could  understand  Russian,  and  any  Russian  who  visited  the 
place  was  regarded  as  a  foreigner.  In  a  second  there  were  al- 
ready some  Russian  inhabitants  ;  the  others  had  lost  something 
of  their  pure  Finnish  type,  many  of  the  men  had  discarded 
the  old  costume  and  spoke  Russian  fluently,  and  a  Russian 
visitor  was  no  longer  shunned.  In  a  third,  the  Finnish  type 
was  still  further  weakened  ;  all  the  men  spoke  Russian,  and 
nearly  all  the  women  understood  it ;  the  old  male  costume  had 
entirely  disappeared,  and  the  old  female  costume  was  rapidly 
following  it,  and  the  intermarriage  with  the  Russian  population 
was  no  longer  rare.  In  a  fourth,  intermarriage  had  almost  com- 
pletely done  its  work,  and  the  old  Finnish  element  could  be  de- 
tected merely  in  certain  peculiarities  of  physiognomy  and  ac- 
cent"  (vol.  i.  p.  231). 

The  density  and  resisting  power  of  these  ancient  peoples, 
.scattered  over  such  immense  spaces  of  the  continent,  must 
have  been  comparatively  slight,  while  the  Russian  emigrants 
came  on  in  vast  waves,  or  stole  in  like  the  constant  dropping  of 
water.  The  aboriginals  must  often  have  recoiled  and  concen- 
trated their  forces,  thus  leaving  room  and  verge  for  the  pure 
Slavonic  element.  The  more  or  less  considerable  mixture  of 
races,  on.  the  other  hand,  cannot  but  have  influenced  the  physi- 
cal type,  character,  and  powers  of  the  Great  Russian  in  a  pecul- 
iar way.  The  bright  Slavonic  nature,  when  blended  with  tribes 
of  a  duller  cast,  gained  in  strength  and  weight  what  it  lost  in 
vivacity.  Hence,  of  all  the  Slavonic  peoples,  the  Great  Rus- 
sian alone  has  been  able  to  create  and  to  maintain,  in  face  of 
Svery  obstacle,  a  vast  and  durable  empire. 


38  HISTORY  OF  RUSS'A. 

CHAPTER  III. 

PRIMITIVE   RUSSIA  :    THE   SLAVS. 

Religion  of  the  Slavs — Funeral  rites — Domestic  and  political  customs;  the 
family,  the  mir  or  commune,  the  volost  or  canton,  the  tribe — Cities — laius- 
try — Agriculture. 


RELIGION    OF   THE   SLAVS — FUNERAL   RITES. 

THE  religion  of  the  Russian  Slavs,  like  that  of  all  Aryan 
races,  was  founded  on  nature  and  its  phenomena.  It  was  a 
pantheism  which,  as  its  original  meaning  was  lost,  necessarily 
became  a  polytheism.  Just  as  the  Homeric  deities  were  pre- 
ceded by  the  gods  of  Hcsiod,  Ouranos  and  Demeter,  or  Heaven 
and  Earth,  so  the  most  ancient  gods  of  the  Russian  Slavs  seem 
to  have  been  Svarog,  the  heaven,  and  "  our  mother,  the  dank 
earth."  Then  new  conceptions  appeared  in  the  first  rank  in  the 
historic  period,  i.  Ancient  poets  and  chroniclers  (see  the  Song 
of  Igor,  and  Nestor)  have  preserved  to  us  the  names  of  Dagh- 
Bog,  god  of  the  sun,  father  of  nature  ;  Voloss,  a  solar  deity,  and, 
like  the  Greek  Apollo,  inspirer  of  poets  and  protector  of  flocks  ; 
Perun,  god  of  thunder,  another  personification  of  the  Sun  at  wat 
with  the  Cloud  ;  Stribog,  the  Russian  y£olus,  father  of  winds, 
protector  of  warriors  ;  Khors,  a  solar  god  ;  Semargl&nd  Mokoch, 
whose  attributes  are  unknown.  2.  In  some  of  the  early  hymns 
they  sing  of  Koupalo  or  farilo,  god  of  the  summer  sun,  and  Did- 
Lado,  goddess  of  fecundity.  3.  In  the  epic  songs  are  celebrated 
Sviatogor,  the  giant-hero,  whose  weight  the  earth  can  scarcely 
l.'oar;  Mikoula  Selianinovitch,  the  good  laborer,  a  kind  of  Slav 
Triptolemus,  the  divine  personification  of  the  race's  passionate 
love  of  agriculture,  striking  with  the  iron  share  of  his  plough 
the  stones  of  the  furrow,  with  a  noise  that  is  heard  three  days' 
journey  off;  Volga  Vseslavitch^ii  Proteus  who  can  take  all  man- 
ner of  shapes ;  Polkan,  a  centaur ;  Dounai,  Don  Ivanoi'itch, 
Dnieper  Korolevitch,  who  are  rivers ;  then  a  series  of  heroes, 
conquerors  of  dragons  like  Ilia  of  Afourom,  who  seem  to  be  solar 
gods  degraded  to  the  rank  of  paladins.  4.  In  the  stories  which 
beguile  the  village  evening  assemblies,  appear  Moreno, 
dess  of  death  ;  Kochtchei  and  Aforoz,  personifications  of  the  h::- 
ter  winter  weather  ;  Baba-  Yaga,  an  ogress  who  lives  on  the  ' 
of  the  forest,  in  a  hut  built  on  the  foot  of  a  fowl,  and  swayed  by 
the  winds ;  and  the  King  of  the  Sea,  who  entices  sailors  to  his 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  39 

watery  palaces.  5.  Popular  superstition  continues  to  people 
nature  with  good  and  bad  spirits  :  the  Russalki,  water  sprites ; 
Vodianoi,  river  genii ;  the  Liechii  and  the  Liesnik,  forest  de- 
mons ;  the  Domovoi  (dom,  house),  the  brownie  of  the  domestic 
hearth ;  and  the  Vampires,  ghosts  who  steal  by  night  from  their 
tombs,  and  suck  the  blood  of  the  living  during  their  sleep. 

Since  Mythology  reproduces  under  so  many  forms  the  strug- 
gle of  the  heroes  of  the  light  with  the  monsters  of  darkness,  it  is 
possible  that  she  may  have  admitted  a  bad  principle  at  variance 
with  a  good  principle,  an  ill-doing  god,  of  whom  Morena,  Koch- 
tchei,  Baba-Yaga,  the  dragon,  the  mountain-serpent,  are  only 
types.  We  cannot  find  any  positive  confirmation  of  this  hypo- 
thesis, as  far  as  the  Russian  Slavs  are  concerned,  but  Helmold 
asserts  that  the  Baltic  Slavs  recognize  Bielibog,  the  White  God, 
and  Tchernobog,  the  Black  God. 

The  Russians  do  not  seem  to  have  had  either  temples  or 
priests  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  They  erected  rude 
idols  on  the  hills,  and  venerated  the  oak  consecrated  to  Perun  ; 
the  leaders  of  the  people  offered  the  sacrifices.  They  also  had 
sorcerers,  or  magicians,  analogous  to  the  Tatar  Shamans,  whose 
counsels  appear  to  have  had  great  weight. 

It  has  been  the  study  of  the  Russian  Church  to  combat  pa- 
ganism by  purifying  the  superstitions  she  cannot  uproot.  She 
has  turned  to  account  any  similarity  in  names  or  symbols.  She 
has  been  able  to  honor  Saint  Dmitri  and  Saint  George,  the  slay- 
ers of  dragons  ;  Saint  John,  who  thunders  in  the  spring ;  Saint 
Elias,  who  recalls  Ilia  of  Mourom  ;  Saint  Blaise  or  Vlaise,  who 
has  succeeded  to  Voloss  as  guardian  of  the  flocks ;  Saint  Nich- 
olas, or  Mikoula,  patron  of  laborers,  like  Mikoula  Selianino- 
vitch  ;  Saint  Cosmas,  or  Kouzma,  protector  of  blacksmiths,  who 
has  taken  the  place  of  kouznets,  the  mysterious  blacksmith  forger 
of  the  destinies  of  man  in  the  mountains  of  the  north.  In  some 
popular  songs  the  Virgin  Mary  replaces  Did-Lado,  and  then 
Saint  John  succeeds  to  Perun  or  larilo.  Who  can  fail  to  recog- 
nize the  myth  of  the  spring  and  the  fruitful  rains  accompanied 
by  thunder,  in  this  White  Russian  song  that  is  repeated  at  the 
festival  of  St.  John  ?  "  John  and  Mary — bathed  on  the  hill — 
while  John  bathed — the  earth  shook — while  Mary  bathed — the 
earth  germinated."  The  Church  has  taken  care  to  consecrate 
to  the  Saints  of  her  calendar  or  to  purify  by  holy  rites  the  sacred 
trees  and  mysterious  wells  to  which  crowds  of  pilgrims  contin- 
ued to  flock. 

Russian  Slavs  certainly  had  visions  of  another  life,  but,  like 
all  primitive  peoples,  they  looked  forward  to  a  life  which  was 
gross  and  materbl.  In  the  yth  century  among  the  Wends,  Ger- 
man Slavs,  women  refused  to  survive  their  husbands,  and  burned 


4o  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

themselves  on  their  funeral  pile.  This  ancient  Aryan  custom 
must  have  been  in  vigor  among  the  Russian  Slavs  at  an  equally 
early  epoch.  The  Arabic  writer,  Ibn-Foszlan,  gives  an  account 
of  the  Russian  funeral  rites  which  he  himself  witnessed  in  the 
9th  century.  For  ten  days  the  friends  of  the  deceased  bewailed 
him,  and  intoxicated  themselves  over  his  corpse.  Then  the 
men-servants  were  asked,  which  of  them  would  be  buried  with 
his  master?  One  of  them  replied  in  the  affirmative,  and  was  in- 
instantly  strangled.  The  same  question  was  also  put  to  the 
women-servants,  one  of  whom  likewise  devoted  herself.  She 
was  then  washed,  adorned,  and  treated  like  a  princess,  and  did 
nothing  but  drink  and  sing.  On  the  appointed  day  the  dead 
man  was  laid  in  a  boat,  with  part  of  his  arms  and  his  garments. 
The  man-servant  was  slain  with  the  favorite  horse  and  other  do- 
mestic animals  and  was  laid  in  the  boat,  to  which  the  young  girl 
was  then  led.  She  took  off  her  jewels,  and  with  a  glass  of  kvass 
in  her  hand  sang  a  song  that  she  would  only  too  willingly  have 
prolonged.  "  All  at  once,"  says  the  eye-witness,  "  the  old 
woman  who  accompanied  her,  and  whom  they  called  the  angel 
of  death,  ordered  her  to  drink  quickly,  and  to  enter  into  the 
cabin  of  the  boat,  where  lay  the  dead  body  of  her  master.  At 
these  words  she  changed  color,  and  as  she  made  some  difficul- 
ties about  entering,  the  old  woman  seized  her  by  the  hair,  drag- 
ged her  in,  and  entered  with  her.  The  men  immediately  began 
to  beat  their  shields  with  clubs  to  prevent  the  other  girls  from 
hearing  the  cries  of  their  companion,  which  might  prevent  them 
from  one  day  dying  for  their  masters."  While  the  funeral  pile 
blazed,  one  of  the  Russians  said  to  our  narrator,  "  You  Arabs 
are  fools  :  you  hide  in  the  earth  the  man  you  have  loved  best, 
and  there  he  becomes  the  prey  of  worms.  We,  on  the  contrary, 
burn  him  up  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  that  he  may  the  quicker 
enter  paradise."  Nestor  found  the  rite  among  the  Russian 
Slavs.  The  excavations  made  in  a  great  number  of  kourgans 
(barrows)  confirm  his  testimony.  The  discoveries  recently  made 
in  the  tombs  of  Novgorod  by  M.  Ivanouski,  prove  that  the 
Slavs  of  Ilmen  had  preserved  or  adopted  the  custom  of  bury- 
ing their  dead.  In  these  tombs  are  found  a  great  quantity  of 
arms,  instruments,  jewels,  animals,  bones,  and  grains  of  wheat ; 
from  which  we  may  conclude  that  the  Russian  Slavs  expected 
the  future  life  to  be  an  exact  continuation  of  the  present  one, 
and  that  they  surrounded  the  dead  with  all  the  objects  that  here 
contributed  to  his  happiness.  The  examination  of  the  human 
bones  preserved  in  the  kourgans  also  confirms  the  historical  ac- 
counts, and  proves  that  servants  and  female  slaves  were  sacri- 
ficed over  the  corpse. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


4« 


DOMESTIC    AND   POLITICAL  CUSTOMS  :    THE    FAMILY  ;    THE   MIR   OR 
COMMUNE  ;    THE   VOLOST   OR   CANTON  J   THE  TRIBE. 

The  Slav  family  was  founded  on  the  patriarchal  principle. 
The  father  was  the  absolute  head,  and  after  his  death  the  power 
passed  to  the  eldest  of  the  members  composing  it. :  first,  to  the 
brothers  of  the  deceased,  if  he  had  any  under  his  care,  then 
successively  to  his  sons,  beginning  with  the  eldest.  The  chief 
had  the  same  rights  over  the  women  who  entered  his* family  by 
marriage,  as  over  its  natural  members. 

Their  domestic  manners  seemed  to  have  been  very  barbarous. 
The  monk  Nestor  may  be  suspected  of  exaggeration  wherever 
he  describes  the  condition  of  pagan  Russia,  which  baptism  was  to 
regenerate.  There  is  no  exception  to  this  exaggerated  censure 
but  in  the  case  of  the  Polians.  "  The  Drevlians,"  he  tells  us, 
"  lived  after  the  manner  of  wild  beasts.  They  cut  each  other's 
throats,  ate  impure  food,  declined  all  marriage-ties  ;  they  rav- 
ished and  stole  young  girls  who  came  for  water  to  the  foun- 
tains  The  Radimitches,  the  Viatitches,  the  Severians  lived 

like  wild  animals  in  the  forests,  were  fed  on  all  sorts  of  horrors, 
and  spoke  of  all  kinds  of  shameful  things  in  the  presence  of 
their  sisters-in-law  and  relatives.  .  .  .  They  captured  women, 
who  were  willing  parties  to  the  transaction,  often  two  or  three  at 
a  time." 

The  charges  which  Nestor  chiefly  urges  against  the  Slavs, 
are  the  capture  of  women  and  polygamy.  This  latter  charge  is 
completely  established  ;  as  to  the  capture,  it  might  be  symbol- 
ical. In  the  text  quoted  above  we  see  the  women  "  came  "  to 
the  fountain,  and  that  they  were  parties  to  the  transaction. 
This  capture,  if  we  take  it  for  a  simple  ceremony,  may  imply,  in 
very  early  times  the  existence  of  abduction  by  violence.  To- 
day, the  marriage-customs  of  Russia  still  preserve  traces  of 
these  ancient  usages.  There  is  still  a  pretended  capture  of  the 
woman  ;  a  custom  to  be  found  in  the  Germany  of  the  8th  cen- 
tury, where  the  very  name  of  marriage  has  a  pointed  significa- 
tion— Brautlauft,  the  flight  of  the  bride.  The  songs  at  Russian 
weddings  also  imply  the  existence  of  a  time  when  the  maiden 
was  bought.  One  of  these  songs  accuses  the  kindred  of  avarice  : 
"  Thy  brother — the  accursed  Tatar — has  sold  his  sister  for  a 
piece  of  silver." 

Some  historians  have  thought,  with  Karamsin,  that  the  Slavs 
held  women  in  less  consideration  than  the  Germans  did,  and  in 
fact  "  treated  them  as  slaves."  We  may  doubt  if  there  was  so 
great  a  difference  between  the  two  nations.  The  chronicles 
speak  of  Lybed,  sister  of  Kii,  the  fabulous  founder  of  Kief, 
Dividing  her  paternal  inheritance  with  her  brothers,  and  of 


4«  /ns  TOR  Y  OP  RUSSIA. 

Princess  Olga  becoming  heir  and  avenger  of  her  husband  and 
guardian  of  his  son.  The  epic  songs  show  us  many  bold  heroines 
side  by  side  with  the  heroes  of  the  Kievian  cycle,  and  mothers 
of  heroes  surrounded  with  wonderful  luxury  and  extraordinary 
honors.  The  excavations  of  the  konrgans  show  us  skeletons  of 
women  richly  ornamented  with  jewels. 

The  commune,  or  mir,  was  only  the  expansion  of  the  family  ;  i'v 
was  subject  to  the  authority  of  the  elders  of  each  household, 
who  assembled  in  a  council  or  vctc/itf.  The  village  lands  were 
held  in  common  by  all  the  members  of  the  association  ;  the  in- 
dividual only  possessed  his  harvest,  and  the  dvor  or  enclosure 
immediately  surrounding  his  house.  This  primitive  condition 
of  property,  existing  in  Russia  up  to  the  present  day,  was 
once  common  to  all  European  peoples. 

The  communes  nearest  together  formed  a  group  called  volost 
or  pagost  (canton,  parish).  The  volost  was  governed  by  a  council 
formed  of  the  elders  of  the  communes:  one  of  these  elders,  either 
by  hereditary  right,  age,  or  election,  was  recognized  as  more 
powerful  than  the  rest,  and  became  chief  of  the  canton.  His 
authority  seems  much  to  have  resembled  that  of  Ulysses  over 
the  numerous  kings  of  little  Ithaca.  In  times  of  danger,  the 
volosts  of  the  same  tribe  could  elect  a  temporary  head,  but  de- 
cline to  submit  to  a  general  and  permanent  ruler.  The  Emper- 
or Maurice  had  already  observed  that  passion  for  liberty  among 
the  Slavs,  which  made  them  detest  all  sovereignty.  The  Rus- 
sian Slavs  easily  rose  from  the  idea  of  a  commune  to  that  of  a 
canton,  with  a  chief  chosen  from  the  elders  of  the  family ;  in  an 
emergency  they  might  permit  a  temporary  confederation  of  all 
the  cantons  of  one  tribe  (dlemia),  but  we  never  find  that  there 
was  a  prince  of  the  Severians,  Polians,  or  Raclimitches.  Only 
princes  of  the  volost  could  exist  among  them,  like  the  prince  of 
Korosthenes  in  the  legend  of  Olga.  The  idea  of  the  unity  of  a 
tribe,  and  &  fortiori  the  unity  of  the  Russian  nation,  was  abso- 
lutely foreign  to  the  race.  The  ideas  of  government  and  of  the 
State  had  to  come  to  them  from  without. 


TOWNS — TRADE — AGRICULTURE, 

Nestor  declares  that  the  Russian  Slavs,  for  the  most  part, 
"  lived  in  forests  like  the  wild  beast."  Karamsin  and  Schloezer 
have  concluded  from  this  that  they  had  no  towns.  Now  there 
exist  a  number  of  monuments  in  Russia  which  have  for  long 
puz?led  archaeologists.  There  are  the  gorodichtchts  (from  gorod, 
towi  )  '-rclosures  formed  by  the  earth  being  thrown  up,  and  these 
we  find  invariably  on  the  steep  bank  of  a  watercourse,  or  on  a 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


43 


small  hill.  M.  Samokvassof,  who  has  explored  this  very  country 
of  the  Severians,  described  by  Nestor  as  living  wholly  in  forests, 
has  been  able  to  prove  that  these  gorodichtchts  are  the  oppida, 
the  primitive  towns  of  Russia.  In  the  government  of  Tcherni- 
gof  alone,  M.  Samokvassof  has  reckoned  160  ;  in  that  of  Koursk. 
50.  We  may  calculate  from  this  that  numbers  exist  in  Russia, 
and  that  every  volost  had  at  least  one.  About  these  earth-en- 
closures, which  were  capped  by  wooden  palisades  or  hedges  of 
osier,  and  were  the  common  means  of  defence  for  each  group  of 
families,  we  usually  find  grouped,  as  in  a  cemetery,  the  kourgans 
or  tumuli  of  the  dead. 

The  excavations  made,  either  in  \\iekourgans  or  in  the  soil  of 
the  gorodichtche's,  have  shown  us  the  Slavs  were  more  civilized 
than  Nestor  supposed.  Vessels  of  pottery,  tolerably  well  de- 
signed, iron  and  bronze,  gold  and  silver  objects,  glass,  false 
pearls,  rattles,  prove  that  they  had  a  certain  amount  of  trade, 
and  a  fairly  extensive  commerce,  particularly  with  Asia.  Orien- 
tal coins  have  been  dug  up,  dating  from  699,  or  near  two  hun- 
dred years  before  the  arrival  of  the  Varangians.  There  are  a 
great  number  of  these  coins  in  the  country.  Near  Novgorod  a 
vase  was  discovered,  containing  about  7000  roubles'  worth  of  this 
early  money.  The  fame  of  the  swords  made  by  the  Russian 
Slavs  extended  to  Arabia.  Nestor  relates  that  the  Khazars  im- 
posed a  tribute  of  swords  on  the  Polians.  When  the  latter 
brought  the  arms  to  the  Khazars,  they  were  afraid,  and  said  to 
their  princes,  "  Our  swords  have  only  one  edge — these  have  two. 
We  tremble  lest  one  day  this  people  should  levy  a  tribute  on  us 
and  other  tribes." 

Agriculture  was  the  favorite  occupation  of  the  Slavs.  Nearly 
all  their  deities  are  of  an  agricultural  character.  The  favorite 
heroes  of  their  epic  cycle,  Mikoula  and  Ilia,  were  the  sons  of 
laborers.  They  had  the  more  liking  for  field  life,  as  the  serfaga 
of  the  glebe  was  still  unknown  amongst  them.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  Germans  borrowed  the  plough  from  the  Slavs,  and  that 
the  German  name  of  pflug  is  derived  from  the  Slav ploug.  With 
the  wax  and  honey  of  their  hives,  the  corn  of  the  Tchernoziom, 
and  the  furs  of  the  north,  the  Russians  carried  on  a  great  trade. 
Their  need  of  strangers,  together  with  a  sociable  instinct,  natu- 
ral to  primitive  races,  made  them  very  hospitable ;  it  was  even 
permitted  to  steal  for  the  benefit  of  the  unexpected  guest.  A 
peaceful  race,  devoted  to  liberty,  music,  and  dancing,  appears 
in  the  idyllic  picture  painted  for  us  of  the  early  Slavs.  The 
Emperor  Maurice,  on  the  contrary,  who  had  had  dealings  with 
all  kinds  of  adventurous  tribes,  assures  us  that  they  were  war- 
like, cruel  in  battle,  full  of  savage  wiles,  able  to  conceal  them- 
selves in  places  where  it  seemed  impossible  their  bodies  could 


44 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


be  hiddeo,  or  to  lie  in  ambush  in  streams  for  hours  together,  the 
\ater  over  their  heads,  breathing  by  means  of  a  reed.  Their 
armor  was  defective,  they  had  no  breast-plates,  they  fought  on 
foot,  were  naked  to  the  waist,  and  had  for  weapons,  pikes,  large 
shields,  wooden  bows,  poisoned  arrows,  and  lassoes  to  catch  their 
victims.  This  sketch  specially  applies  to  the  invaders  of  the 
Roman  provinces  of  the  Danube.  It  is  probable  that  these  ag- 
ricultural races  had  in  general  a  military  organization  inferior  to 
that  of  their  Turkish  and  Scandinavian  neighbors  who  lived  by 
plunder.  The  imperfection  of  their  political  condition,  their 
minute  division  into  clans  and  volosts,  the  incessant  warfare  of 
canton  with  canton,  delivered  them  up,  defenceless,  to  their  in- 
vaders. Whilst  the  Slavs  of  the  south  paid  tribute  to  the  Kha- 
zars,  the  Slavs  of  Ilmen,  exhausted  by  their  divisions,  decided 
on  calling  in  the  Varangians.  "  '  Let  us  seek,'  they  said,  '  a 
prince  who  will  govern  us  and  reason  with  us  justly.'  Then," 
continues  Nestor,  "  the  Tchouds,*  the  Slavs  (Novgorod),  the 
Krivitches,  and  other  confederate  races,  said  to  the  princes  of 
Varangia,  '  Our  land  is  great  and  fruitful,  but  it  lacks  order  and 
justice  ;  come  and  take  possession,  and  govern  us.' " 

*  The  Tchouds  here  mentioned  are  rather  Slavs  who  had  colonized  the 
Tohoud  country  about  Pskof  and  Izborsk. 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   VARANGIANS  :    FORMATION     OF    RUSSIA ;     THE     FIRST   EXPEDI- 
TIONS   AGAINST   CONSTANTINOPLE,  862-972. 

The  Northmen  of  Russia — Origin  and  customs  of  the  Varangians — The  first 
Russian  princes:  Rurik,  Oleg,  Igor — Expeditions  against  Constantinople 
— Olga — Christianity  in  Russia — Sviatoslaf — The  Danube  disputed  be- 
tween the  Russians  and  Greeks. 


NORTHMEN    IN    RUSSIA — ORIGIN    AND   CUSTOMS    OF    THE   VARAN- 
GIANS. 

WHO  were  these  Varangians  ?  To  what  race  did  they  be- 
long ?  No  questions  in  the  early  history  of  Russia  are  more 
eagerly  debated.  After  more  than  a  century  of  controversy,  the 
various  views  have  been  reduced  to  three  : — 

1.  The  Varangians  were  of  Scandinavian    origin,  and  it  was 
they  who  imposed  the  name  of  Russia  on  the  Slav  countries.    A 
mosi  weighty  argument  in  support  of  this   theory   is  the  large 
number  of  Scandinavian  names  in   the  list  of  Varangian  princes 
reigning  in  Russia.     The  Emperor  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus, 
speaking  of  Russia,   makes  a  distinction  between  the  Slavs  and 
the  Russians  proper.     Describing  the  cataracts  of  the  Dnieper, 
he  gives   to  each  the  Russian  and   the   Slav   name.     Now  these 
Russian  names  may   nearly  all  be   understood  by  reference  to 
Scandinavian  roots.     Liutprand,   speaking  of  the  Russians,  ex- 
presses himself  in  these  terms  : — "  Greed  vacant  Russos  .  .  .  nos 
vero  Normannos"     The  Annals  of  Saint  JJcrtiuus  say,  that  the 
Emperor   Theophilus    recommended    some    Russian    envoys  to 
Louis  le  De*bonnaire,  but  he,    taking  them  for  Norman  spies, 
threw  them  into  prison.     Finally,  the  first  Russian  Code  of  Laws, 
compiled  by  laroslaf.  presents  a  striking  analogy  with  the  Scan- 
dinavian laws.     The  Partisans  of  this  opinion  place  the  mother 
country  of  the  Russians  in  Sweden,  where  they  point  particularly 
to  a  spot  called  Roslog,  and  associations  of  oarsmen  called  Ros- 
lagen.     At  the  present  day  the  Finns  call  the  Swedes  Rootzi. 

2.  The  Varangians   were   Slavs,  and   came   either  from  the 
Slav  shores  of  the   Baltic,  or  from   some    Scandinavian    i  eg  ion 
where  the  Slavs  had  founded  a  colony.     The   word   Russia   is 
not  of  Swedish  origin  ;  it  is  applied  very  early  to  the  country  of 
*Ko  nnieper.     To  come  from  f?r,i-ss  or  to  go  to  Rouss  are  ex- 


46  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

pressions  to  be  met  with  in  the  ancient  documents,  and  Rmtss 
there  signifies  the  country  of  Kief.  Arabic  writers  give  the 
name  of  Russians  to  a  nation  they  consider  very  numerous,  and 
they  mean  in  this  case,  not  Scandinavians,  but  indigenous 
Slavs. 

3.  The  Varangians  were  not  a  nation,  but  a  band  of  war- 
riors formed  of  exiled  adventurers,  some  Slavs,  other  Scandina- 
vians. The  partisans  of  this  opinion  show  us  the  Slav  and 
Scandinavian  races  from  very  early  times,  in  frequent  commer- 
cial and  political  relations.  The  leaders  of  the  band  were 
generally  Scandinavian,  but  part  of  the  soldiers  were  Slav. 
This  hypothesis,  which  diminishes  the  Norman  element  in  the 
Varangians,  serves  to  e.\j  lain  how  the  establishment  of  these 
adventurers  in  the  country  but  little  affected  the  Slavs  of  fhe 
Ilmen  and  the  Dnieper.  It  explains,  too,  the  rapid  absorption 
of  the  new  comers  in  the  conquered  race,  an  absorption  so  com- 
plete that  the  grandson  of  Rurik,  Sviatoslaf,  already  bears  a 
Slav  name,  while  his  great-grandson,  Vladimir,  remains  in  the 
memory  of  the  people  as  the  type  of  Slav  prince.  Whether  the 
Varangians  were  pure  Scandinavians,  or  whether  they  were 
mingled  with  Slav  adventurers,  it  seems  certain  that  the  former 
element  predominated,  and  that  we  may  identify  these  men 
from  the  North  with  the  sea-kings  so  celebrated  in  the  West 
during  the  decay  of  the  Carolings.  M.  Samokvassof  has  lately 
opened,  near  Tchernigof,  the  black  lomb  containing  the  bones 
and  arms  of  an  unknown  prince  who  lived  in  the  loth  century, 
and  was  probably  a  Varangian.  His  coat-of-mail  and  pointed 
helmet  completely  resemble  the  arms  of  the  Norman  warriors. 
The  Russian  princes  that  we  find  in  the  early  miniatures,  are 
clothed  and  armed  like  the  Norman  chiefs  in  the  Bayeux 
Tapestry  of  Queen  Matilda.  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that, 
in  our  own  age,  art  has  made  almost  identical  representations 
of  Rurik  on  the  monument  lately  erected  at  Novgorod,  and  of 
William  the  Conqueror  on  the  monument  at  Falaise.  The 
Varangians,  like  the  Normans,  astonished  the  nations  of  the 
South  by  their  reckless  courage  and  gigantic  stature.  "  They 
were  as  tall  as  palm-trees,"  said  the  Arabs.  Bold  sailors,  ad- 
mirable foot-soldiers,  the  Varangians  differed  widely  from  the 
mounted  and  nomad  races  of  Southern  Russia.  Hungarians, 
Khazars,  Patzinaks,  whose  tactics  were  always  Parthian.  The 
Russians,  according  to  Leo  the  Deacon,  who  was  an  eye-witness 
of  the  fact,  fought  in  a  compact  mass,  and  seemed  like  a  wall  of 
iron,  bristling  with  lances,  glittering  with  shields,  whence  rang 
a  ceaseless  clamor  like  the  waves  of  the  sea — the  famous  bar- 
liilus  (  \  barritus  of  tl  •  '  ns  of  Tacitus.  A  huge  shield 

covered  them   to   their  feet,  and.  when  they  fought  in  retreat, 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  47 

they  turned  this  enormous  buckler  on  their  backs,  and  became 
iii vulnerable.  The  fury  of  battle  at  last  made  them  beside 
themselves,  like  the  Bersarks.  Never,  says  the  same  author, 
were  they  seen  to  surrender.  When  victory  was  lost,  they 
stabbed  themselves,  for  they  held  that  those  who  died  by  the 
hand  of  an  enemy  were  condemned  to  serve  him  in  another  life. 
The  Greeks  had  for  long  highly  esteemed  these  heroes  worthy  of 
the  Eclcla.  Under  the  name  of  Ros  or  Varangians,  they  formed 
the  body-guard  of  the  Emperor,  and  figured  in  all  the  Byzantine 
armies.  In  the  expedition  of  902  against  Crete,  700  Russians 
took  part ;  415  in  that  of  Lombardy  in  925  ;  584  in  that  of 
Greece  in  949. 

The  Russian  Varangians  readily  took  the  pay  of  foreign 
nations  of  Novgorod  as  well  as  Byzantium.  This  is  one  more 
feature  of  resemblance  with  the  Normans  of  France,  whom  the 
Greek  emperors  also  employed  in  their  wars  with  the  Saracens 
of  Italy.  Sometimes,  instead  of  fighting  for  others,  they  made 
war  for  themselves.  This  was  the  case  with  the  Danes  in  Eng- 
land, the  Normans  in  Neustria,  the  descendants  of  Tancred  in 
Naples  and  Sicily,  the  companions  of  Rurik  in  Russia.  As  they 
were  usually  a  very  small  number,  they  blended  rapidly  with 
the  conquered  nations.  Thus  the  descendants  of  Rollo  quickly 
became  Frenchmen,  and  those  of  Robert  Guiscard,  Sicilians, 
hi  the  Varangian  bands,  Slavs  as  well  as  Scandinavians  were 
mixed  ;  but  we  likewise  know  that  in  the  bands  of  Northmen 
that  ravaged  the  country  of  France,  there  was  a  large  number 
of  Gallo-Romans,  renegades  from  Christianity,  who  thirsted 
more  for  pillage  and  murder  than  did  the  Vikings  themselves. 
This  mingling  of  the  adventurers  and  the  indigenous  race  ex- 
plains the  rapidity  with  which  both  the  Normans  of  Russia  and 
the  Normans  of  France  lost  their  language,  customs  and  re- 
ligion. The  Varangians  only  retained  one  thing,  their  military 
superiority,  the  habit  of  obeying  the  chosen  or  hereditary  chief. 
Into  the  Slav  anarchy  they  brought  this  element  of  warlike  and 
disciplined  force,  without  which  a  State  cannot  exist.  They  im- 
posed on  the  natives  the  amount  of  constraint  necessary  to  drag 
them  from  their  isolation  and  division  into  gorodichtches  and 
volosts.  The  Slavs  of  the  Danube  also  owe  their  constitution  to  a 
band  of  Finno-Bulgarian  adventurers  under  Aspar  Asparuch  ;  the 
Polish  Slavs  to  the  invasion  of  the  Liakhs  or  Lechites;  the 
Tcheques  to  the  Frank  Samo,  who  enabled  them  to  shake  off 
the  yoke  of  the  Avars. 

The  spontaneous  appeal  of  the  Slavs  to  the  Varangian 
princes  may  seem  to  us  strange.  We  might  believe  that  the 
annalist,  like  the  old  French  historians,  has  tried  to  disguise  the 
fact  of  a  conquest,  by  representing  that  the  Slavs  submitted 


48  HISlVRY  OF  RUSSIA. 

voluntarily  to  the  Varangians  of  Rurik,  as  the  Gauls  are  sup. 
posed  to  have  done  to  the  Franks  of  Clovis.  In  reality  there 
was  no  conquest,  a  statement  which  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
the  muncipal  organization  remained  intact,  that  the  retch/  con- 
tinued to  deliberate  by  the  side  of  the  prince,  the  local  army  to 
fight  in  conjunction  with  the  band  of  adventurers.  The  laws  of 
laroslaf  established  the  same  wer-gild  for  the  murder  of  either 
Slav  or  Varangian,  while  the  Merovingian  laws  recognize  a  great 
difference  between  a  Gallo-Roman  and  a  Frank.  The  defence 
of  the  country,  the  administration  of  justice,  and  the  collection 
of  the  tribute  were  the  special  cares  of  the  prince,  the  last  being 
considered  his  legitimate  reward.  He  played  in  the  Slav  towns 
a  role  similar  to  that  of  the  Italian  podestas  in  the  i5th  century, 
who  were  called  in  to  administer  justice  impartially,  or  that  of 
the  leaders  of  cotuiottieri,  to  whom  the  cities  entrusted  their 
defence. 

As  early  as  859  the  Varangians  exacted  tribute  from  the 
Slavs  of  Ilmen  and  the  Krivitches,  as  well  as  the  Tchouds,  Ves- 
ses,  and  Merians.  The  natives  had  once  expelled  the  Varan- 
gians, but  as  divisions  once  more  became  rife  among  them,  they 
decided  that  they  needed  a  strong  government,  and  recalled  the 
Varangians  in  Sfe.  Whether  the  name  of  Russia  or  of  Roi4$s 
was  originally  derived  from  a  province  of  Sweden,  or  from  the 
banks  of  the  Dnieper,  the  fact  remains  that  with  the  arrival  of 
the  Varangians  in  Slavonia,  the  true  history  of  Russia  commences 
It  was  the  icooth  anniversary  of  this  event  that  was  commem- 
orated at  Novgorod  in  1862.  With  the  Varangians  the  Russian 
name  became  famous  in  Eastern  Europe.  It  was  the  epoch  of 
brilliant  and  adventurous  expeditions ;  it  was  the  heroic  age  of 
Russia. 

The  Varangians  of  Novgorod  and  Kief  are  not  unworthy 
mates  of  the  Normans  of  the  West — the  bold  conquerors  who 
sought  their  fortunes  from  the  coasts  of  England,  Sicily,  and 
Syria.  They  are  to  be  found  nearly  at  the  same  time  under  the 
walls  of  Constantinople  and  at  the  foot  of  the  Caucasus,  where 
they  captured  the  town  of  Berdaa  from  the  Arabs  (944).  Nes- 
tor, the  monk  of  the  Petcherski  convent  at  Kief,  whose  history 
extends  to  1116,  adds  to  his  conscientious  accounts  many  legen- 
dary traits,  which  seem  an  echo  of  Scandinavian  jfl^/jand  early 
Russian  bylinas.  His  Annals,  which  Greek  and  French  author- 
ities enable  us  to  check,  and  which  are  tolerably  exact  in  all  es- 
sentials, seem  at  times,  like  the  first  books  of  Livy,  to  be  epic 
poetry  converted  into  prose. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


THE    EARLY  RUSSIAN  PRINCES  :    RURIK,  OLEG,    IGOR — EXPEDITIONS 
AGAINST    CONSTANTINOPLE. 

At  the  call  of  the  Slavs,  Rurik,  Sineous  and  Trpuvpr,  three 
Varangian  brothers,  whose  Scandinavian  names  signify  the 
Peaceful,  the  Victorious,  and  the  faithful,  gathered  together 
"  their  brothers  and  their  families,"  that  is,  their  warriors  or 
droujines  (resembling  the  truste  of  the  Frank  kings),  crossed  the 
Baltic  and  took  up  their  positions  on  the  borders  of  the  terri- 
tory they  were  summoned  to  defend.  Rurik,  the  eldest,  estab- 
lished himself  on  the  lake  Ladoga,  near  to  which,  on  the 
southern  side,  he  founded  the  city  of  Ladoga  ;  Sineous  on  the 
White  Lake  (Bieloe-Ozero),  in  the  Vess  country;  Trouvor  at 
Izborsk,  to  hold  the  Livonians  in  check.  When  the  two  latter 
died,  Rurik  established  himself  at  Novgorod,  where  he  built,  not 
a  town  as  Nestor  would  have  us  believe,  but  a  castle.  It  is 
thus  we  must  explain  the  pretended  foundation  by  his  orders  of 
Polotsk  and  of  Rostof.  which  had  existed  long  before  the  ar- 
rlvaTof  the  Varangians.  What  he  probably  did  was  to  trans- 
form ancient  gorodichtches  with  ramparts  of  mud  into  fortresses. 
Two  other  Varangians,  Askold  and  Dji,  who  were  not  of  the 
family  of  Rurik,  went  down  to  Kief,  and  reigned  over  the  Pol- 
ians.  It  was  they  who  began  the  expeditions  against  Tzargrad 
(Byzantium),  the  queen  of  cities.  With  200  vessels,  says  Nestor, 
they  entered  the  Sound,  in  old  Slav  Soud  (the  Bosphorus  or  the 
Golden  Horn),  and  besieged  Constantinople.  But  the  patriarch 
Photius,  according  to  the  Byzantine  accounts,  took  the  wonder- 
working robe  of  Our  Lady  of  Blachernes,  and  plunged  it  in  the 
waves.  A  fierce  tempest  instantly  arose,  and  the  whole  Russian 
fleet  was  destroyed. 

Rurik's  successor  was  not  his  son  Igor,  then  a  minor,  but  the 
eldest  member  of  the  family,  his  fourth  brother,  the  enterprising 
Oleg^  At  the  head  of  an  army  composed  of  Varangians,  Slavs 
and  Finns,  he  marched  to  the  south,  received  the  submission  of 
Smolensk  and  Loubetch,  and  arrived  under  the  walls  of  Kief, 
By  means  of  treachery  he  took  Askold  and  Dir  prisoners,  and 
put  them  to  death,  observing:  "You  are  neither  princes  your- 
selves, nor  of  the  blood  of  princes  ;  this  is  the  son  of  Rurik,"  point- 
ing to  Igor.  The  tomb  of  Askold  is  still  shown  near  Kief,  ^leg 
was  charmed  with  his  new  conquest,  and  took  up  his  abode  there, 
saying,  "  Let  Kief  be  the  mother  of  Russian  cities."  The  Va- 
rangian chief  held  communication  both  with  the  Baltic  anrt  the 
Black  Sea  by  means  of  Novgorod,  Smolensk,  and  Kief.  He 
subdued  the  Novgorodians,  the  Krivitches,  the  Merian»,  the 
Drevlians,  the  Severians.  the  Polians,  the  Radimitches,  and  thus 


5  0  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

united  nearly  all  the  Russian  tribes  under  his  sceptre.  It  was 
about  this  time  that  the  Hungarians  crossed  the  Dnieper  near 
Kief,  and  invaded  Pannonia.  The  Magyar  chronicles  speak  of 
their  having  defeated  Oleg ;  Nestor  is  silent  on  the  subject. 

In  907  Oleg  collected  a  large  army  from  among  the  tributary 
races,  equipped  2000  boats,  and  prepared  to  invade  Tzargrad 
by  land  and  sea.  Russian  legends  have  embellished  this  expe- 
dition with  many  wonderful  details.  Oleg  built  wheels  to  his 
vessels,  and  spread  their  sails  ;  blown  by  the  wind  they  reached 
the  gates  of  the  city.  Leo  VI.  the  Philosopher,  horror-stricken, 
agreed  to  pay  tribute,  but  the  Greeks  tried  to  get  rid  of  the 
Russians  by  offering  them  poisoned  food.  Oleg  divined  their 
perfidy.  He  imposed  a  heavy  contribution,  a  commerical  treaty 
advantageous  to  the  Russians,  and  suspended  his  shield  on  the 
Golden  Door. 

To  his  subjects  Oleg  was  more  than  a  hero.  Terror-stricken 
by  his  wisdom,  this  "foolish  and  idolatrous  people  "  looked  on 
him  as  a  sorcerer.  In  the  Scandinavian  sagas  we  find  many  in- 
stances of  chiefs,  such  as  Odin,  Gylf  and  Raude,  being  at  the 
same  time  great  warriors  and  great  magicians.  It  is  strange 
that  neither  Greek,  Frank,,  nor  Venetian  historians  allude  to 
this  campaign.  Nestor  cites  the  names  of  the  Russian  envoys 
who  negotiated  the  peace,  and  gives  the  text  of  the  treaty. 

A  magician  had  predicted  to  Oleg  that  his  favorite  horse 
would  cause  his  death.  It  was  kept  apart  from  him,  and  when, 
five  years  after,  the  animal  died,  he  insisted  on  being  taken  to 
see  its  body,  as  a  triumph  over  the  ignorance  and  imposture  of 
the  sorcerers.  But  from  the  skull  of  the  horse  issued  a  serpent 
which  inflicted  a  mortal  sting  on  the  foot  of  the  hero. 

IgojLled  a  third  expedition  against  Tzargrad.  The  Dnieper 
conducted,  as  it  were  of  ker  own  will,  the  Russian  flotilla  to  the 
seas  of  Greece.  Igor  had  10,000  vessels  according  to  the 
Greek  historians,  1000  according  to  the  more  probable  calcula- 
tion of  Liutprand.  This  would  allow  400,000  men  in  the  first 
case,  and  only  40,000  in  the  second.  Instead  of  attacking  the 
town,  he  cruelly  ravaged  the  Greek  provinces.  The  Byzantine 
admirals  and  generals  united,  and  destroyed  the  Russian  army 
in  a  series  of  engagements  by  the  aid  of  Greek  fire.  Nestor  has 
not  copied  the  numerous  details  the  Byzantine  historians  give  of 
this  battle,  but  we  have  the  evidence  of  Liutprand,  bishop  ol 
Cremona,  derived  from  his  father-in-law,  the  ambassador  of  the 
king  of  Italy  at  Constantinople,  who  saw  with  his  own  eyes  the 
defeat  of  Igor,  and  was  present  at  the  sacrifice  of  prisoners,  be 
headed  by  order  of  the  Kmperor  Komanus  Lecapenus.  In  94.} 
Igor  secured  the  help  of  the  foriii  '.uzinaks,  and  orga; 

an  expedition  to  avenge  his  defeat.     The  Greek  Emperor,  now 


fffSTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  5 1 

seriously  alarmed,  offered  to  pay  tribute,  and  signed  a  new  com- 
mercial treaty,  of  which  the  text  is  given  by  Nestor.  Byzantine 
and  Western  writers  do  not  mention  this  second  expedition  of 
Igor.  On  his  return  from  Russia,  he  was  assassinated  by  the 
Drevlians,  from  whom  he  had  tried  to  exact  tribute.  Leo  the 
Deacon,  a  Greek  writer,  says  he  was  torn  in  pieces  by  means  of 
two  young  trees,  bent  forcibly  to  the  earth,  and  then  allowed  to 
take  their  natural  direction  (945). 


OLGA — CHRISTIANITY    IN    RUSSIA. 

Olga.  widow  of  Igor,  assumed  the  regency  in  the  name  of 
her  son  Sviatoslaf,  then  a  minor.  Her  first  care  was  to  revenge 
herself  on  the  Drevlians.  In  Nestor's  account  it  is  impossible 
to  distinguish  between  the  history  and  the  epic.  The  Russian 
chronicler- relates  in  detail  how  the  Drevlians  sent  two  deputa- 
tions to  Olga  to  appease»her,  and  to  offer  her  the  hand  of  their 
prince,  and  how  she  disposed  of  them  by  treachery,  burying 
some  alive,  and  causing  others  to  be  stifled  in  a  bathing-house. 
Next,  says  Nestor,  she  besieged  their  city  Korosthenes,  and  she 
offered  them  peace  on  payment  of  a  tribute  of  three  pigeons 
and  three  sparrows  for  each  house.  Lighted  tow  was  tied  to 
the  tails  of  the  birds,  and  they  were  set  free.  They  flew  straight 
home  to  the  wooden  town,  where  the  barns  and  thatched  roofs 
instantly  took  fire.  Lastly  the  legend  relates  that  Olga  massa- 
cred part  of  the  Korosthenians,  and  the  rest  became  slaves. 

This  vindictive  Scandinavian  woman,  in  spite  of  all,  was  des- 
tined to  be  the  first  apostle  of  Russia.  Nestor  relates  that  she 
went  to  Tzargrad  to  the  Emperor  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus, 
astonished  him  by  the  strength  and  adroitness  of  her  characfer, 
and  was  baptized  under  the  name  of  Helen,  the  Greek  Tzar  be- 
ing her  godfather.  Only  two  facts  in  Nestor's  account  are 
historical,  namely,  the  reception  of  Olga  at  the  imperial  palace 
of  Constantinople,  related  in  detail  in  the  '  Book  of  Ceremo- 
nies,' and  perhaps  her  baptism.  If  the  Greek  historians  do  not 
mention  it  in  the  contemporary  chronicles,  it  is  because  they 
did  not  perceive  the  important  consequences  of  this  event.  If 
writers  allude  to  it  in  the  chronicles  of  the  nth  and  i2th  cen- 
turies, it  is  because  the  consequences  of  the  event  had  by  that 
time  been  completely  developed.  * 

Even  in  Russia  Olga's  conversion  passed  almost  unnoticed. 

Christianity  had  made  but  little  progress  in  that  country.     No 

doubt  since   Cyril  and  Methodius  had  invented  the  Slavonic 

alphabet,    and    transited    the  Holy  Books   for  the   Bulgaiv  .*«, 

*  A.  Rambaud,  '  L'Kmpire  grec  au  dixieme  siecle,'  p.  383. 


5*  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Christianity,  which  had  already  triumphed  over  some  Slav 
peoples,  was  being  handed  on  from  one  to  the  other.  Some 
missions  were  already  established  in  Russia.  The  Byzantines 
say,  that  alarmed  by  the  miraculous  defeat  of  Askold  and  Dir, 
and  seized  with  a  respectful  awe  of  the  Christian  talismans  of 
the  Patriarch  Photius,  the  Russians  "  sent  envoys  to  Constanti- 
nople to  ask  for  baptism."  The  Emperor  Basil  the  Macedonian 
then  gave  them  an  archbishop,  who  performed  a  miracle  before 
them.  He  threw  a  copy  of  the  Gospels  into  a  brazier,  and  drew 
it  out  unharmed.  According  to  this  account,  Askold  was  the 
first  Russian  prince  who  became  a  Christian.  Hence  the  wor- 
ship rendered  to  his  tomb  and  memory.  In  the  list  of  Byzar- 
tine  Eparchies  under  Leo  VI.,  the  Bishopric  of  Russia  figures, 
of  which  no  doubt  Kief  was  the  metropolis.  These  missions, 
however,  do  not  seem  to  have  been  very  successful ;  at  the  time 
of  the  treaty  concluded  between  Oleg  and  Leo  VI.,  the  Rus- 
sians still  swore  by  their  swords,  by  Voloss  and  Perun.  In  the 
treaty  concluded  by  Igor,  when  the  Russians  swore  at  Kief  be- 
fore the  Emperor's  envoy,  to  confirm  it,  some  ascended  the  hill 
of  Perun  and  performed  the  vows  in  the  ancient  way  ;  others 
went  to  the  chapel  of  Saint  Elias,  and  laid  their  hand  on  the 
Gospel.  There  existed  then,  in  the  "mother  of  Russian  cities," 
a  Christian  community,  though  a  very  weak  one,  if  it  is  true  that 
Olga  refused  to  be  baptized  in  Kief  "  for  fear  of  the  pagans." 
The  mass  of  warriors  kept  Christianity  at  a  distance.  In  their 
expeditions  against  the  Byzantine  provinces,  we  find  them  at- 
tacking monasteries  and  churches  by  preference,  giving  them  up 
to  (he  flames,  and  finding  a  peculiar  pleasure  in  torturing  priests 
and  monks  by  driving  nails  into  their  heads.  It  was  thus  that 
the  Normans  of  France,  the  fanatics  of  Odinism,  treated  the 
ecclesiastics  with  refinements  of  cruelty,  boasting  that  they 
"sang  them  the  Mass  of  lances."  "  When  one  of  the  soldiers 
of  the  Grand  Prince  wished  to  become  a  convert,"  says  Nestor, 
"  he  was  not  prevented,  but  only  laughed  at."  The  efforts  of 
Olga  for  the  conversion  of  her  son  Sviatoslaf,  who  had  assumed 
the  reins  of  government  on  reaching  his  majority,  were  fruitless. 
He  did  not  like  exposing  himself  to  the  ridicule  of  his  soldiers 
by  embracing  a  new  faith.  "My  men  will  mock  me,"  he  replied 
to  the  prayers  of  his  mother.  "  And  often,"  Nestor  affirms 
sadly,  "  he  became  furious  with  her."  Olga  vainly  assured  him 
that  if  he  would  be  baptized,  all  his  subjects  would  soon  follow 
his  example.  The  public  mind  was  not  yet  in  a  condition  for 
the  example  of  the  prince  to  be  all-powerful.  The  Ch,<siian 
Olga,  canonized  by  the  Church,  "  the  first  Russian  who  i  u<ntt« 
ed  to  the  heavenly  kingdom,"  remained  an  exception,  ''''2 
noticed  or  Bought  of  in  the  midst  of  the  pagan  aristocracy 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  53 


SVIATOSLAF — THE   DANUBE   DISPUTED    BETWEEN   GREEKS   AND 
RUSSIANS. 

The  reign  of  Sviatoslaf .$64-0 7  2 .  though  short,  was  signaliz- 
ed by  two  memoraBle  events :  the  defeat  of  the  Khazars,  and 
the  great  war  against  the  Bvzantine  Empire  for  the  possession 
of  Bulgaria.  About  the  former  event  the  annalist  gives  few  de- 
tails ;  but  Sviatoslaf  must  have  gained  a  complete,  victory,  if  it 
be  true  that  he  took  the  White  City,  capital  of  the  Khazar  Em- 
pire on  the  Don,  and  that  he  exacted  tribute  from  the  lasses  or 
Ossets  of  the  Caucasus,  and  the  Kassogans  or  Tcherkesses. 
The  Russians  had  no  reason  to  rejoice  in  their  success,  for  the 
decline  of  the  Khazars,  who  were  a  civilized  people,  favored  the 
progress  of  the  Patzinaks,  the  most  ferocious  o*  all  barbarians. 
The  Arabs  spoke  of  them  as  wild  beasts  and  Matthew  of  Edessa 
calls  them  "  a  greedy  people,  devouring  the  bodies  of  me*,, 
corrupt  and  impure,  bloody  and  cruel  beasts."  During  one  of 
the  frequent  absences  of  Sviatoslaf,  the  Patzin?ks  suddenly  ap- 
peared under  the  walls  of  Kief,  where  the  mother  and  children 
of  the  Grand  Prince  had  taken  refuge,  and  reduced  it  to  the 
last  extremity.  The  bold  manoeuvre  of  a  voievode  saved  the 
Kievians,  who  were  starving.  On  his  return  to  his  capital, 
Sviatoslaf  was  horrified  at  the  risks  it  had  encountered.  It 
was  at  the  hands  of  these  same  Patzinaks  that  he  was  one  day 
to  perish. 

On  the  subject  of  the  Bulgarian  war  the  narrative  of  Nestor 
is  confused  and  incomplete.  He  is  silent  about  the  Russian 
defeats,  and  legend  mixes  largely  with  historical  facts.  Nestor 
relates  that  the  Greeks  wished  to  ascertain  what  sort  of  man 
Sviatoslaf  was.  They  sent  him  gifts  of  gold  and  fine  tissues,  but 
the  Grand  Prince  looked  on  them  with  disdain,  and  said  to  his 
soldiers,  "  Take  them  away."  Then  they  sent  him  a  sword  and 
other  weapons,  and  the  hero  seized  them  and  kissed  them  en- 
thusiastically. The  Greeks  were  afraid,  and  said,  "  This  must 
be  a  fierce  man,  since  he  despises  wealth  and  accepts  a  sword 
for  tribute."  Happily  the  very  minute  account  of  Leo  the  Deacon 
appears  both  exact  and  impartial,  and  we  are  enabled  to  follow 
this  campaign,  where  a  chief  of  infant  Russia  crosses  that  Danube 
which  the  Russian  armies  are  not  again  to  see  till  the  reign  of 
Catherine  II.  and  Nicholas.  The  Greek  Emperor  Nicephorus 
Phocas,  in  order  to  avenge  himself  on  Peter  the  Tzar  of  Bulgaria, 
had  recourse  to  the  dangerous  expedient  so  frequent  in  Byzantine 
policy.  He  called -in  the  barbarians.  A  certain  Kalokyr  was 
sent  as  envoy  to  Sviatoslaf  with  a  sufficient  sum  of  money  to  allow 
him  to  take  the  field.  It  was  thus  that  these  two  Slav  races— 


54 


irrSTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


who  owned  their  constitutions,  one  to  the  Varangian  drouflna 
of  Rurik,  the  other  to  the  Turanian  droujina  of  Asparuch — were 
urged  to  conflict  by  Greek  diplomacy.  Sviatoslaf  descended  on 
Bulgaria  with  a  thoroughly-equipped  fleet,  reassured  the  Byzan- 
tines by  bringing  60,000  men  to  the$  assistance,  took  Pereiaslaf, 
the  Bulgarian  capital,  and  all  their  fortresses. 

The  Tzar  Peter  yielded  to  his  evil  destiny  at  the  moment  the 
Patzinaks  were  besieging  Kief.  This  lesson  was,  however,  lost 
on  Sviatoslaf.  He  was  everjoyed  at  his  conquest,  and  wished  to 
transport  his  capital  to  Pereiaslaf  on  the  Danube,  a  city  distinct 
from  Pereiaslaf  orPrislaf,  the  modern  Eski-Stamboul,  which  was 
the  capital  of  the  Bulgarians  in  the  loth  century.  "This  place,' 
he  said  to  his  mother,  "  is  the  central  point  of  my  possessions, 
and  abounds  in  wealth.  From  Greece  come  precious  stuffs,  wine, 
gold,  and  all  kinds  of  fruit  ;  from  the  country  of  the  Tcheques 
and  Hungarians,  horses  and  silver ;  from  Russia,  furs,  money, 
wax,  and  slaves."  This  resolution  of  Sviatoslaf  was  fraught  with 
immense  danger  to  the  Greek  Empire.  If  Byzantium  feared  the 
neighborhood  of  an  enfeebled  Bulgaria,  how  was  she  to  resist  a 
power  that  extended  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Balkans,  and  which 
could  add  to  the  Bulgarian  legions,  disciplined  after  the  Roman 
fashion  by  the  Tzar  Simeon,  the  Varangians  of  Scandinavia, 
the  Russian  Slavs,  the  Finnish  hordes  of  the  Vesses,  Tchouds, 
and  Merians,  and  even  the  light  cavalry  of  the  Patzinaks  ? 

The  formation  of  a  great  Slav  Empire  so  close  to  Constanti- 
nople would  have  been  rendered  more  formidable  by  the  ethno- 
graphical constitution  of  the  peninsula.  Ancient  Thrace  and 
ancient  Macedon  were  peopled  by  Slav  tribes,  some  of  whom 
were  offshoots  from  the  Russian  tribes ;  for  example,  Drego- 
vitches  and  Smolenes  were  to  be  found  there  as  much  as  at  Minsk 
and  Smolensk.  Thessaly,  Attica,  and  the  Peloponnesus  were 
invaded  by  these  emigrants,  who  became  the  subjects  of  the 
Greek  Empire.  The  famous  mountain  Taygetus,  in  Laconia, 
was  inhabited  by  two  Slav  tribes,  still  unsubdued — the  Milingiar.s 
and  the  Ezerites.  We  must  not  forget  that  Bulgaria  extended 
as  far  as  the  Ochrid,  and  that  the  ancient  provinces  under  the 
names  of  Croatia,  Servia,  and  Dalmatia,  had  become  almost 
entirely  Slav.  This  great  race  extended  then  almost  unbroken 
from  the  Peloponnesus,  already  called  by  the  Slav  name  of  Morea, 
to  Novgorod.  Thus,  if  the  town  of  Pereiaslaf  on  the  Danube 
had  really  become  the  centre  of  the  Russian  dominions,  accord- 
ing to  the  wish  of  Sviatoslaf,  the  Greek  race  and  the  Roman 
domination  in  the  Balkan  peninsula  would  speedily  have  come 
to  an  end.  The  Greek  emperors  had  been  able  to  resist  Askold, 
Oleg,  and  Igor.  Tlv  Russians  of  their  day  had  livt-d  far  ti  m 
the  Empire,  and  were  obliged  to  go  by  water,  which  limited 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


55 


greatly  the  number  of  their  armies.  With  their  canoes  hollowed 
out  of  the  trunks  of  trees,  such  as  are  now  to  be  seen  in  the 
Russian  villages,  they  had  to  descend  the  Dnieper,  disembark  at 
each  of  the  seven  cataracts,  carry  canoes  (monoxyles)  till  they 
could  re-embark  further  on,  and  all  the  while  gave  battle  to  the 
Patzinaks,  who  \vere  in  ambush  behind  the  rocks.  After  they 
had  escaped  these  perils,  they  had  to  brave  with  their  frail  barks 
the  tempests  of  the  Black  Sea,  the  powerful  Roman  galleys 
manned  by  the  best  sailors  of  the  East,  and  the  mysterious  Greek 
fire  which  filled  them  with  terror.  Few  reached  the  walls  of 
Constantinople,  and  their  defeat  was  certain.  Now,  on  the  con- 
trary, masters  of  the  Danube,  masters  of  the  land-route,  they 
could  precipitate  on  Constantinople  all  the  hordes  of  Scythia. 

Fortunately  for  the  Greek  Empire,  it  then  chanced  to  be  re- 
newing its  youth.  A  series  of  great  captains  succeeded  each 
other  on  this  tottering  throne.  In  Tohn  Zimisces  the  Russian 
prince  was  to  find  an  adversary  worthy  of  him.  Sviatoslaf,  re- 
called to  Bulgaria,  had  been  obliged  to  reconquer  it.  It  was  at 
this  moment  that  Zimisces  summoned  him  to  execute  the  condi- 
tions of  the  treaty  concluded  with  his  predecessor ;  that  is,  to 
evacuate  the  country.  Sviatoslaf,  who  had  just  taken  Philippopolis 
and  exterminated  the  inhabitants,  replied  haughtily  that  he  hoped 
soon  to  be  at  Constantinople.  Zimisces  then  began  his  prepara- 
tions. In  the  beginning  of  March  972,  he  despatched  a  fleet  to 
the  north  of  the  Danube,  and  himself  marched  to  Adrianople. 
He  surprised  the  Russians,  who  had  not  expected  him  so  soon, 
in  the  defiles  of  the  Balkans  ;  appeared  suddenly  under  the  walls 
of  Pereiaslaf,  defeated  a  body  of  many  thousand  Russians,  and 
obliged  them  to  retire  within  the  walls ;  then  he  gave  the  order 
for  the  assault,  and  took  the  town  by  escalade.  Eight  thousand 
Russians  shut  up  in  the  royal  castle  made  a  frantic  resistance, 
refused  to  capitulate,  and  perished  in  the  flames. 

When  the  news  of  this  disaster  reached  Sviatoslaf,  he  advanced 
with  the  greater  part  of  his  army  to  meet  the  Emperor,  and  came 
up  with  him  near  Dorostol  (Silistria).  The  Greek  historians 
make  the  Russian  army  to  have  consisted  of  at  least  60,000 
men  ;  Nestor  only  reckons  10,000.  Here  a  bloody  battle  took 
place,  and  twelve  times  victory  appeared  to  shift  from  one  side 
to  the  other.  The  solidity  of  the  Russian  infantry  defied  the 
charges  of  the  cavalry — "  the  Ironside "  (jcara^paKToi). 
At  last  they  gave  way  under  a  desperate  charge,  and  fell  back  on 
Dorostol.  There  they  were  besieged  by  the  Emperor,  and  dis- 
played a  wild  courage  in  their  sallies.  Even  their  women,  like 
the  ancient  Amazons,  or  the  heroines  of  the  Scandinavian  sagas 
or  Russian  songs,  took  part  in  the  melee.  The  Russians  slew 
themselves  rather  than  ask  for  mercy.  The  night  following  on 


56  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

an  action,  they  were  seen  to  leave  the  town  by  moonlight  to  burn 
their  dead.  On  their  ashes  they  sacrificed  prisoners  of  war,  and 
drowned  in  the  Danube  cocks  and  little  children.  Provisions 
failed,  and  Sviatoslaf  stole  out  one  stormy  night  with  canoes 
manned  by  2000  warriors,  rowed  round  the  Greek  fleet,  collected 
millet  and  corn  in  the  neighboring  villages,  and,  falling  suddenly 
on  the  Greeks,  re-entered  the  town  victoriously.  Zimisces  then 
took  measures  to  prevent  any  boat  from  getting  out.  This  epic 
siege  was  signalized  by  some  strange  combats.  One  of  the 
bravest  of  the  Russian  chiefs  was  slain  by  Apemas,  a  baptized 
Arab,  son  of  an  Emir  of  Crete,  and  himself  one  of  the  guards  of 
Zimisces. 

Sviatoslaf  resolved  to  make  one  last  effort,  and  issued  from 
the  town  with  all  his  forces.  Before  the  battle  Zimisces  proposed 
to  Sviatoslaf  to  terminate  the  war  by  a  duel  between  themselves. 
It  was  the  barbarian  who  refused  :  "  I  know  better  than  my 
enemy  what  I  have  to  do,"  said  Sviatoslaf.  "  If  he  is  weary  of 
life,  there  are  a  thousand  means  by  which  he  can  end  his  days." 
This  battle  was  as  obstinate  and  bloody  as  the  former.  Sviatoslaf 
came  near  being  slain  by  Apemas.  At  last  the  Russians  gave 
way,  leaving  on  the  battlefield,  says  Leo  the  Deacon,  15,500  dead 
and  20,000  shields.  The  survivors  retired  into  the  town.  They 
were  forced  to  treat.  Zimisces  allowed  them  to  retire  from  Bul- 
garia, and  they  swore  by  Perun  and  Voloss  never  again  to  invade 
the  empire,  but  to  help  to  defend  it  against  all  enemies.  If  they 
broke  their  vows,  might  they  "become  as  yellow  as  gold,  and  perish 
by  their  own  arms."  Nestor  gives  us  the  text  of  this  convention, 
which  was  really  a  capitulation,  and  confirms  the  account  of  the 
Greek  historians  rather  than  his  own.  These  relate  that  Zimisces 
sent  deputies  to  the  Patzinaks  to  beg  them  to  grant  a  free  passage 
to  the  remnant  of  the  Russian  army.  It  is  certain  that  the  barbar- 
ians awaited  the  Russians  at  the  Cataracts,  or porogs  of  the  Dnie- 
per. They  killed  Sviatoslaf,  cut  off  his  head,  and  his  skull  was 
used  by  their  Prince  Kouria  as  a  drinking-cup.  Sviatoslaf  was,  in 
E;>ite  of  his  Slav  name,  the  very  type  of  a  Varangian  prince  of 
the  intrepid,  wily,  and  ambitious  Northmen.  Nestor  boasts  his 
good  faith.  When  he  wished  to  make  war  on  a  people,  he  sent  to 
warn  them.  "  I  march  against  you,"  he  said. 

After  the  surrender  of  Dorostol,  he  had  an  interview  with  his 
enemy  Zimisces.  Leo  the  Deacon  profits  by  the  occasion  to 
give  us  his  portrait.  The  Emperor  being  on'  horseback  by  the 
shore,  Sviatoslaf  approached  him  by  boat,  handling  the  oar  like 
his  companions.  He  was  of  middle  height,  but  very  robust  ;  he 
had  a  wide  chest,  a  thick  neck,  blue  eyes,  thick  eyebrows,  a  flat 
nose,  long  mustaches,  a  thin  beard,  and  a  tuft  of  hair  on  his 
shaven  head  as  a  mark  of  his  nobility.  He  wore  a  gold  ring  in 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


57 


one  of  his  ears,  ornamented  with  rubies  and  two  pearls. 
Let  us  notice  this  portrait  ;  we  shall  have  to  search  far  into 
Russian  annals  to  find  another.  Between  the  description  given 
by  Leo  the  Deacon  and  those  of  the  Russian  annalists,  there 
is  the  same  difference  as  between  the  eikon  of  a  saint  and  an 
authentic  likeness. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CLOVES  AND  CHARLEMAGNE  OF  THE  RUSSIANS:  SAINT  VLADIMIR 
AND  IAROSLAF  THE  GREAT   972-1054. 

Vladimir  (972-1015  ) — Conversion  of  the  Russians — laroslaf  the  Great  (1016- 
1054 — Union  of  Russia — Splendor  of  Kief — Varangian-Russian  society  at 
the  time  of  laroslaf — Progress  of  Christianity — Social,  political,  literary, 
and  artistic  results. 


VLADIMIR  (972-1015) — CONVERSION  OF  THE  RUSSIANS. 

THE  Slav  tribes  owe  their  organization  to  a  twofold  conquest — 
a  military  conquest  which  came  from  the  North,  and  an  ecclesias- 
tical conquest  which  came  from  the  South.  The  Varangians 
sent  them  chiefs  of  war,  who  welded  their  scattered  tribes 
into  a  nation  ;  the  Byzantines  sent  missionaries,  who  united  the 
Slavs  among  themselves  and  to  their  civilized  neighbors  by  the 
bonds  of  a  common  religion. 

The  man  destined  to  conclude  the  work  of  propagandism  be- 
gun by  Olga  did  not  at  first  seem  fitted  for  this  great  task.  Vladi- 
mir, like  Clovis,  was  at  first  nothing  but  a  barbarian — wily, 
voluptuous,  and  bloody.  Only  while  Clovis  after  his  baptism  is 
not  perceptibly  better  than  he  was  before,  and  becomes  the 
assassin  of  his  royal  Prankish  relations,  the  Russian  annalist 
seems  to  wish  to  establish  a  contrast  between  the  life  led  by 
Vladimir  prior  to  his  conversion  and  the  life  he  led  after  it. 
Sviatoslaf  left  three  sons :  laropojk  at  Kief,  Qleg  ruler  of  the 
Drevlians,  Vladimir  at  Novgorod.  In  the  civil  wars  which 
followed,  and  which  recall  the  bloody  Merovingian  anarchy,  larc- 
polk  slew  Oleg,  and  in  his  turn  died  by  the  hand  of  Vladimir. 
He  fell  in  love  with  Rogneda,  laropolk's  betrothed,  and  demand- 
ed her  in  marriage  from  the  Varangian  Rogvolod,  who  ruled  over 
Polotsk.  The  princess  answered,  that  she  would  never  marry 
the  son  of  a  slave,  in  allusion  to  Vladimir's  mother  having  been 
a  servant,  though  he  himself  had  always  been  treated  by  his 
father  as  his  brother's  equal.  Maddened  by  this  insult,  Vladimir 
sacked  Polotsk,  killed  Rogvolod  and  his  two  sons,  and  forced  Rog- 
nc<la  to  marry  him.  After  the  murder  of  laropolk,  Vladimir  also 
th-  \\ife  whom  la;'  p  >ik  L.tJ  left  enceinte,  a  bountiful  Greek 
nun,  captured  in  an  expedition  against  Byzantium.  These  two  wo- 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA .  59 

men  he  had  deprived,  one  of  her  husband,  the  other  of  her  father 
and  brothers.  He  had,  besides,  a  Bohemian  and  a  Bulgarian 
wife,  and  another,  all  of  whom  bore  him  sons.  Finally  this  bas« 
tard,  this  "  son  of  a  slave,"  was  so  abandoned  in  his  profligacy, 
that  he  kept  300  concubines  at  Vychegorod,  3000  at  Bielgorod, 
near  Kief,  and  200  at  Berestof.  Lusting  no  less  after  war  and 
plunder,  he  reconquered  Red  Russia  from  the  Poles,  quelled  a 
revolt  of  the  Viatitches  and  Radimitches,  and  exacted  tribute 
from  the  Lithuanian  latvaguians,  and  Livonian  tribes  of  Letts 
or  Finns. 

The  soul  of  the  sensual  and  passionate  barbarian  was  trou- 
bled, notwithstanding,  by  religious  aspirations.  At  first  he 
turned  to  the  Slav  gods,  and  his  reign  was  inaugurated  by  anew 
growth  of  paganism.  On  the  high  sandy  cliffs  of  Kief,  which 
tower  above  the  Dnieper,  he  erected  idols  ;  among  them  one  of 
Perun,  with  a  head  of  silver  and  a  beard  of  gold.  Two  Varan- 
gians, father  and  son,  both  Christians,  were  stabbed  at  the  feet 
of  Perun.  But  the  day  of  the  ancient  gods  was  passed;  Vlad- 
imir was  undergoing  the  religious  crisis  in  which  all  Russia 
labored.  He  felt  other  faiths  were  necessary  to  him  ;  so,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  Nestor,  he  took  it  into  his  head,  like 
the  Japanese  of  to-day,  to  institute  a  search  after  the  best  re- 
ligion. His  ambassadors  forthwith  visited  Mussulmans,  Jews, 
and  Catholics :  the  first  represented  by  the  Bulgarians  of  the 
Volga,  the  second  probably  by  the  Khazars  or  the  Jewish  Khar- 
aites,  the  third  by  the  Poles  and  Germans.  Vladimir  declined 
Islamism,  which  prescribed  circumcision  and  forbade  "  the  wine, 
which  was  dear  to  the  Russians  ; "  Judaism,  whose  disciples 
wandered  through  the  earth;  and  Catholicism,  whose  cere- 
monies appeared  wanting  in  magnificence.  The  deputies  that 
he  sent  to  Constantinople,  on  the  contrary,  returned  awe- 
stricken.  The  splendors  of  Saint  Sophia,  the  brilliancy  of  the 
sacerdotal  vestments,  the  magnificence  of  the  ceremonies, 
heightened  by  the  presence  of  the  Emperor  and  his  Court,  the 
patriarch  and  the  numerous  clergy,  the  incense,  the  religious 
songs,  had  powerfully  appealed  to  the  imagination  of  the  bar- 
barians. One  final  argument  triumphed  over  the  scruples  of 
Vladimir.  "  If  the  Greek  religion  had  not  been  the  best,  your 
grandmother  Olga,  the  wisest  of  mortals,  would  not  have 
adopted  it,"  said  the  boyards.  The  proud  Vladimir  did  not  in- 
tend to  beg  for  baptism  at  the  hands  of  the  Greeks — he  would 
conquer  it  by  his  own  arms,  and  ravish  it  like  a  prey.  He  de- 
scended into  the  Taurid  and  besieged  Cherson,  the  last  city  of 
this  region  that  remained  subject  to  the  Emperors.  A  certain 
A nastasius,  possibly  from  religious  motives,  betrayed  his  coun- 
try. Rendered  prouder  than  ever  by  this  important  conquest, 


6o  ffIS  TO K  Y  OF  R  USSTA. 

Vladimir  sent  an  embassy  to  the  Greek  Emperors  Basil  and 
Constantine,  demanding  their  sister  Anne  in  marriage,  and 
threatening,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  march  on  Constantinople;  It 
was  not  the  first  time  the  barbarians  had  made  this  proposal  to 
the  Greek  Caesars,  and  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus  himself 
teaches  his  successors  how  to  get  rid  of  these  inconvenient  de- 
mands. But  on  this  occasion  the  Emperors,  who  were  occupied 
with  revolts  in  the  interior,  thought  themselves  driven  to  con- 
sent, on  condition  that  Vladimir  was  baptized.  It  was  in  Cher- 
son  that  the  Russian  prince  received  baptism,  and  celebrated 
his  marriage  with  the  heiress  of  the  Emperors  of  Rome.  The 
priests  he  brought  to  Kief  were  his  captives ;  the  sacred  orna- 
ments, the  holy  relics  with  which  he  enriched  and  sanctified  his 
capital,  were  his  booty.  When  he  returned  to  Kief  it  was  as  an 
Apostle  (Isapostolos),  but  as  an  armed  Apostle  that  he  cate- 
chized his  people.  The  idols  were  pulled  down  amid  the  tears 
and  fright  of  the  people.  Perun  was  flogged  and  thrown  into 
the  Dnieper.  They  still  show  on  the  side  of  the  Kievan  cliffs 
the  rock  called  "  The  Devil's  Leap  ; "  and  further  away,  the 
the  place  where  Perun  was  thrown  up  by  the  waters  on  the 
shore.  The  people  instantly  rushed  to  worship  him,  but  the 
soldiers  of  Vladimir  cast  him  back  into  the  river.  Then,  by 
Vladimir's  order,  all  the  Kievans,  men  and  women,  masters  and 
slaves,  old  people  and  little  children,  plunged  naked  into  the 
consecrated  waters  of  the  old  pagan  stream,  while  the  Greek 
priests  standing  on  the  bank  with  Vladimir  read  the  baptismal 
service.  After  a  sturdy  resistance,  the  Novgorodians  were  in 
like  manner  forced  to  hurl  Perun  into  the  Volkhoff,  and  enter  it 
themselves. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  Russians  had  not  lost  all 
recollections  of  their  ancient  gods,  and  that  nature  was  still  the 
home  of  a  whole  world  of  deities.  A  long  time  had  to  pass 
before  Christianity  could  penetrate  into  their  hearts  and  cus- 
toms. M.  Bouslaef  assures  us  that,  even  in  the  i2th  century, 
Christian  rites  were  only  practised  by  the  higher  classes.  The 
peasants  kept  their  old  pagan  ceremonies,  and  continued  to 
contract  their  marriages  "  around  the  bush  of  broom."  They 
preserved  even  longer  their  faith  in  magicians  and  sorcerers, 
who  were  often  of  more  authority  than  the  priests.  Vladimir,  at 
any  rate,  Wished  to  prepare  the  transformation.  It  does  not 
appear  that  he  persecuted  the  idolaters,  but  he  occupied  him- 
self in  adorning  the  churches  of  his  capital,  which  he  had  shorn 
of  its  idols.  On  the  spot  where  Perun  stood  he  built  the  church 
of  Saint  Basil,  the  Greek  name  which  he  had  taken  at  his  bap- 
tism. On  the  place  where  the  two  Varangian  martyrs  had  been 
slain  by  his  orders  he  raised  the  church  of  the  Dtdatine  or  the 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  £  j 

Dime,  embellished  and  ornamented  with  Greek  inscriptions  by 
artists  who  came  from  the  South.  He  founded  schools,  where 
boys  studied  the  holy  books  translated  into  Slavonic,  but  he  was 
obliged  to  compel  the  attendance  of  the  children,  whose  parents, 
convinced  that  writing  was  a  dangerous  kind  of  magic,  shed  tears 
of  despair.  Nestor  cannot  sufficiently  praise  the  reformation  of 
Vladimir  after  his  baptism.  He  was  faithful  to  his  Greek  wife, 
he  no  longer  loved  war,  he  distributed  his  revenues  to  the 
churches  and  to  the  poor,  and,  in  spite  of  the  increase  of  crime, 
hesitated  to  inflict  capital  puhishment.  "  I  fear  to  sin,"  he  re- 
plied to  his  councillors.  It  was  the  bishops  who  had  to  recall 
to  him  the  fact  that  "  criminals  must  be  chastised,  though  with 
discretion,"  and  that  the  country  must  not  be  left  a  prey  to  the 
Patzinaks.  Vladimir,  who  reminded  us  formerly  of  a  Northman 
of  the  type  of  Robert  the  Devil,  suddenly  becomes  the  "  good 
King  Robert  "  of  Russia. 

His  wars  with  the  Patzinaks  are  recorded  by  Nestor  with  all 
kinds  of  episodes  borrowed  from  the  epic  poetry.  There  is  the 
Russian  champion  who  tears  in  pieces  the  furious  bull,  or  stifles 
a  Patzinak  giant  in  his  arms ;  there  are  the  inhabitants  of  Biel- 
gorod,  who,  having  been  reduced  to  famine  by  the  barbarians, 
let  down  into  wells  two  large  caldrons,  one  full  of  hydromel  and 
the  other  of  meal,  to  make  the  Patzinaks  believe  these  were  nat- 
ural productions  of  the  soil.  We  see  in  the  popular  songs  of 
what  a  marvellous  cycle  of  legends  Vladimir  has  become  the 
centre  ;  but  in  these  bylinas  he  is  neither  Vladimir,  the  Baptist, 
nor  the  Saint  Vladimir  of  the  orthodox  Church,  but  a  solar 
hero,  successor  of  the  divinities  whom  he  destroyed.  To  the 
people,  still  pagans  at  heart,  Vladimir  is  always  the  "  Beautiful 
Sun  "  of  Kief. 


IAROSLAF    THE    GREAT     (1016-1054) — UNION   OF    RUSSIA SPLEN- 
DOR   OF    KIEF. 

Vladimir  died  in  1015,  leaving  a  large  number  of  heirs  by 
his  numerous  wives.  The  partition  that  he  made  between  them 
of  his  states  tells  us  what  was  the  extent  of  Russia  at  that  epoch. 
To  laroslaf  he  gave  Novgorod  ;  to  Isiaslaf,  son  of  Rogneda,  and 
grandson  of  the  Varangian  Rogvolod,  Polotsk  ;  to  Boris,  Rostof  ; 
to  Gleb,  Mourom  (these  two  principalities  were  in  the  Finn 
country)  ;  to  Sviatoslaf,  the  Drevlians  ;  to  Vsevolod,  Vladimir 
in  Volhynia  ;  to  Mstislaf,  Tmoutorakan,  the  Tamatarchia  of  the 
Greeks;  finally,  to  his  nephew  Sviatopolk,  the  son  of  his  brother 
and  victim  laropolk,  the  principality  of  Tourof,  in  the  country 
of  Minsk,  founded  by  a  Varangian  named  Tour,  who  did  not  be- 


6»  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

long  to  the  "  blood  of  princes  "  any  more  than  Askold  and  Dir. 
The  history  of  Vladimir's  successors  recalls  that  of  the  heirs  of 
Clovis.  The  murder  of  the  sons  of  Clodomir  is  paralleled  by 
the  assassination  of  Boris  and  Gleb,  sons  of  Isapostolos,  by  the 
order  of  Sviatopolk,  who  usurped  the  throne  of  Kief.  His  two 
victims  were  canonized,  and  henceforth  became  inseparable,  and 
are,  as  it  were,  the  Dioscuri  of  orthodoxy.  The  prince  of  the 
Drevlians  perished  by  the  same  hand.  laroslaf  resolved  to 
avenge  his  brothers  and  to  save  himself.  At  this  moment,  how- 
ever, he  had  alienated  his  Novgorodian  subjects,  having  en- 
ticed the  principal  citizens  into  his  castle,  and  then  treacher- 
ously slain  them.  When  he  learnt  the  crimes  of  Sviatopolk,  he 
trembled  for  his  own  life,  and  threw  himself  on  the  generosity 
of  those  he  had  so  cruelly  outraged.  He  wept  for  his  sins  be- 
fore them,  and  besought  their  help.  "  Prince,"  replied  the 
Novgoroclians,  with  one  voice,  "  you  have  destroyed  our  breth- 
ren, but  we  are  ready  to  fight  for  you."  After  a  bloody  war,  in 
which  Boleslas  the  Brave,  king  of  Pojand  took  part,  the  usurper 
fled,  and  died  miserably  in  exile.  laroslaf  had  still  to  defend 
himself  against  the  Prince  of  Polotsk  and  Mstislaf  of  Tmou- 
torakan.  The  latter  had  acquired  great  fame  from  his  wars 
with  the  Khazars,  whom,  with  the  aid  of  the  Greek  Emperor, 
Basil  II.,  he  finally  annihilated,  and  with  the  Tcherkess,  whose 
chief,  a  giant  named  Rhededia,  he  slew  in  single  combat.  At 
last,  laroslaf  remained  the  sole  master  of  Russia,  and  reigned 
gloriously  at  Kief.  He  recalls  Charles  the  Great  by  some  suc- 
cessful wars,  but  particularly  by  his  code  of  laws,  his  taste  for 
building,  and  his  love  of  letters  in  a  barbarous  age.  He  owes 
part  of  his  reputation  to  the  anarchy  which  followed  his  death, 
and  which  caused  his  reign  to  be  regretted  as  the  climax  of 
Kievian  greatness. 

In  Poland  laroslaf  revenged  on  the  son  of  Boleslas  the 
Brave  the  invasions  of  his  father,  and  took  from  him  the  towns 
of  Red  Russia.  He  fought  a  bloody  battle  with  the  Patzinaks 
under  the  walls  of  Kief,  and  in  their  flight  part  of  the  van- 
quished barbarians  were  drowned  in  crossing  the  rivers.  It  was 
as  fatal  a  blow  to  the  Patzinaks  as  that  struck  by  Sviatoslaf  at 
the  Khazars  :  they  never  recovered  it.  But  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  defeat  of  the  Khazars  opened  the  way  to  the  Pat- 
zinaks, the  ruin  of  the  Patzinaks  opened  the  way  to  the  Polovtsi. 
The  steppes  of  the  Don  were  incessantly  filled  by  new  hordes 
from  Asia.  laroslaf  also  fought  against  the  Finnish  and  Lithu- 
•mian  tribes.  In  the  country  of  the  Tchouds  he  founded  lourief 
(Saint  George)  on  the  Embach,  near  the  Pei'pus  (the  Germans 
called  if  -untry  of  the  Merians,  he  founded 

laroslavl  on  the  Upper  Volga,     Finally,  his  reign  was  marked 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  63 

by  a  new  war  with  Greece,  brought  on  by  mercantile  disputes. 
His  son  Vladimir,  leader  of  the  expedition,  rejected  proudly  the 
propositions  of  the  Emperor  Constantine  Monomachus.  A 
naval  battle  was  fought  in  the  Bosphorus ;  Greek  fire  and  the 
tempests  of  the  Black  Sea  dispersed  the  Russian  armament. 
Part  of  the  army,  a  body  of  8000  men,  which  was  retreating 
into  Russia  by  land,  was  attacked  and  exterminated  by  a  Greek 
force  :  800  prisoners  were  sent  to  Constantinople,  where  their 
eyes  were  put  out.  Notwithstanding  the  bonds  of  religion  which 
had  been  riveted  between  the  Byzantines  and  their  neophytes 
on  the  Dnieper,  the  Russians  were  ahvnys  dreaded  by  Constan- 
tinople. An  inscription  hidden  in  the  boot  of  one  of  the  eques- 
trian statues  of  Byzantium  announced  that  the  day  would  come 
when  the  capital  of  the  empire  would  fall  a  prey  to  the  men  of 
the  North.  The  decay  of  Kievian  Russia  after  the  death  of 
laroslaf,  adjourned  or  nullified  the  fulfilment  of  this  prophecy. 

The  legislation  of  the  Russian  Charlemagne  is  comprised  in 
the  Code  entitled  JZojisskaui  PmrJa  the  Russian  right  or  verity. 
Tbis_Cod£  strangely  recalls  that  of  Scandinavia.  It  consecrates 
private  revenge,  andthe  pursuit  or  an  "assassin  by  all  the  rela- 
tives of  the  dead  ;  it  fixes  the  ivergeld  for  different  crimes,  as 
well  as  the  fine  paid  into  the  royal  treasury  ;  it  allows  the  judi- 
cial duel ;  the  ordeal  by  red-hot  iron  and  boiling  water ;  the 
oath  corroborated  by  those  of  the  compurgatores  ;  it  also  estab- 
lished by  the  side  of  the  judges  nominated  by  the  Prince,  a  jury 
of  twelve  citizens.  In  the  "  Rousskai'a  Pravda,"  there  is  not, 
properly  speaking,  any  criminal  law.  Capital  punishment,  death 
by  refinements  of  cruelty,  corporal  chastisement,  torture  to 
wring  out  confessions,  even  a  public  prison,  were  all  unknown. 
These  are  Scandinavian  and  German '  principles  in  all  their 
purity.  At  this  period  Russia  had  almost  the  same  laws  as  the 
West. 

laroslaf  occupied  a  glorious  place  among  the  princes  of  his 
time.  His  sister  Mary  was  married  to  Casimir,  king  of  Poland ; 
his  daughters  also  became  the  wives  of  kings  :  Elizabeth,  of 
Harold  the  Brave,  king  of  Norway;  Anne,  of  Henry  I.,  king  of 
France  ;  Anastasia,  of  Andrew  I.,  king  of  Hungary.  Of  his 
sons,  Vladimir,  the  eldest,  is  said  to  have  married  Githa,  daugh- 
ter of  Harold,  king  of  England ;  Isiaslaf,  a  daughter  of  Micislas 
II.,  king  of  Poland  ;  Vseslaf,  a  Greek  princess,  daughter  of 
Constantine  Monomachus;  Viatcheslaf  and  Igor,  two  German 
princesses.  laroslaf  gave  an  asylum  to  the  proscribed  princes, 
Saint  Olaf,  king  of  Norway,  and  his  two  sons ;  a  prince  of 
Sweden  ;  Edwin  and  Edward,  sons  of  Edmund  Ironside,  king  of 
England,  expelled  from  their  ccimtrv  by  Knut  the  Great.  The 
Varangian  dynasty  was  thus  mingled  with  the  families  of  the 


64  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Christian  princes,  and  we  may  say  of  the  Russia  of  the  nth 
century,  what  we  can  no  longer  say  of  the  Russia  of  the  i6th 
century,  that  she  was  a  European  State. 

To'  Kief  was  destined  the  lot  of  Anchen,  the  capital  of 
Charles  the  Great,  which,  glorious  in  his  life,  after  his  death  fell 
into  decay.  Under  laroslaf,  kief  reached  the  highest  pinnacle 
of  splendor.  He  wished  to  make  his  capital  the  rival  of  Con- 
stantinople ;  like  Byzantium,  she  had  her  cathedral  and  her 
Golden  Gate.  The  Grand  Prince  also  founded  the  monastery 
of  Saint  Irene,  of  which  only  a  few  ruins  now  remain,  and  those: 
of  Saint  George  and  the  Catacombs,  the  latter  made  illustriorn 
by  the  virtues  of  its  first  superiors,  Saint  Theodosius  and  Saint 
Antony.  He  repaired  the  church  of  the  Dime,  and  surrounded 
the  city  with  ramparts.  The  population  began  to  increase,  ard 
the  lower  town  to  grow  at  the  feet  of  the  upper.  Kief,  siti 
on  the  Dnieper,  the  great  road  to  Byzantium,  seemed  to  be  part 
of  Greece.  Adam  of  Bremen  calls  her  oemula  sceptri  Constantino- 
politani  et  clarissimum  decus  Gracice,  She  was  the  rendezvous 
of  the  merchants  from  Holland,  Hungary,  Germany,  and  Scandi- 
navia, who  lived  in  separate  quarters  of  the  town.  She  had 
eight  markets,  and  the  Dnieper  was  constantly  covered  with 
merchant-ships.  laroslaf  had  not  enough  Greek  artists  to  dec- 
orate all  the  churches,  nor  enough  priests  to  serve  them,  for 
Kief  was  at  that  time  "  the  city  of  400  churches,"  so  much  ad- 
mired by  the  writers  of  the  West.  What  she  was  then  we  may 
partly  realize  by  seeing  what  she  is  still  at  certain  seasons  of 
the  year.  The  Monastery  of  the  Catacombs,  with  the  incor- 
ruptible bodies  of  its  ascetics  and  thaumaturges,  some  of  whom 
bricked  themselves  up  while  living,  in  the  cell  which  was  to  be 
their  sepulchre,  draws  annually,  and  especially  at  the  Assump- 
tion, 50,000  pilgrims.  Saint  Sophia  was  the  pride  of  Kief  ;  the 
mosaics  of  the  time  of  laroslaf  still  exist,  and  the  traveller  may 
admire  on  the  "  indestructible  wall  "  the  colossal  image  of  the 
Mother  of  God,  the  Last  Supper,  with  a  double  apparition  of 
Christ,  presenting  to  six  of  His  disciples  His  body,  and  to  six 
others  His  blood,  the  images  of  Saints  and  Doctors,  the  Angel 
of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Virgin.  The  frescoes  which  have 
been  preserved  or  carefully  restored  are  still  numerous,  and 
everywhere  cover  the  pillars,  the  walls,  and  the  vaults  floored 
with  gold.  The  inscriptions  are  not  in  Slavonic,  but  in  Greek, 
laroslaf  did  not  forget  Novgorod,  his  first  residence,  and  there 
he  built  another  Saint  Sophia,  one  of  the  most  precious  monu- 
ments of  the  Russian  past.  Like  Charles  the  Great,  he  set  up 
schools.  Vladimir  had  founded  one  at  Kief;  laroslaf  instituted 
that'  x  -od  for  300  boys.  He  >  '  ';  singers  from 

Byzantium,  who   taught  the  Russian  clergy.     Coins  were  struck 


ffIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  65 

for  him  by  Greek  artists,  with  his  Slavonic  name  in  Slav  on  one 
side,  and  his  Christian  name,  loury  (George),  on  the  other 
Like  all  other  barbarian  neophytes,  laroslaf  pushed  devotion 
into  superstition.  He  caused  the  bones  of  his  uncles,  who  had 
died  unconverted,  to  be  disinterred  and  baptized.  He  died  in 
1054,  and  his  stone  sarcophagus  is  one  of  the  most  precious 
ornaments  of  Saint  Sophia. 


VARANGIAN-RUSSIAN  SOCIETY  AT  THE  TIME   OF    JiAROSLAF. 

Varangian-Russian  society  presents  more  than  one  analogy 
with  the  society  which  was  developed  in  Gaul  after  the  Fra;;k 
conquest.  The  government  of  the  Varangian  princes  some- 
what resembled  that  of  the  Merovingian  kings. 

The  germ  of  the  future  State  lay  in  the  droujina,  the  band 
of  warriors  surrounding  the  prince,  as  in  Gaul  it  lay  in  the 
tntste.  The  droujinniki,  like  the  antrustions,  were  the  faithful 
followers,  the  men  of  the  prince.  They  formed  his  guard,  and 
were  his  natural  council  in  all  affairs,  public  or  private.  He 
could  constitute  them  a  court  of  justice,  nominate  them  imlivM- 
ually  vo'ievodes  or  governors  of  fortresses,  or  possadniks  or 
lieutenants  in  the  large  towns.  In  the  same  way  as  the  body 
surrounding  the  Merovingian  kings  was  not  composed  so  entirely 
of  Franks,  but  that  shortly  Gallo-Romans  crept  into  the  antrus- 
tions,  so  the  droujina  of  the  Russian  princes  admitted  many 
different  elements,  not  only  Varangian  but  Slav.  Mstislaf, 
prince  of  Tmoutorakan,  had  enrolled  lasses  and  Kassogans  ;  a 
Lithuanian  latiague  is  mentioned  as  being  in  the  droujina  of 
Igor,  a  Hungarian  in  that  of  Boris.  The  military  class  did  not 
form  at  that  time  a  caste  apart  in  Russia  anymore  than  in  Gaul  ; 
Saint  Vladimir  took  into  his  service  the  son  of  a  leather-worker 
who  had  vanquished  the  Patzinak  giant  ;  his  maternal  uncle 
Dobryna  was  not  even  a  free  man. 

The  prince  in  the  middle  of  his  droujina  seems  to  be  only 
the  first  among  his  equals  ;  all  that  he  had  seems  to  belong  to 
his  men.  We  see  them  eat  at  the  same  table,  and  listen  to- 
gether to  the  songs  of  the  blind  poets  who  accompanied  them- 
selves on  the  gouzzla.  It  was  as  it  were  a  family  of  soldiers, 
from  which  one  day  the  Russian  administration  was  to  come. 
The  prince  had  great  respect  for  the  demands  of  his  men.  Those 
of  Vladimir  complained  one  day  that  they  had  to  eat  from 
wooden  bowls.  He  gave  them  silver  ones,  and  added,  "  I  could 
not  buy  myself  a  droujina  with  gold  and  silver ;  but  with  adroit- 
Una  I  can  acquire  gold  and  silver,  as  did  my  father  and  my 
grandfather."  The  prince  did  nothing  without  consulting  hi* 


66  ff/STORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

droujitiniki.  It  was  this  that  prevented  Sviatoslaf  from  listening 
to  the  exhortations  of  Olga ;  he  said  that  "  his  droujina  would 
mock  him  "  if  he  became  a  Christian. 

The  administration  of  the  Varangian  princes  was  very  elemen- 
tary. Let  us  see  what  the  Arab  writer  Ibn-Dost  says  of  the  way 
they  distributed  justice  :  "  When  a  Russian  has  a  grievance 
with  another,  he  summons  him  before  the  tribunal  of  the  prince, 
where  both  present  themselves.  When  the  prince  has  given 
sentence,  his  orders  are  executed  ;  if  both  parties  are  displeased 
by  the  judgment,  the  affair  must  be  decided  by  arms.  He 
whose  sword  cuts  sharpest  gains  his  cause.  At  the  moment  of 
the  combat  the  relations  of  the  two  adversaries  appear  armed, 
and  surround  the  space  shut  off.  The  combatants  then  come 
to  blows,  and  the  victor  may  impose  any  conditions  he  pleases." 

After  justice,  the  most  important  of  the  princely  functions 
was  the  collection  of  the  tributes.  The  amount  was  fixed  by  the 
prince  himself.  Oleg  imposed  on  the  Drevlians  a  tax  of  a 
marten's  skin  for  every  house.  The  raising  of  taxes  was  always 
very  arbitrary.  Nestor's  account  of  the  death  of  Igor  is  a  lively 
picture  of  the  political  customs  of  the  time ;  we  might  imagine 
ourselves  reading  a  page  of  Gregory  of  Tours  about  the  sons  of 
Clovis,  for  example  the  expedition  of  Thierry  in  Arvernia.  "  In 
the  year  945  the  droujina  of  Igor  said  to  him,  'The  men  of 
Sveneld  are  richly  provided  with  weapons  and  garments,  while 
we  go  naked  ;  lead  us,  prince,  to  collect  the  tribute,  so  that  thou 
and  we  may  become  rich.'  Igor  consented,  and  conducted  them 
to  the  Drevlians  to  raise  the  tribute.  He  increased  the  first 
imposts,  and  did  them  violence,  he  and  his  men  ;  after  having 
taken  all  he  wanted,  he  returned  to  his  city.  While  on  the  road 
he  bethought  himself  and  said  to  his  droujina.  *  Go  on  with  the 
tribute  ;  I  will  go  back  to  try  and  get  some  more  out  of  them.' 
Leaving  the  greater  part  of  his  men  to  go  on  their  way.  he  re- 
turned with  only  a  few,  to  the  end  that  he  might  increase  his 
riches.  The  Drevlians,  when  they  learnt  that  Igor  was  re- 
turning, held  council  with  Mai  their  prince.  '  When  the  wolf 
enters  the  sheepfold  he  slays  the  whole  flock,  if  the  shepherd 
does  not  slay  him.  Thus  it  is  with  us  and  Igor ;  if  we  do  not 
destroy  him,  we  are  lost.'  Then  they  sent  deputies  and  said  to 
him,  '  Why  dost  thou  come  anew  unto  us?  Hast  thou  not  col- 
lected all  the  tribute  ?'  But  Igor  would  not  hear  them,  so  the 
Drevlians  came  out  of  the  town  of  Korosthenes,  and  slew  Igor 
and  his  men,  for  they  were  but  a  few." 

For  the  government  and  defence  of  the  country  the  prince 
established  the  chief  of  his  dnnijinniki'vn.  different  towns,  sup- 
ported by  ndf  rces.  Thus  Rurik  distributed  the  towns 
of  his  appanage  •  he  gave  to  one  of  his  mtn  Polotsk,  to  another 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  67 

Rostof,  to  a  third  Bielozersk.  A  principality  was  in  some  sort 
divided  into  fiefs,  but  the  fiefs  were  only  temporary,  and  always 
revokable.  For  the  defence  of  the  frontiers  new  towns  wete 
built,  where  native  soldiers  kept  watch. 

Social  conditions  from  the  9th  to  the  i2th  century  were  as 
unequal  as  in  the  West.  The  droujina  of  the  prince,  which 
speedily  absorbed  all  the  Slav  and  Finn  chiefs,  constituted  an 
aristocracy.  Still  we  must  distinguish  in  it  those  who  were  only 
simple  guards  or  gridi  (girdin  among  the  Scandinavians),  the 
mouges  or  men  (vir  in  Latin,  baron  in  French),  and  the  boyards 
who  were  the  most  illustrious  of  all.  The  freemen  of  the  Rus- 
sian soil  were  "  the  people  "  or  lioiidi.  The  gosti  or  merchants 
were  not  at  this  period  a  class  apart ;  it  was  in  fact  the  warriors 
or  the  princes  who  pursued  commerce  with  arms  in  their  hands. 
Oleg  was  disguised  as  a  merchant  when  he  surprised  Kief  and 
slew  Askold  and  Dir;  the  Byzantines  mistrusted  these  terrible 
guests,  and  assigned  them  a  separate  quarter,  closely  watched, 
of  Constantinople. 

The  rural  population,  on  whom  the  weight  of  the  growing 
State  was  beginning  to  rest,  was  already  less  free  than  in  primi- 
tive times.  The  peasant  was  called  smerde  (perhaps  derived  from 
smerdiet,  to  stink),  or  mougik,  insulting  diminutive  otmouge,  man. 
Later  he  became  the  Christian  par  excellence,  krestianine. 

Below  the  peasant,  whose  situation  recalls  that  of  the  Roman 
colonus,  were  the  slaves  properly  so  called,  rabi  or  kholopy.  The 
slave  might  have  been  taken  in  war,  bought  in  a  market,  born  in 
the  house  of  his  master,  or  have  lost  his  liberty  by  the  mere  fact 
of  fulfilling  certain  offices,  such  as  that  of  house-steward.  War 
was,  however,  the  principal  source  of  slavery.  Ibn-Dost  relates 
that  the  Russians,  when  they  marched  against  another  people, 
did  not  depart  without  having  destroyed  everything ;  they  carried 
off  the  women,  and  reduced  the  men  to  slavery.  They  main- 
tained a  great  slave-trade  with  foreign  nations.  "  From  Russia," 
said  Sviatoslaf,  the  conqueror  of  Bulgaria,  "will  be  brought 
skins,  wax,  honey,  and  slaves" 


PROGRESS    OF    CHRISTIANITY — SOCIAL,   POLITICAL,    LITERARY,    AND 
ARTISTIC  RESULTS. 

Russia  had  become  Christian  :  it  is  the  chief  event  in  her 
primitive  history.  An  important  fact  is  that  her  Christianity 
was  received  not  from  Rome,  like  that  of  the  Poles  and  other 
Western  Slavs,  but  from  Constantinople.  Although  the  separa- 
tion between  the  Churches  of  the  East  and  West  was  not  yet 
fully  consummated,  it  was  evident  that  Russia  would  be  engaged 


68  HIS  TO  A!  Y  OF  R  USS1A. 

in  what  the  Latins  called  "  the  schism."  It  is  usually  considered 
in  the  West  that  this  fact  exercised  an  evil  influence  on  Russia. 
Now  let  us  see  the  opinion  of  a  Russian  historian,  M.  Bestoujef- 
Rioumine,  on  the  subject.  "What  is  no  less  important  is  that 
Christianity  came  to  us  from  Byzantium,  where  the  Church  put 
forth  no  pretensions  of  governing  the  State,  a  circumstance  which 
preserved  us  from  struggles  between  the  secular,  a  national,  and 
the  spiritual,  a  foreign  power.  Excluded  from  the  religious 
unity  of  the  Romano-Germanic  world,  we  have  perhaps  gained 
more  than  we  have  lost.  The  Roman  Church  made  her  ap- 
pearance with  German  missionaries  in  Slavonic  lands  ;  and  if  she 
did  not  everywhere  bring  with  her  material  servitude,  she  at  least 
introduced  an  intellectual  slavery  by  forcing  men  to  support  for- 
eign interests,  by  bringing  among  them  foreign  elements,  and  by 
establishing  in  all  parts  a  sharp  division  between  the  higher 
classes  who  wrote  and  spoke  in  Latin,  and  the  lower  classes 
who  spoke  the  national  tongue  and  were  without  literature." 

No  doubt  an  ecclesiastical  language  which,  thanks  to  Cyril 
and  Methodius,  mingled  with  the  national  language,  and  became 
intelligible  to  all  classes  of  society ;  a  purely  national  Church, 
which  was  subject  to  no  foreign  sway ;  the  absolute  independence 
of  the  civil  power  and  of  national  development,  were  the  ines- 
timable advantages  that  Byzantine  Christianity  brought  into 
Russia.  But  if  the  Russian  State  was  free  from  all  obligations 
to  Rome,  she  had  nothing  to  hope  for  from  her.  She  could  not 
reckon  in  her  days  of  peril  on  the  help  that  Spain  received  when 
she  grappled  with  the  Moors;  Germany  in  her  crusades  against 
the  Slavs  and  Finns  ;  Hungary  in  her  national  war  with  the 
Turks.  Separated  from  the  West  by  difference  of  faith,  Russia 
in  the  time  of  the  Mongols,  like  Greece  at  the  epoch  of  the  Ot- 
toman invasion,  saw  no  Europe  arming  in  her  defence. 

Her  princes  were  neither  laid  under  the  pontifical  interdicts, 
like  Robert  of  France,  nor  reduced  to  implore  pardon  at  the  feet 
of  a  Gregory  VII.,  like  Henry  IV.  of  Germany;  humiliations 
always  followed  by  a  swift  revenge,  as  on  the  day  when  Bar- 
barossa  expelled  Alexander  III.  from  Italy,  and  Philip  the  Hand- 
some caused  Boniface  to  be  arrested  in  Anagni.  Humiliations 
still  more  cruel  awaited  the  Russians  at  the  court  of  the  Mongols. 
Another  misfortune  attending  the  entrance  of  the  Russians  into 
the  Greek  Church  is,  that  they  found  themselves  separated  by 
religion  from  the  races  to  whom  they  were  bound  by  a  common 
origin,  and  who  spoke  almost  their  own  tongue.  It  was  the 
difference  of  religion  which  inflamed  their  long  rivalry  with  the 
Poles,  and  which  at  present  deprives  them  of  much  influence 
over  part  of  the  Slavs.  This  same  difference  of  religion  delayed 
for  them  the  benefits  of  civilization  resulting  from  the  Renais- 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSfA.  6^ 

sanre  of  the  West,  but  it  spared  them   the  terrible  crisis  of  the 
wars  of  the  Reformation. 

Oriental  Christianity,  with  the  Byzantine  civilization  that  was 
inseparable  from  it,  produced  in  time  a  considerable  transform* 
ation  in  Russia.  The  first  effect  of  Christianity  was  to  reform 
society,  and  draw  closer  family  ties.  It  condemned  polygamy, 
and  forbade  equal  divisions  between  the  children  of  a  slave  and 
those  of  the  lawful  wife.  Society  resisted  this  new  principle  for 
some  time.  Saint  Vladimir,  even  after  his  conversion,  divided 
his  possessions  equally  among  the  children  the  Church  regarcli , 
as  natural  and  those  she  considered  legitimate.  In  the  loi  •, 
run  Christianity  prevailed,  and  by  the  abolition  of  polygamy  the 
Russian  family  ceased  to  be  Asiatic,  and  became  European. 

Christianity  prescribed  new  virtues,  and  gave  the  ancient 
barbaric  virtues  of  hospitality  and  benevolence  a  more  elevated 
character. 

Tladimir  Monomachus  charged  his  children  to  receive  stran- 
gers hospitably,  because,  says  he,  they  have  it  in  their  power  to 
give  you  a  good  or  evil  reputation.  The  hospitality  of  primitive 
peoples  may  often  be  explained  by  their  need  of  merchants  and 
foreigners.  Pagan  Slavs  were  only  obliged  to  help  those  of  the 
same  association  ;  warriors,  the  members  of  the  same  droujina  ; 
peasants,  those  of  the  same  commune ;  merchants  or  artisans, 
those  of  the  same  artel.  Christianity  enjoined  benevolence  to 
all  the  world,  without  hope  of  reward  in  this  life.  It  rendered 
honorable,  weakness,  poverty,  manual  labor.  If  it  prescribed 
excessive  humility,  it  was  useful  at  least  as  a  reaction  against  the 
brutality  of  overweening  pride.  Between  these  two  societies, 
aristocratic  and  religious,  which  rest  on  opposite  and  equally 
exaggerated  principles,  there  would  one  day  be  room  for  lay  and 
civil  society. 

The  influence  of  Christian  principles  was  rather  slow  among 
these  excitable  aud  ardent  natures,  but  at  last  we  see  in  Russia, 
as  in  the  West,  princes  abjure  their  pride  and  seek  the  peace  of 
the  cloister,  like  the  good  King  Robert,  or  Saint  Henry.  In  the 
end  it  became  an  established  custom  with  the  Russian  sovereigns 
that,  on  the  approach  of  death,  they  should  be  tonsured,  change 
their  worldly  for  a  monkish  name,  and  so  die  in  the  garb  of  one 
of  the  religious  orders. 

From  a  political  point  of  view,  the  influence  of  Byzantine 
Christianity  was  bound  in  the  long  run  to  cause  a  complete 
revolution.  For  what  was  a  Russian  prince,  after  all,  but  the 
head  of  a  band,  surrounded  by  the  men  of  his  droujina,  and  in  a 
sense  a  foreigner  to  the  land  he  governed  and  on  which  he  levied 
tribute  ?  Properly  speaking,  a  Russian  prince  had  no  subjects. 


7  0  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

The  natives  might  always  expel  him — his  droujinniki  were 
always  free  to  forsake  him. 

The  princes  of  Kief  were  no  more  sovereigns  in  the  modern 
or  Roman  sense  of  the  term,  than  Merwig  or  Clodowig  the  long- 
haired. But  the  priests  who  came  from  Constantinople  brought 
with  them  an  ideal  of  government ;  in  a  little  while  it  was  that 
of  the  Russians  who  entered  the  ranks  of  the  clergy.  This 
Greek  ideal  was  the  Emperor,  the  Tzar  of  Constantinople,  heir 
of  Augustus  and  Constantine  the  Great,  Vicar  of  God  upon  earth, 
the  typical  monarch  on  whom  the  eyes  of  the  barbarians  of  Gaul 
as  well  as  those  of  Scythia  were  fixed.  He  was  a  sovereign  in 
the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  as,  by  a  legal  fiction,  the  people  by 
the  Lex  Regia  was  supposed  to  have  yielded  its  power  to  the 
Vnperator.  He  had  subjects,  and  subjects  only.  Alone  he  made 
the  l.v.v  ;  he  was  the  law.  He  had  neither  droujinniki  nor  an- 
irustions  that  he  placed  in  such  and  such  a  town,  but  an  host  of 
movable  functionaries,  the  inviolate  Roman  hierarchy,  by  means 
of  whom  his  all-powerful  will  penetrated  to  the  remotest  parts  of 
his  dominions.  He  was  not  the  leader  of  a  band  of  exacting 
soldiers,  free  to  quit  his  service  for  that  of  another,  but  master 
of  a  standing  army,  to  guard  both  frontiers  and  capital.  He  did 
not  consider  his  states  as  a  patrimony  to  be  divided  between  his 
children,  but  transmitted  to  his  successor  the  Roman  Empire  in 
its  integrity.  He  inherited  his  power,  not  only  from  his  people, 
but  from  God.  His  imperial  ornaments  had,  like  his  person,  a 
sacred  character  :  and  whenever  the  barbarian  kings  demanded 
one  of  them  at  Constantinople,  whether  it  was  a  crown  enriched 
with  precious  stones,  the  purple  mantle,  the  sceptre  or  the  brode- 
quins  (leggings),  they  were  answered,  that  when  God  gave  the 
Empire  to  Constantinople,  He  sent  these  vestments  by  a  holy 
angel ;  that  they  were  not  the  work  of  man,  and  that  they  were 
laid  on  the  altar,  and  only  worn,  even  by  the  Emperor,  on 
solemn  occasions.  Leo  the  Khazar  was  said  to  have  been  smit- 
ten with  a  fatal  ulcer  for  having  put  on  the  crown  without  per- 
mission of  the  patriarch. 

An  empire  one  and  indivisible,  resting  on  a  standing  army, 
a  hierarchy  of  functionaries,  a  national  clergy,  and  a  body  of  jur- 
isconsults,— such  was  the  Roman  Empire,  and  such  it  revived  in 
the  monarchies  of  the  lyth  century.  This  was  the  conception  of 
the  State,  unknown  to  both  Slavs  and  Varangians,  that  the  Greek 
priests  brought  to  Russia.  For  a  long  while  the  reality  answered 
little  to  the  ideal ;  the  princes  continued  in  their  wills  to  divide 
their  soldiers  and  their  lands  among  their  children  ;  but  the  idea 
did  not  perish,  and  if  it  was  never  realized  in  Kievian  Russia,  it 
found  a  more  propitious  soil  in  Muscovite  Russia.  Legislation 
likewise  felt  the  influence  of  Christianity.  Theft,  murder,  and 


fffSTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  71 

assassination  were  not  looked  upon  by  the  Church  as  private 
offences  for  which  the  aggrieved  persons  could  take  reprisals  or 
accept  a  wergeld.  They  were  crimes  to  be  punished  by  human 
justice  in  the  name  of  God. 

For  private  revenge  Byzantine  influence  substituted  a  public 
penalty  ;  for  the  fine  it  substituted  corporal  punishment,  repug- 
nant to  the  free  barbarian,  and  to  the  instinctive  sentiment  of 
human  dignity.  Imprisonment,  convict  labor,  Hogging,  torture, 
mutilation,  death  itself,  inflicted  by  more  or  less  cruel  means  ; 
such  was  the  penal  code  of  the  Byzantines. 

The  Greek  bishops  of  the  time  of  St.  Vladimir  had  wished 
that  brigands  should  be  put  to  death,  but  the  custom  was,  and 
long  remained,  against  it.  Vladimir,  after  having  employed  this 
supreme  means  of  repression,  returned  to  the  system  of  the  wer- 
geld, which  besides  helped  to  fill  the  treasury.  The  Byzantine 
mode  of  procedure  likewise  rejected  the  judicial  duel,  the  judg- 
ment of  God  and  the  compurgatorcs  long  defended  by  habit.  But, 
as  in  Gaul  Roman  law  existed  for  Church  officers  and  part  of  the 
natives,  side  by  side  with  the  Frank  or  Burgundian  law,  so  in 
Russia  the  Byzantine  codes  of  Justinian  and  Basil  the  Macedonian, 
were  established  at  the  side  of  the  Scandinavian  code  of  laroslaf. 

During  many  centuries  the  two  systems  of  legislation  existed 
together,  each  being  slightly  influenced  by  the  other,  to  the 
time  when  they  were  mingled  in  a  new  code,  the  Oulojenie  of 
Ivan  the  Great,  and  the  Soudebnik  of  Ivan  the  Terrible. 

The  Byzantine  literature  which  found  its  way  into  Russia 
consisted  not  only  of  the  sacred  books,  but  also  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  Church,  among  whom  we  may  reckon  some  writers  of 
the  first  order,  like  Saint  Basil  and  Saint  John  Chrysostom  ; 
lives  of  the  saints,  the  inexhaustible  source  of  new  poetry ; 
chronicles  destined  to  serve  as  models  to  the  Russian  annalists  ; 
philosophical  and  scientific  books ;  even  romances  such  as 
'  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,'  '  Salomon  and  Kitovras,'  &c.  Though 
this  literature  was  partly  the  fruit  of  Byzantine  decay,  we  may 
perceive  how  it  implanted  fresh  ideas  in  the  mind  of  a  young 
nation,  and  would  largely  influence  the  moral  life  of  the  Individ** 
ual,  and  public  and  family  life.  We  shall  see  up  to  what  point 
Russian  society  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  modelled  on  the  exam- 
ples afforded  by  this  literature.  Finally,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  Christianity  brought  music  in  its  train  to  a  people  whose 
music  was  highly  primitive,  and  architecture  to  a  people  who  had 
absolutely  none.  It  was  she  who,  to  use  a  Western  expression, 
illuminated  the  Russian  cities  with  magnificent  churches,  and  her 
golden  cupolas  towered  above  the  ramparts  of  mud  that  begirt 
the  cities. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

RUSSIA    DIVIDED    INTO   PRINCIPALITIES.     SUPREMACY   AND    FALL 
OF    KIEF,    1054-1169. 

Distribution  of  Russia  into  principalities — Unity  in  division — The  successors 
of  laroslaf  the  Great — Wars  about  the  right  of  headship  of  the  royal 
family,  and  the  throne  of  Kief — Vladimir  Monomachus — Wars  between 
the  heirs  of  Vladimir  Monomachus — Fall  of  Kief. 


DISTRIBUTION   OF   RUSSIA   INTO   PRINCIPALITIES — UNITY   IN 
DIVISION. 

THE  period  that  extends  from  1054,  the  year  of  laroslaf  s 
death,  to  1224,  the  year  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  .Tatars, 
or  to  take  the  French  chronology,  from  the  reign  of  Henry  I. 
to  the  death  of  Philip  Augustus,  is  one  of  the  most  confused  and 
troubled  in  Russian  history.  As  the  barbarian  custom  of  divi- 
sion continued  to  prevail  over  the  Byzantine  ideas  of  political 
unity,  the  national  territory  was  ceaselessly  partitioned. 

The  princely  anarchy  of  Eastern  Europe  has  its  parallel  in 
the  feudal  anarchy  of  the  West.  M.  Pogodine  reckons  during 
this  period,  sixty-four  principalities  which  had  an  existence  more 
or  less  prolonged,  293  princes  who  disputed  the  throne  of  Kief 
and  other  domains,  and  eighty-three  civil  wars,  in  some  of  which 
the  whole  country  was  engaged.  There  were  besides  foreign 
A-ars  to  augment  this  immense  heap  of  historical  facts.  Against 
'he  Polovtsi  alone  the  chroniclers  mention  eighteen  campaigns, 
'•vhile  these  barbarians  made  no  less  than  forty-six  invasions  of 
Russia.  It  is  impossible  to  follow  the  national  chroniclers  in 
the  minute  details  of  their  annals  ;  we  will  only  treat  of  the 
principalities  which  lasted  some  time,  and  the  facts  which  were 
the  most  important. 

The  ancient  names  of  the  Slav  tribes  have  everywhere  dis- 
appeared, or  only  remain  in  the  names  of  some  of  the  towns, 
for  example  that  of  the  Polotchanes  in  Polotsk,  and  that  of  the 
Severians  in  Novgorod  Severski.  The  elements  of  which  Russia 
was  now  composed  were  no  longer  tribes,  but  principal; 
We  hear  no  more  of  the  Krivitches  or  the  Drevlians,  but  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  73 

principalities  of  Smolensk  and  Volhynia.  These  little  States 
were  perpetually  dismembered  at  each  new  partition  between 
the  sons  of  a  prince,  and  then  were  reconstituted  to  be  divided 
anew  into  appanages. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  vicissitudes,  some  of  them  main- 
tained a  steady  existence,  corresponding  to  certain  topographi- 
cal or  ethnographical  conditions.  Without  speaking  of  the  dis- 
tant principality  of  Tmoutorakan,  situated  at  the  foot  of  the 
Caucasus  in  the  centre  of  Turkish  and  Circassian  tribes,  and 
reckoning  eight  successive  princes,  the  following  are  the  great 
divisions  of  Russia  from  the  nth  to  the  i3th  century: — 

1.  The  principality  of  Smolensk  occupied  the  important  ter- 
ritory which  is,  as  it  were,  the  central  point  in   the    mountain 
system  of  Russia.     It  comprehends   the  ancient  forest  of  Okof, 
where  three  of  the   largest  Russian   rivers,  the  Volga,  the  Dnie- 
per, and  the  Dwina,  take  their  rise.   Hence  the  political  import- 
ance of  Smolensk,  attested  by  all  the  wars  to  gain  possession  of 
her  ;  hence,  also,  her  commercial  prosperity.     We  must  observe 
that  all  her  towns  were  built  on  one  or  the  other   of  these  three 
great  rivers  ;  all  the  commerce,   therefore,  of  ancient  Russia 
passed  through  her  hands.     Besides  Smolensk,  we  must  mention 
Moja'isk,,  Viasma,   and  Toropetz,  which  was  the  capital  of   a 
secondary  principality,  the  property  of  two  celebrated  princes, 
Mstislaf  the  Brave  (Khrabryi)  and  Mstislaf  the  Bold  (Oudaloi). 

2.  The  principality  of  Kief  was  fiouss,  Russia  in  the   strict 
sense  of  the  word.     Her  situation  on  the  Dnieper,  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Greek  Empire,  the  fertility  of  the  Black  Land,  for 
long  secured  to  this  State  the  supremacy  over  the  other  Russian 
principalities.      On    the    south   she   bordered   directly   on   the 
nomads  of  the  steppe,  against  whom  her  princes  were  forced  to 
raise   a  barrier  of  frontier  towns.     They  often  took  these  bar- 
barians into  their  pay,  granted  them  lands,  and  constituted  them 
into  military   colonies.     The   principality  of  Pereiaslavl  was   a 
dependence  of  Kief  ;  Vychegorod,  Bielgorod,  Tripoli,  Torchesk, 
were  at  times  erected  into  principalities  for  princes  of  the  same 
family. 

3.  On    the  tributaries    of  the  right  bank  of  the   Dnieper, 
notably  the  Soja,  the  Desna  and  the   Se'ime,  extended  the  two 
principalities  of  T^hernigof^  with  Starodoub  and  Loubetch  ;  and 
of  Novgorod-Severski,  with   Poutivl,  Koursk,  and   Briansk.     The 
principality  of  Tchernigof,  which  reached  towards  the  Upper  Oka, 
had  therefore  one  foot  in  the  basin   of  the  Volga ;  her  princes, 
the  Olgovitches,  were  the  most  formidable  rivals  of  Kief.     The 
princes  of  Severski  were   always  occupied  with  their  ceaseless 
wars  against  the  Polovtsi,  their  neighbors  on  the  south.     It  was 


74 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


a  prince  of  Severski  whose  exploits  against  these  barbarians 
formed  the  subject  of  a  sort  of  ctuvison  de  geste,  the  Song  of  Igor, 
or  the  Account  of  the  Expedition  of  Igor  (Slovo  o  polkou  Igorhnd^ 

4.  Another  principality,  whose   very  existence   consisted  in 
endless  war  against  the  nomads,  was  the  double  principality  of 
Ri_az£ULZ.v\<\  Mourom.     Her  principal  towns  were    Riazan,  Mou- 
rom,  Pereiaslavl-Riazanski,  situated   on  the  Oka,  Kolomna  at 
the  junction  of  the  Moskowa  with  the  Oka,  and  the  Pronsk  on 
the    Prona.      The  Upper  Don  formed    its   western  boundary. 
This  principality  was  placed  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Mouromians 
and  Mechtcheraks,  Finnish  tribes.     The  reputation   of  her  in- 
habitants, who   were  reckoned  warlike  in   character,  and   rough 
and  brutal  in  manners,  was  no  doubt  partly  the   result  of  the 
mixture  of  the  Russian  race  with  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  and  of  their  perpetual  and  bloody  struggle  with  the 
nomad  tribes. 

5.  The  double  principalities  of  Souzdal,  with   their  towns  of 
Souzdal,  Rostof,  lourief-Polski  on  the  Kolocha,  Vladimir  on  the 
Kliazma,  laroslavl,  and  Pere'iaslavl-Zaliesski,  were   situated  on 
the  Volga  and  the  Oka  amongst  the  thickest  of  northern  forests, 
and  in  the  middle  of  the  Finnish  tribes  of  Mouromians,  Merians, 
Vesses,  and  Tcheremisses.     Although  placed  at  the  furthest  ex- 
tremity of  the  Russian  world,  Souzdal  exercised  an  important 
influence   over  it.     We   shall  find  her  princes  now  establishing 
a  certain  political   authority  over  Novgorod  and  the   Russia  of 
the  Lakes,  the   result  of  a  double  economic  dependence  ;  now 
intervening  victoriously  in   the  quarrels  of  the   Russia  of  the 
Dneiper.     The   Souzdalians  were   rough   and   warlike,  like  the 
Riazanese.     Already  we  can  distinguish  among  these  two  peo- 
ples the  characteristics  of  a  new  nationality.     That  which  divides 
them  from  the  Kievians  and  the  men  of  Novgorod-Severski,  oc- 
cupied like   themselves  in  the  great  war  with  the  barbarians,  is 
the  fact  that  the  Russians  of  the  Dnieper  sometimes  mingled 
their  blood  with   that  of  their  enemies,  and   became  fused  with 
the  nomad,  essentially  mobile  Turkish  races,  whilst  the  Russians 
of  the  Oka  and  the  Volga  united  with  the  Finnish  tribes,  agri- 
cultural and  essentially  sedentary.     This  distinction  between  the 
two  foreign  elements  that  entered  the  Slav  blood,  had  doubtless 
contributed   to   the   difference    in    the    characters    of   the    two 
branches  of  the  Russian  race.     From  the  nth  to  the  i3th  cen- 
tury, in  passing  from  the  basin  of  the  Dneiper  to  the  basin  of 
the  Volga,  we   can   already  watch  the  formation   of  Great  and 
Little  Russia. 

6.  The  principalities  of  Kief,  Tchernigof,  Novgorod-Severski, 
Riazan,   Mourom,  and    Souzdal,  situated  on  the    side   of   tha 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


75 


steppe  with  its  devastating  hordes,  formed  the  frontier  States, 
the  Marches  of  Russia.  The  same  role,  on  the  north-west  oppo- 
site the  Lithuanians,  Letts,  and  Tchouds,  fell  to  the  principality 
of  Polotsk,  which  occupied  the  basin  of  the  Dwina  ;  and  to  the 
republican  principalities  of  Novgorod  and  Pskqf 'on  the  lakes 
llmen  and  Peipus.  To  the  principality  of  Polotsk,  that  of 
Minsk  was  attached,  which  lay  in  the  basin  of  the  Dnieper.  The 
possession  of  Minsk,  thanks  to  its  situation,  was  often  disputed 
by  the  Grand  Princes  of  Kief.  To  Novgorod  belonged  the 
towns  of  Toijok,  Volok-Lamski.  Izborsk,  and  Veliki-Louki, 
which  were  at  tunes  capitals  of  particular  States. 

South-east  Russia  comprehended — i.  Volhynia  in  the  fan- 
shaped  distribution  of  rivers  formed  by  the  Pripet  and  its  tribu- 
taries, with  Vladimir-in- Volhynia,  Loutsk,  Tourof,  Brest,  and 
even  Lublin,  which  is  certainly  Polish.  2.  Gallicia  proper,  or 
Red  Russia,  in  the  basin  of  the  San,  the  Dniester,  and  the 
Pripet,  whose  ancient  inhabitants  the  White  Croats  seemed  to 
have  sprung  from  the  stock  of  the  Danubian  Slavs.  Her  chief 
towns  were  Galitch,  founded  by  Vladimirko  about  1 144,  Peremysl, 
Terebovl,  and  Zvenigorod.  The  neighborhood  of  Hungary  and 
Poland  gave  a  special  character  to  these  principalities,  as  well 
as  a  more  advanced  civilization.  The  epic  songs  speak  of  Gal- 
licia, the  native  land  of  the  hero  Diouk  Stepanovitch,  as  a 
fabulously-rich  country.  The  Tale  of  the  Expedition  of  Igor  gives 
us  a  high  idea  of  the  power  of  these  princes.  "  laroslaf  Os- 
momysl  of  Gallicia!  "  cried  the  poet  to  one  of  them,  "  thou  art 
seated  very  high  on  thy  throne  of  wrought  gold;  with  thy  regi- 
ments of  iron  thou  sustainest  the  Carpathians ;  thou  closest  the 
gates  of  the  Danube  ;  thou  barrest  the  way  to  the  king  of  Hun- 
gary ;  thou  openest  at  thy  will  the  gates  of  Kief,  and  with 
thine  arrows  thou  strikes!  from  afar  !  " 

The  disposition  of  these  fifteen  or  sixteen  principalities  con- 
firms all  that  we  have  said  about  the  essential  unity  of  the  con- 
figuration of  the  Russian  soil.  Not  one  of  the  river-basins  forms 
an  isolated  and  closed  region.  There  is  no  line  of  heights  to 
establish  barriers  between  them  or  political  frontiers.  The 
greater  number  of  the  Russian  principalities  belong  to  the 
basin  of  the  Dneiper,  but  extend  everywhere  beyond  its  limits. 
The  principality  of  Kief,  with  Pere'iaslavl,  is  nearly  the  only  one 
completely  confined  within  it ;  but  Volhynia  puts  the  basin  of 
the  Dnieper  in  communication  with  those  of  the  Bug  and  the 
Vistula,  Polotsk  with  the  basins  of  the  Dnieper  and  the  Dwina, 
Novgorod-Severski  with  the  basin  of  the  Don,  Tchernigof  and 
Smolensk  with  the  basin  of  the  Volga.  Water-courses  every- 
where, established  communications  between  the  principalities. 


76  HISTORY  OF  RUSSM. 

Already  Russia,  though  broken  up  into  appanages,  had  the 
germs  of  a  great  united  empire.  The  slight  cohesion  of  nearly 
all  the  States,  and  their  frequent  dismemberments,  prevented 
them  from  ever  becoming  the  homes  of  real  nationalities.  The 
principalities  of  Smolensk,  Tchernigof,  and  Riazan  have  never 
possessed  as  definite  an  historic  existence  as  the  duchy  of  Bre- 
tagne  or  the  county  of  Toulouse  in  France,  or  the  duchies  of 
Saxony,  Suabia,  and  Bavaria  in  Germany. 

The  interests  of  the  princes,  their  desire  to  create  appanages 
for  each  of  their  children,  caused  a  fresh  division  of  the  Russian 
territory  at  the  death  of  every  sovereign.  There  was,  however, 
a  certain  cohesion  in  the  midst  of  all  these  vicissitudes.  There 
was  a  unity  of  race  and  language,  the  more  sensible,  notwith- 
standing all  dialectic  differences,  because  the  Russian  people 
was  surrounded  everywhere,  except  at  the  south-west,  by  entirely 
strange  races,  Lithuanians,  Tchouds,  Finns,  Turks,  Magyars. 
There  was  a  unity  of  religion ;  the  Russians  differed  from 
nearly  all  their  neighbors,  for  in  contrast  with  the  Western 
Slavs,  Poles,  Tcheques,  and  Moravians,  they  represented  a 
particular  form  of  Christianity,  not  owning  any  tie  to  Rome,  and 
rejecting  Latin  as  the  language  of  the  Church.  There  was  the 
unity  of  historical  development,  as  up  to  that  time  the  Russo- 
Slavs  had  all  followed  the  same  road,  had  accepted  Greek  civili- 
zation, submitted  to  the  Varangians,  pursued  certain  great  en- 
terprises in  common — such  as  the  expeditions  against  Byzantium 
and  the  war  with  the  nomads.  Finally,  there  was  political  unity, 
since  after  all  in  Gallicia  as  in  Novgorod,  on  the  Dnieper  as  in 
the  forests  of  Souzdal,  it  was  the  same  family  that  filled  all  the 
thrones.  All  these  princes  descended  from  Rurik,  Saint  Vladi- 
mir, and  laroslaf  the  Great.  The  fact  that  the  wars  that  laid 
waste  the  country  were  civil  wars,  was  a  new  proof  of  this  unity. 
The  different  parts  of  Russia  could  not  consider  themselves 
strangers  one  to  the  other,  when  they  saw  the  princes  of  Tcher- 
nigof and  Souzdal  taking  up  arms  to  prove  which  of  them  was 
the  eldest,  and  which  consequently  had  most  right  to  the  title 
of  Grand  Prince  and  the  throne  of  Kief.  There  were  descend- 
ants of  Rurik  who  governed  successively  the  remotest  States  of 
Russia,  and  who,  after  having  reigned  at  Tmoutorakan  on  the 
Straits  of  lenikale,  at  Novgorod  the  Great,  at  Toropetz  in  the 
country  of  Smolensk,  ended  by  establishing  their  right  to  reign  at 
Kief.  In  spite  of  the  division  into  appanages,  Kief  continued  to 
be  the  centre  of  Russia.  It  was  there  that  Oleg  and  Igor  hao 
reigned,  that  Vladimir  had  baptized  his  people,  and  larosla' 
had  established  the  metropolis  of  the  faith,  of  arts,  and  of  na- 
tional Civilization.  It  is  not  surprising  that  she  should  have 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


77 


been  more  fiercely  disputed  than  all  the  other  Russian  cities. 
Russia  had  maxij  printes  ;  but  she  had  only  one  Grand  Prina 
( Veliki-kniaz) — the  one  who  reigned  at  Kief.  He  had  a  rec- 
ognized supremacy  over  the  others  which  he  owed  not  only  to 
the  importance  of  his  capital,  but  to  his  position  as  eldest  of  the 
royal  family.  Kief,  the  mother  of  Russian  cities,  was  always  to 
belong  to  the  eldest  of  the  descendants  of  Rurik ;  this  was  the 
consequence  of  the  patriarchal  system  of  the  Slavs,  as  was  the 
custom  of  division.  When  the  Grand  Prince  of  Kief  died,  his 
son  was  not  his  rightful  heir ;  but  his  uncle  or  brother,  or  which 
ever  of  the  princes  was  the  eldest.  Then  the  whole  of  Russia, 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  held  itself  in  readiness  to  sup- 
port the  claims  of  this  or  that  candidate.  It  was  the  same  with 
the  other  principalities,  where  the  possessors  of  different  ap- 
panages aspired  to  reign  in  the  metropolis  of  the  region.  The 
civil  wars,  then,  themselves  strengthened  the  sentiments  of 
Russian  unity.  What  were  they,  after  all,  but  family  quarrels  ? 


THE     SUCCESSORS     OF     IAROSLAF    THE    GREAT WARS     FOR      THE 

RIGHTS   OF    ELDERSHIP    AND   THE  THRONE    OF    KIEF — VLADI- 
MIR  MONOMACHUS. 

The  persistent  conflict  between  the  Byzantine  law,  by  which 
the  son  inherited  the  possessions  of  the  father,  and  the  old  na- 
tional law  of  the  Slavs  which  caused  them  to  pass  to  the  eldest 
of  all  the  family,  was  an  inexhaustible  source  of  civil  wars. 
Even  had  the  law  been  perfectly  clear,  the  princes  were  not 
always  disposed  to  recognize  it.  Thus,  although  the  eldest  of 
laroslaf's  sons  had  in  his  favor  the  formal  will  of  his  father,  giv- 
ing him  the  throne  of  Kief,  and  though  laroslaf  on  his  deathbed 
had  desired  his  other  sons  to  respect  their  elder  brother  as  they 
had  done  their  parent,  and  look  on  him  as  their  father,  Isiaslaf 
at  once  found  his  brother  Sviatoslaf  ready  to  take  up  arms  and 
overturn  his  throne  (1073).  He  was  obliged  to  seek  refuge  at 
the  Court  of  Henry  IV.  of  Germany,  who  sent  an  embassy  to 
Kief,  commanding  Sviatoslaf  to  restore  the  throne  of  Isiaslaf. 
Sviatoslaf  received  the  German  envoys  with  such  courtesy,  made 
them  such  a  display  of  his  treasures  and  riches,  that,  dazzled  by 
the  gold,  they  adopted  a  pacific  policy.  Henry  IV.  himself, 
disarmed  by  the  liberalities  of  the  Russian  prince,  spoke  no 
more  of  chastising  the  usurper.  Isiaslaf  did  not  return  to  Kief 
till  after  the  death  of  his  rival  (1076). 

When  his  own  death  took  place  (1078),  his  son  Sviatopolk 
did  not  succeed  him  immediately.  It  was  necessary  that  all  the 


78  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

heirs  of  laroslof  should  be  exhausted.  Vsevolod,  a  brother  of 
Isiaslaf,  whose  daughter  married  the  Emperor  Henry  IV.,  or 
Henry  V. — it  is  not  quite  certain  which — reigned  for  fifteen 
years  (1078-1093).  In  accordance  with  the  same  principle,  it 
was  not  the  son  of  Vsevolod,  Vladimir  Monomachus,  who  suc- 
ceeded his  father ;  but  after  the  crown  had  been  worn  by  a  new 
generation  of  princes,  it  returned  to  the  blood  of  Isiaslaf.  Vladi- 
mir Monomachus  made  no  opposition  to  the  claims  of  Sviatopolk 
Isiaslavitch.  "  His  father  was  older  than  mine,"  he  said,  "and 
reigned  first  in  Kief,"  so  he  quitted  the  principality  which  he 
had  governed  with  his  father,  and  valiantly  defended  against 
the  barbarians.  But  everyone  was  not  so  respectful  to  the  na- 
tional law  as  Vladimir  Monomachus. 

Two  terrible  civil  wars  desolated  Russia  in  the  reign  of  the 
Grand  Prince  Sviatopjjlk  (1093-1113):  one  about  the  princi- 
pality of  Tchernigof,  the  other  about  Volhynia  and  Red  Russia. 
Sviatoslaf  had  enjoyed  Tchernigof  as  his  share,  to  which 
Tmoutoraken  in  the  Taurid,  Mourom  and  Riazan  in  the  Finn 
country,  were  annexed.  Isiaslaf  and  Vsevolod,  Grand  Princes 
of  Kief,  had  despoiled  the  sons  of  Sviatoslaf,  their  brother,  de- 
priving them  of  the  rich  territory  of  Tchernigof,  and  only  leaving 
them  Tmoutorakan  and  the  Finnish  country.  Even  Vladimir 
Monomachus,  whom  we  have  seen,  so  disinterested,  had  accepted 
a  share  of  the  spoil.  The  injured  princes  were  not  people  to 
bear  this  meekly,  especially  the  eldest,  Oleg  Sviatoslavitch,  one 
of  the  most  energetic  men  of  the  nth  century.  He  called  the 
terrible  Polovtsi  to  his  aid,  and  subjected  Russia  to  frightful 
ravages.  Vladimir  Monomachus  was  moved  by  these  misfor- 
tunes ;  he  wrote  a  touching  letter  to  Oleg,  expressing  his  sorrow 
for  having  accepted  Tchernigof.  At  his  instigation  a  Congress 
of  Princes  met  at  Loubetch,  on  the  Dnieper  (1097).  Seated  on 
the  same  carpet,  they  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  the  civil  wars 
that  handed  the  country  as  a  prey  to  the  barbarians.  Oleg  re- 
covered Tchernigof,  and  promised  to  unite  with  the  Grand 
Prince  of  Kief  and  Vladimir  Monomachus  against  the  Polovtsi. 
The  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  oath  of  each  prince,  who  kissed 
the  cross  and  swore,  "  That  henceforth  the  Russian  land  shall 
be  considered  as  the  country  of  us  all ;  and  whoso  shall  dare 
to  arm  himself  against  his  brother  becomes  our  common 
enemy." 

In  Volhynia,  the  prince,  David,  was  at  war  with  his  nephews, 
Vassilko  and  Volodar.  The  Congress  of  Loubetch  had  divided 
the  disputed  territories  between  them,  but  scarcely  was  the  treaty 
ratified  when  David  went  to  the  Grand.  Prince  Sviatopolk  and 
persuaded  him  that  Vassilko  had  a  design  on  his  life.  With  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  79 

light  faith  habitual  to  the  men  of  that  date,  the  Grand  Prince 
joined  David  in  framing  a  plot  to  attract  Vassilko  to  Kief  on  the 
occasion  of  a  religious  fete.  When  he  arrived  he  was  loaded 
with  chains,  and  the  Grand  Prince  convoked  the  boyards  and 
citizens  of  Kief,  to  denounce  to  them  the  pretended  projects  of 
Vassilko.  "  Prince,"  replied  the  boyards,  much  embarrassed, 
"  thy  tranquillity  is  dear  to  us.  Vassilko  merits  death,  if  it  is 
true  that  he  is  thine  enemy ;  but  if  he  is  calumniated  by  David, 
God  will  avenge  on  David  the  blood  of  the  innocent."  Thereon 
the  Grand  Prince  delivered  Vassilko  to  his  enemy  David,  who 
put  out  his  eyes.  The  other  descendants  of  laroslaf  I.  were  in- 
dignant at  this  crime.  Vladimir  Monomachus  united  with  Oleg 
of  Tchernigof,  his  ancient  enemy,  and  marched  against  Sviato- 
polk.  The  people  and  clergy  of  Kief  succeeded  in  preventing  a 
civil  war  between  the  Grand  Prince  and  the  confederates  of  Lou- 
betch.  Sviatopolk  was  forced  to  disavow  David,  and  swear  to 
join  the  avengers  of  Vassilko.  David  defended  himself  with 
vigor,  and  summoned  to  his  help,  first  the  Poles,  and  then  the 
Hungarians.  At  last  a  new  congress  was  assembled  at  Viti- 
tchevo  (noo),  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Dnieper,  a  town  of  which 
a  deserted  gorodichtch'e  is  all  that  now  remains.  As  a  punish- 
ment for  his  crime,  David  was  deprived  of  his  principality  of 
Vladimir  in  Volhynia,  and  had  to  content  himself  with  four  small 
towns.  After  the  new  settlement  of  this  affair,  Monomachus 
led  the  other  princes  against  the  Polovtsi,  and  inflicted  on  them 
a  bloody  defeat ;  seventeen  of  their  khans  remained  on  the  field 
of  battle.  One  khan  who  was  made  prisoner  offered  a  ransom 
to  Monomachus  ;  but  the  prince  showed  how  deeply  he  felt  the 
injuries  of  the  Christians — he  refused  the  gold,  and  cut  the 
brigand  chief  in  pieces. 

When  Sviatopolk  died,  the  Kievians  unanimously  declared 
they  would  have  no  Grand  Prince  but  Vladimir  Monomachus. 
Vladimir  declined  the  honor,  alleging  the  claims  of  Oleg  and 
his  brothers  to  the  throne  of  Kief.  During  these  negotiations, 
a  sedition  broke  out  in  the  city,  and  the  Jews,  whom  Sviatopolk 
had  made  the  instruments  of  his  fiscal  exactions,  were  pillaged. 
Monomachus  was  forced  to  yield  to  the  prayers  of  the  citizens. 
During  his  reign  (i  1 13-1125)  he  obtained  great  successes  against 
the  Polovtsi,  the  Patzinaks,  the  Torques,  the  Tcherkesses,  and 
other  nomads,  He  gave  an  asylum  to  the  remains  of  the  Kha- 
zars,  who  built  on  the  Oster,  not  far  from  Tchernigof,  the  town 
of  Belovega.  The  ruins  of  this  city  that  remain  to-day  prove 
that  this  Finnish  people,  eminently  perfectible,  and  already  civ- 
ilized by  the  Greeks,  were  further  advanced  in  the  arts  of  con- 
struction and  fortification  than  even  the  Russians  themselves. 


go  HISTORY  OF  K        I  A. 

According  to  one  tradition,  Monomachus  also  made  war  on  the 
Emperor  Alexis  Comnenus,  a  Russian  army  invaded  Thrace,  and 
the  Bishop  of  Ephesus  is  said  to  have  brought  gifts  to  Kief, 
among  others  a  cup  of  cornelian  that  had  belonged  to  Augustus, 
besides  a  crown  and  a  throne,  still  preserved  in  the  Museum  at 
Moscow  under  the  name  of  the  crown  and  throne  of  Monoma- 
chus. It  is  at  present  ascertained  that  they  never  belonged  to 
Vladimir,  but  it  was  the  policy  of  his  descendants,  the  Tzars  of 
Moscow,  to  propagate  this  legend.  It  was  of  consequence  to 
them  to  prove  that  these  ensigns  of  their  power  were  traceable 
to  their  Kievian  ancestor,  and  that  the  Russian  Monomachus, 
grandson  of  the  Greek  Monomachus,  had  been  solemnly  crowned 
by  the  Bishop  of  Ephesus  as  sovereign  of  Russia. 

The  Grand  Prince  made  his  authority  felt  in  other  parts  of 
Russia.  A  Prince  of  Minsk  who  had  the  temerity  to  kindle  a 
civil  war,  was  promptly  dethroned,  and  died  in  captivity  at  Kief. 
The  Novgorodians  saw  many  of  their  boyards  kept  as  hostages, 
or  exiled.  The  Prince  of  Vladimir  in  Volhynia  was  deposed, 
and  his  states  given  to  a  son  of  the  Grand  Prince. 

Monomachus  has  left  us  a  curious  paper  of  instructions  that 
he  compiled  for  his  sons,  and  in  which  he  gives  them  much  good 
advice,  enforced  by  examples  drawn  from  his  own  life.  "It  is 
neither  fasting,  nor  solitude,  nor  the  monastic  life,  that  will  pro- 
cure you  the  life  eternal — it  is  well-doing.  Do  not  forget  the 
poor,  but  nourish  them.  Do  not  bury  your  riches  in  the  bosom 
of  the  earth,  for  that  is  contrary  to  the  precepts  of  Christianity.* 
Be  a  father  to  orphans,  judge  the  cause  of  widows  yourself.  .  .  . 
Put  to  death  no  one,  be  he  innocent  or  guilty,  for  nothing  is  more 

sacred  than  the  soul  of  a  Christian Love  your  wives, 

but  beware  lest  they  get  the  power  over  you.  When  you  have 
learnt  anything  useful,  try  to  preserve  it  in  your  memory  and 
strive  ceaselessly  to  get  knowledge.  Without  ever  leaving  his 
palace,  my  father  spoke  five  languages,  a  thing  that  foreigners 
admire  in  us.  .  .  I  have  made  altogether  twenty-three  campaigns 
without  counting  those  of  minor  importance.  I  have  concluded 
nineteen  treaties  of  peace  with  the  Polovtsi,  taken  at  least  100 
of  their  princes  prisoners,  and  afterwards  restored  them  to  liberty  ; 
besides  more  than  200  whom  I  threw  into  the  rivers.  No  one 
has  travelled  more  rapidly  than  I.  If  I  left  Tchernigof  very 
early  in  the  morning,  I  arrived  at  Kief  before  vespers.  Some 

*To  bury  riches  in  the  earth  is  the  custom  with  which  the  Emperor  Mau- 
rice reproaches  the  Slavs  of  his  time,  and  which  is  to  this  day  characteristic 
of  the  Russian  peasants.  Often  the  head  of  the  family  dies,  without  having 
revealed  the  hiding-place  to  his  children.  Treasure  trove  is  frequent  i« 
Russia. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  gt 

times  in  the  middle  of  the  thickest  forests,  I  caught  wild  horses 
myself,  and  bound  them  together  with  my  own  hands.  How 
many  times  I  have  been  thrown  from  the  saddle  by  buffaloes, 
struck  by  the  horns  of  the  deer,  trampled  under  foot  by  the 
elands  !  A  furious  boar  once  tore  my  sword  from  my  belt ;  my 
saddle  was  rent  by  a  benr,  \vhich  threw  my  horse  down  under 
me  !  How  many  falls  I  had  from  my  horse  in  my  youth,  when, 
heedless  of  danger.  I  broke  my  head,  I  wounded  my  arms  and 
legs !  But  the  Lord  watched  over  me  !  " 

Vladimir  completed  the  establishment  of  the  Slav  race  in 
Souzdal,  and  founded  a  city  on  the  Kliazma  that  bore  his  name, 
and  that  was  destined  to  play  a  great  part.  Such,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  1 2th  century,  when  Louis  VI.  was  righting  with  his 
barons  of  the  Isle  de  France,  was  the  ideal  of  a  Grand  Prince 
of  Russia. 


VARS   BETWEEN  THE    HEIRS   OF  VLADIMIR   MONOMACHUS — FALL  OF 

KIEF. 

Of  the  sons  of  Vladimir  Monomachus,  Ge orge  Dolgoroukj 
became  the  father  of  the  Princes  of  Souzdal  ana  Moscow,  and 
Mstislaf  the  father  of  the  Princes  of  Galitch  and  Kief.  These 
two  branches  were  often  at  enmity,  and  it  was  their  rivalry  that 
struck  the  final  blow  at  the  prosperity  of  Kief.  When  Isiaslaf, 
son  of  Mstislaf  (1146-1154),  was  called  to  the  throne  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  capital,  his  uncle,  George  Dolgorouki,  put 
forward  his  rights  as  the  eldest  of  the  family.  Kief,  which  had 
been  already  many  times  taken  and  re-taken  in  the  strife  between 
the  Olgovitchcs  (descendants  of  Oleg  of  Tchernigof)  and  the 
Monomachivitches  (descendants  of  Vladimir  Monomachus),  was 
fated  to  be  disputed  anew  between  the  uncle  and  the  nephew, 
It  was  almost  a  war  between  the  Old  and  New  Russia,  the 
Russia  of  the  Dnieper  and  that  of  the  Volga.  The  Princes  of 
Souzdal,  who  dwelt  afar  in  the  forests  in  the  north-west,  establish- 
ing their  rule  over  the  remnants  of  the  Finnish  races,  were  to 
become  greater  and  greater  strangers  to  Kievian  Russia.  If 
they  still  coveted  the  "  mother  of  Russian  cities,"  because  the 
title  of  Grand  Prince  was  attached  to  it,  they  at  least  began  to 
obey  and  to  venerate  it  less  than  the  other  princes. 

George  Dolgorouki  found  an  ally  against  Isiaslaf  in  one  of 
the  Olgovitches,  Sviatoslaf,  who  thirsted  to  avenge  his  brother 
Igor,  dethroned  and  kept  prisoner  in  Kief  by  the  Grand  Prince. 
The  Kievians  hesitated  to  support  the  sovereign  they  had  chosen  ; 
they  hated  the  Olgovitches,  but  in  their  attachment  to  the  blood 


82  HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

of  Monomachus,  they  respected  his  son  and  his  grandson  equally. 
"We  are  ready,"  they  said  to  Isiaslaf,  "we  and  our  children,  to 
make  war  on  the  sons  of  Oleg.  But  George  is  your  uncle,  and 
can  we  dare  to  raise  our  hands  against  the  son  of  Monomachus  ?  " 
After  the  war  had  lasted  some  time,  a  decisive  dattle  was  fought. 
At  the  battle  of  Perdiaslavl,  Isiaslaf  was  completely  defeated, 
and  took  refuge,  with  two  attendants,  in  Kief.  The  inhabitants, 
who  had  lost  many  citizens  in  this  war,  declared  they  were  un- 
able to  stand  a  siege.  The  Grand  Prince  then  abandoned  his 
capital  to  George  Dolgorouki  and  retired  to  Vladimir  in  Volhynia, 
whence  he  demanded  help  from  his  brother-in-law,  the  King  of 
Hungary,  and  the  kings  of  Poland  and  Bohemia.  With  these 
reinforcements  he  surprised  Kief,  and  nearly  made  his  uncle 
prisoner.  Understanding  that  the  national  law  was  against  him, 
he  opposed  eldest  with  eldest  and  declared  himself  the  partisan 
of  another  son  of  Monomachus,  the  old  Viajtcheslaf,  Prince  of 
Tourof.  He  was  proclaimed  Grand  Prince  of  Kief  (1150-1154), 
adopted  his  nephew  Isiaslaf  as  his  heir,  and  gave  splendid  fetes 
to  the  Russians  and  Hungarians.  George  returned  to  the  charge, 
and  was  beaten  under  the  walls  of  Kief.  Each  of  these  princes 
had  taken  barbarians  into  his  pay  :  George,  the  Polovtsi;  Isiaslaf 
the  Black  Caps,  that  is  the  Torques,  the  Patzinaks,  and  the 
Berendians. 

The  obstinate  Prince  of  Souzdal  did  not  allow  himself  to  be 
discouraged  by  tUis  check.  The  old  Viatcheslaf,  who  only  desired 
peace  and  quiet,  in  vain  addressed  him  letters,  setting  forth  his 
rights  as  elder.  "  I  had  already  a  beard  when  you  entered  the 
world,"  he  said.  George  proved  himself  intractable,  and  went 
into  Gallicia  to  effect  a  junction  with  his  ally,  Vladimirko,  Prince 
of  Galitch.  This  Vladimirko  had  violated  the  oath  he  had  taken 
and  confirmed  l>y  kissing  the  cross.  When  they  reproached  him, 
he  said,  with  a  sneer,  "  It  was  such  a  little  cross."  To  prevent 
this  dangerous  co-operation,  Isiaslaf,  without  waiting  the  expected 
arrival  of  the  Hungarians,  began  the  pursuit  of  George,  and 
came  up  with  him  on  the  borders  of  the  Rout,  a  small  tributary 
of  the  Dnieper.  A  bloody  battle  was  fought,  where  he  himself 
was  wounded  and  thrown  from  his  horse,  but  the  Souzdalians 
and  their  allies  the  Polovtsi  were  completely  defeated  (1151). 
Isiaslaf  survived  this  victory  only  three  years.  After  his  death 
and  that  of  Viatcheslaf,  Kief  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  George 
ended  by  reaching  the  supreme  object  of  his  desires.  He  made 
his  entry  into  the  capital  in  1155,  and  had  the  consolation  of 
dying  Grand  Prince  of  Kief  at  the  moment  that  a  league  was 
being  formed  for  his  expulsion  (1157).  "I  thank  Thee,  great 
God,"  cried  one  of  the  confederates  on  learning  the  news,  "for 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  83 

having  spared  us,  by  the  sudden  death  of  our  enemy,  the  obliga- 
tion of  shedding  his  blood  !  " 

The  confederates  entered  the  town  ;  one  of  them  assumed 
the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  the  others  divided  his  territories. 
Henceforth  there  existed  no  Grand  Principality,  properly  speak- 
ing, and  with  the  growing  power  of  Souzdal,  Kief  ceased  to  be 
the  capital  of  Russia.  A  final  disaster  was  still  reserved  for  her. 

In  1169,  Andrew  Bogolioubski,  son  of  George  Dolgorouki 
and  Prince  of  Souzdal,  being  disaffected  to  Mstislaf,  Prince  of 
Kief,  formed  against  him  a  coalition  of  eleven  princes.  He  con- 
fided to  his  son  Mstislaf  and  his  voi'evode  Boris  an  immense 
army  of  Rostovians,  Vladimiris,  and  Souzdalians  to  march 
against  Kief.  This  time  the  Russia  of  the  forests  triumphed 
over  Russia  of  the  steppes,  and  after  a  three  days'  siege  Kief 
was  taken  by  assault.  "  This  mother  of  Russian  cities,"  says 
Karamsin,  "  had  been  many  times  besieged  and  oppressed. 
She  had  often  opened  her  Golden  Gate  to  her  enemies,  but  none 
had  ever  yet  entered  by  force.  To  their  eternal  shame,  the 
victors  forgot  that  they  too  were  Russians !  During  three 
days  not  only  the  houses,  but  the  monasteries,  churches,  and 
even  the  temples  of  Saint  Sophia  and  the  Dime,  were  given  over 
to  pillage.  The  precious  images,  the  sacerdotal  ornaments,  the 
books,  and  the  bells,  all  were  taken  away." 

From  this  time  the  lot  of  the  capital  of  Saint  Vladimir,  pil- 
laged and  dishonored  by  his  descendants,  ceases  to  have  a  gen- 
eral interest  for  Russia.  Like  other  parts  of  Slavonia,  she  has 
her  princes,  but  the  heads  of  the  reigning  families  of  Smolensk, 
Tchernigof,  and  Galitch  assume  the  title,  formerly  unique,  of 
Grand  Prince.  The  centre  of  Russia  is  changed.  It  is  now  in 
the  basin  of  the  Volga,  at  Souzdal.  Many  causes  conspired  to 
render  the  disaster  of  1169  irremediable.  The  chronic  civil  wars 
of  this  part  of  Russia,  and  the  multitudes  and  growing  power  of 
nomad  hordes,  rendered  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper  uninhabitable. 
In  1203  Kief  was  again  sacked  by  the  Polovtsi,  whom  the  Olgo- 
vitches  of  Tchernigof  had  taken  into  their  pay.  On  this  soil,  inces- 
santly the  prey  of  war  and  invasion,  it  was  impossible  to  found 
a  lasting  order  of  things  ;  it  was  impossible  that  a  regular  system 
of  government  should  be  established — that  civilization  should 
develop  and  maintain  itself.  Less  richly  endowed  by  nature,  and 
less  civilized,  the  Russia  of  the  forests  was  at  least  more  tran- 
quil. It  was  there  that  a  grand  principality  was  formed,  called 
to  fulfil  high  destinies,  but  which  unhappily  was  to  be  separated 
for  three  hundred  years,  by  the  southern  steppes  and  the  nomads 
who  dwelt  there,  from  the  Black  Sea;  that  is,  from  Byzantine 
and  Occidental  civilization. 


HISTORY  OF  KUSS2A. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

RUSSIA  AFTER   THE   FALL  OF   KIEF.      POWER   OF   SOUZDAL  AND 
GALLICIA,   1169-1224. 

Andrew  Bogolioubski  of  Souzdal  (1157-1174),  and  the  first  attempt  at  autoc- 
racy— George  II.  (1212-1238) — Wars  with  Novgorod — Battle  of  Lipetsk 
(1216) — Foundation  of  Nijni-Novgorod  (1220) — Roman  (1188-1205)  andhU 
son  Daniel  (1205-1264)  in  Gallicia. 


ANDREW    BOGOLIOUBSKI    OF   SOUZDAL     (1157-1174)   AND   THE 
FIRST   ATTEMPT  AT  AUTOCRACY. 

AFTER  the  fall  of  the  grand  principality  of  Kief,  Russia 
ceased  to  have  a  centre  round  which  her  whole  mass  could 
gravitate.  Her  life  seemed  to  be  withdrawn  to  her  extremities  ; 
and  during  the  fifty  four  years  which  preceded  the  arrival  of 
the  Mongols,  all  the  interest  of  Russian  history  is  concentrated 
on  the  principality  of  Souzdal,  on  that  of  Galitch,  and  on  the 
two  republics  of  Novgorod  and  Pskof. 

George  Dolgorouki  was  the  founder  of  Souzdal^  but  we  have 
seen  him  expend  all  his  energy  in  securing  possession  of  the 
throne  of  Kief.  His  son  Andrew  Bogolioubski  was,  on  the  con- 
trary, a  true  prince  of  Souzdal.  From  him  are  descended  the 
Tzars  of  Moscow ;  with  him  there  appears  in  Russian  history 
quite  a  new  type  of  prince.  It  is  no  longer  the  chivalrous  light- 
hearted  careless  kniaz,  in  turn  a  prey  to  all  kinds  of  opposing 
passions,  the  joyous  kniaz  of  the  happy  land  of  Kief — but  an 
ambitious,  restless,  politic,  and  imperious  sovereign,  going 
straight  to  his  goal  without  scruple  and  without  pity.  Andrew 
had  taken  an  aversion  to  the  turbulent  cities  of  the  Dnieper, 
where  the  assemblies  of  citizens  sometimes  held  the  power  of 
the  prince  in  check.  In  Souzdal,  at  least,  he  found  himself  in 
the  centre  of  colonists  planted  by  the  prince,  who  never  dreamed 
of  contesting  his  authority  :  he  reigned  over  towns  which  for  the 
most  part  owed  their  existence  to  his  ancestors  or  himself. 
During  the  lifetime  of  his  father  George,  he  had  quitted  the 
Dnieper  and  his  palace  at  Vychegorod,  had  established  himself 
on  the  Kliazma,  bringing  with  him  a  Greek  image  of  the  mother 
of  God,  had  enlarged  and  fortified  Vladimir,  and  founded  a 
quarter  that  he  called  Bogolioubovo. 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  85 

When  after  the  death  of  George  the  grand  principality  be- 
came vacant,  he  allowed  the  princes  of  the  south  to  dispute  it 
among  themselves.  He  only  wished  to  mix  with  their  quarrels 
as  far  as  would  suffice  for  the  recognition  of  his  authority,  not  at 
Kief,  but  at  Novgorod  the  Great,  then  bound  by  the  closest  ties 
to  Souzdal.  He  established  one  of  his  nephews  as  his  lieuten- 
ant at  Novgorod.  A  glorious  campaign  against  the  Bulgarians 
increased  his  reputation  in  Russia.  He  deserved  more  than 
anyone  to  be  Grand  Prince  of  Kief,  but  we  have  seen  that  he 
preferred  to  pillage  it — that  he  preferred  a  sacrilegious  spoil  to 
the  throne  of  Monomachus. 

After  having  destroyed  the  splendor  and  power  of  Kief, 
and  guided  by  the  sure  instinct  that  afterwards  led  Ivan  the  Great 
and  Ivan  the  Terrible  against  Novgorod,  he  longed  to  subdue 
the  great  republic  to  a  narrower  dependence.  "  The  fall  of 
Kief,"  says  Karamsin,  "seemed  to  presage  the  loss  of  Novgorod 
liberty;  it  was  the  same  army,  and  it  was  the  same  prince 
(Mstislaf  Andreievitch)  who  commanded  it.  But  the  Kievians, 
accustomed  to  change  their  masters — to  sacrifice  the  vanquished 
to  the  victors — only  fought  for  the  honor  of  their  princes,  while 
the  Novgorodians  were  to  shed  their  blood  for  ths  defence  of  the 
laws  and  institutions  established  by  their  ancestors."  Mstis- 
laf, who  had  forced  the  princes  of  Smolensk,  Riazan,  Mourom, 
and  Polotsk  to  join  him,  put  the  territories  of  the  republic  to 
fire  and  sword,  but  only  succeeded  in  exasperating  the  courage- 
ous citizens.  When  fighting  began  under  the  walls  of  the  town, 
the  Novgorodians,  to  inflame  themselves  for  the  combat,  re- 
minded each  other  of  the  pillage  and  the  sacrilege  with  which 
their  adversaries  had  polluted  the  holy  city  of  Kief.  All  swore 
to  die  for  St.  Sophia  of  Novgorod  ;  their  archbishop,  Ivan,  took 
the  image  of  the  Mother  of  God  and  paraded  it  with  great  pomp 
round  the  walls.  It  is  said  that  an  arrow  shot  by  a  Souzdalian 
soldier  having  struck  the  image  of  the  Virgin,  her  face  turned 
towards  the  city,  and  inundated  the  vestments  of  the  archbishop 
with  miraculous  tears.  Instantly  a  panic  seized  the  besiegers. 
The  victory  of  the  Novgorodians  was  complete  ;  they  slew  a 
multitude  of  their  enemies,  and  made  so  many  prisoners,  that 
according  to  the  contemptuous  expression  of  their  chronicler, 
"You  could  get  six  Souzdalians  for  a  grivna  (1170)."  Their 
dependence  on  Souzdal  for  corn  soon  forced  them  to  make 
peace.  They  abandoned  none  of  the  ancient  rights  of  the  repub- 
lic, but  of  "  their  own  free  will,"  according  to  the  consecrated 
expression,  they  accepted  as  sovereign  the  prince  nominated  for 
them  by  Andrew  of  Souzdal. 

Andrew  about  this  time  lost  his  only  son,  his  heir,  Mstislaf. 


86  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSfA, 

The  knowledge  that  in  future  he  would  be  working  for  his  col- 
lateral relatives  no  whit  diminished  his  ambition  or  his  arro- 
gance. The  princes  of  Smolensk,  David,  Rurik,  and  Mstislaf 
the  Brave,  could  not  endure  his  despotic  ways,  and,  in  spite  of 
his  threats,  took  Kief.  The  Olgovitches  of  Tchernigof,  delighted 
to  see  discord  kindled  between  the  descendants  of  Monomachus, 
incited  Andrew  to  revenge  this  injury.  So  he  sent  a  herald  to 
the  princes  of  Smolensk,  to  say  to  them,  "  You  are  rebels  ;  the 
principality  of  Kief  is  mine.  I  order  Rurik  to  return  to  his 
patrimony  of  Smolensk,  and  David  to  retire  to  Berlad  ;  I  can  no 
longer  bear  his  presence  in  Russia,  nor  the  presence  of  Mstislaf, 
the  most  guilty  of  you  all." 

Mstislaf  the  Brave,  say  the  chroniclers,  "  feared  none  but 
God."  When  he  received  Andrew's  message,  he  shaved  the 
beard  and  hair  of  the  messenger,  and  answered  him  :  "  Go,  and 
repeat  these  words  unto  your  prince — '  Up  to  this  time  we  have 
respected  you  like  a  father,  but  since  you  do  not  blush  to  treat 
us  as  your  vassals  and  common  people,  since  you  have  forgotten 
that  you  speak  to  princes,  we  mock  at  your  menaces.  Execute 
them — we  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  God.;  "  The  judgment  of 
God  was  an  encounter  under  the  walls  of  Vychegorod,  besieged 
by  more  than  twenty  princes,  allies  or  vassals  of  Andrew  of 
Souzdal.  Mstislaf  succeeded  in  dividing  the  assailants,  and 
completed  their  defeat  by  a  victorious  sortie,  1173. 

When  Andrew  came  to  establish  himself  in  the  land  of 
Souzdal,  the  inhabitants  themselves  elected  him  their  prince,  to 
the  exclusion  of  other  members  of  the  family.  But  this  enemy 
of  municipal  liberty  had  no  intention  of  fixing  his  residence 
either  at  Rostof  or  Souzdal,  the  two  most  ancient  cities  of  the 
principality,  which  had  their  assembly  of  citizens,  their  Tetcht. 
From  the  beginning  he  conceived  the  project  of  raising  above 
them  a  new  town,  Vladimir  on  the  Kliazmas  considered  by 
Rostof  and  Souzdal  merely  a  subject  borough.  To  give  a  plaus- 
ible pretext  to  this  resolution  he  had  his  tent  pitched  on  the 
road  to  Souzdal  ten  versts  from  Vladimir,  and  installed  himself 
there  with  his  miraculous  image  of  the  Virgin  which  came  from 
Constantinople,  and  was,  we  are  assured,  the  work  of  St.  Luke. 
The  next  day  he  announced  that  the  Mother  of  God  had  ap- 
appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  and  had  commanded  him  to  place 
her  image,  not  at  Rostof,  but  at  Vladimir.  He  was  likewise  to 
build  a  church  and  a  monastery  to  the  Virgin  on  the  spot  where 
she  made  herself  manifest ;  this  was  the  origin  of  the  village  of 
Bogolioubovo.  Andrew  preferred  Vladimir  to  the  old  cities,  but 
it  v.  as  in  his  house  at  Bogolioabovo  that  he  best  liked  to  live. 
He  tried  to  make  of  Vladimir  a  new  Kief,  as  Kief  herself  was  a 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  87 

new  Byzantium.  There  were  at  Vladimir  a  Golden  Gate,  a 
Church  of  the  Dime  consecrated  to  the  Virgin,  and  numer- 
ous monasteries  built  by  the  artists  summoned  by  Andrew  from 
the  West. 

Andrew  sought  the  friendship  of  the  priests,  whom  he  felt  to 
be  one  of  the  great  forces  of  the  future.  He  posed  as  a  pious 
prince,  rose  often  by  night  to  burn  tapers  in  the  churches,  and 
publicly  distributed  alms  in  abundance.  After  a  victory  over  the 
Bulgarians  of  the  Volga,  he  obtained  leave  from  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople  to  establish  a  commemorative  -feast.  It 
happened  that  on  the  same  day  that  Andrew  triumphed  over  the 
Bulgarians,  thanks  to  the  image  of  the  Virgin,  the  Emperor  Man- 
uel had  won  a  victory  over  the  Saracens  by  means  of  the  true 
cross  and  the  image  of  Christ  represented  on  his  standard.  One 
anniversary  served  for  both  victories  of  orthodoxy,  and  Vladimir 
was  in  harmony  with  Byzantium.  Andrew  was  anxious  to  make 
Vladimir  a  metropolitan  city.  At  the  same  time  that  he  robbed 
Kief  of  the  grand  principality,  he  would  have  deprived  her  <*f 
the  religious  supremacy  of  Russia,  and  given  his  new  city  th» 
spiritual  as  well  as  the  temporal  power.  This  time  the  patriarch 
refused,  but  the  attempt  was  one  day  to  be  renewed  by  th« 
princes  of  Moscow. 

What  more  particularly  proves  this  prince — who  had  rise* 
from  the  conception  of  appanages  to  that  of  the  indivisible 
modern  state — to  have  been  superior  to  his  century,  to  have  had 
sure  instincts  as  to  the  future,  is  that  he  declined  to  share  his 
dominions  with  his  brothers  and  nephews.  In  spite  of  the  tes- 
tamentary directions  of  George,  he  expelled  his  three  brothers 
from  Souzdal,  and  they  retired  with  their  mother,  a  Greek 
princess,  to  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Manuel.  It  appears  that 
this  measure  was  advised  by  the  men  of  Souzdal.  The  subjects 
then  had  the  same  instinct  of  unity  as  the  prince.  If  he  broke 
with  the  patriarchal  custom  of  appanages^  and  wished  to  reign 
alone  in  Vladimir,  he  broke  equally  with  the  Varangian  tradition 
of  the  droujina  ;  he  treated  his  men,  his  boyards,  not  as  com- 
panions, but  as  subjects.  Those  who  refused  to  bow  to  his  will 
had  to  leava  the  country.  We  may  say  that  Andrew  Bogolioub- 
ski  created  autocracy  300  years  before  its  time.  He  indicated 
in  the  i2th  century  all  that  the  Grand  Princes  of  Moscow  had 
to  do  in  the  i5th  and  i6th  centuries,  to  attain  absolute  power. 
His  mistrust  of  municipal  liberty,  his  despotic  treatment  of  the 
boyards,  his  efforts  to  suppress  the  appanages,  his  proud 
attitude  towards  the  other  Russian  princes,  his  alliance  with  tho 
clergy,  and  his  project  of  transporting  to  the  basin  of  the  Oka 
the  religious  metropolis  of  all  the  Russias,  are  the  indications  oi 


88  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

a  political  programme  that  ten  generations  of  princes  did  not 
suffice  to  carry  out.  The  moment  was  not  yet  come  ;  Andrew 
had  not  enough  power,  nor  Souzdal  resources  enough  to  sub- 
jugate the  rest  of  Russia.  Andrew  succeeded  against  Kief,  but 
he  endured  a  double  check  from  Novgorod  the  Great,  and  from 
Mstislaf  the  Brave,  and  the  princes  of  the  south.  His  despotism 
made  him  terrible  enemies.  His  boyards,  whom  he  tried  to 
reduce  to  obedience,  assassinated  him  in  his  favorite  residence 
of  Bogolioubovo  (1174). 


GEORGE    II.     (1212-1238)  —  WARS    WITH    NOVGOROD — BATTLE   OF 
LIPETSK  (l2l6) — NIJNI-NOVGOROD  FOUNDED  (l22o). 

The  death  of  this  remarkable  man  was  followed  by  great 
troubles.  The  common  people  attacked  the  houses  of  rich  men 
and  magistrates,  gave  them  up  to  pillage,  and  committed  so 
many  murders  that  to  establish  quiet  the  clergy  were  forced  to 
have  a  procession  of  images.  The  unpunished  murders  show 
how  premature  was  the  autocratic  attempt  of  Andrew.  His 
succession  was  disputed  between  his  nephews  and  his  two 
brothers  Michael  and  Vsevolod,  who  had  returned  from  Greece. 
The  nephews  were  supported  by  the  old  cities  of  Rostof  and 
Souzdal,  which  were  animated  by  a  violent  hatred  of  fat  parvenu* 
city  of  Vladimir,  that  had  torn  from  them  the  title  of  capital, 
and  had  taken  up  the  cause  of  Michael  and  Vsevolod.  "  The 
Vladimirians,"  said  the  Rostovians,  "  are  our  slaves,  our  masons  ; 
let  us  burn  their  town,  and  set  up  there  a  governor  of  our  own." 
The  Vladimirians  had  the  advantage  in  the  first  war,  and  caused 
Michael,  the  elder  of  Andrew's  brothers,  to  be  recognized  Grand 
Prince  of  Souzdal.  At  his  death  the  Rostovians  refused  to  re- 
cognize the  other  brother  Vsevolod,  surnamed  the  Big-Nest,  on 
account  of  his  numerous  posterity.  They  resisted  all  proposals 
of  compromise,  declaring  that  "  their  arms  alone  should  do 
them  right  on  the  vile  populace  of  Vladimir."  It  was,  on  the 
contrary,  the  vile  populace  of  Vladimir  who  put  the  boyards  of 
Rostof  in  chains.  The  two  ancient  cities  were  forced  to  submit ; 
Vladimir  remained  the  capital  of  Souzdal.  Vsevolod  (1176- 
1212)  managed  to  secure  himself  on  the  throne  by  defeating  the 
princes  of  Riazan  and  Tchernigof.  He  extended  his  influence 
to  the  distant  Galitch,  and  contracted  matrimonial  alliances  with 
the  princes  of  Kief  and  Smolensk.  He  reduced  the  Novgorodians 
to  beg  for  one  of  his  sons  as  their  prince.  "  Lord  and  Grand 
Prince,"  said  the  envoys  of  the  republic  to  him,  "  our  country  is 
your  patrimony  ;  we  entreat  you  to  send  us  the  grandson  of 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  89 

George  Dolgorouki,  the  great-grandson  of  Monomachus,  to 
govern  us."  The  princes  of  Riazan  having  incurred  his  dis- 
pleasure, he  united  their  states  to  his  principality.  Riazan  re- 
belled, and  was  reduced  to  ashes,  and  the  inhabitants  trans- 
ported to  the  solitudes  of  Souzdal.  This  prince,  who  has  like- 
wise been  called  "  The  Great,"  exhibited  in  his  designs  the 
prudence,  the  spirit  of  intrigue,  constancy,  and  firmness  which 
characterized  the  princes  of  the  Russia  of  the  forests.  At  his 
death  (1212)  the  troubles  began  again.  Dissatisfied  with  his 
eldest  son  Constantine^  prince  of  Novgorod,  Vsevolod  had  given 
the  grand  principality  of  Novgorod  to  his  second  son,  George 
II.  Constantine  had  to  content  himself  with  Rostof  ;  a  third 
Brother,  lajx^sjaj:,  prince  of  Pereiaslavl-Zaliesski,  had  been  sent 
to  Novgorod. 

laroslaf  quarrelled  with  his  turbulent  subjects,  left  their 
town  and  installed  himself  at  Torjok,  a  city  in  the  territory  of 
Novgorod,  where  he  betook  himself  to  hindering  the  passage  of 
the  merchants  and  boyards.  Their  communications  with  the 
Volga  were  intercepted  ;  he  presented  the  arrival  of  corn,  and 
reduced  the  town  to  starvation.  The  Novgorodians  were  obliged 
to  eat  the  bark  of  pines,  moss,  and  lime-leaves.  The  streets 
were  rilled  with  the  bodies  of  the  wretched  inhabitants,  which 
the  dogs  devoured.  laroslaf  was  implacable.  He  persisted  in 
remaining  at  Torjok,  refused  to  retnrn  to  Novgorod,  and  arrested 
all  envoys  sent  to  him.  He  treated  Novgorod  as  his  father  had 
treated  Rostof  and  Souzdal.  But  help  arrived  to  the  despair- 
ing citizens  in  the  person  of  a  prince  of  Smolensk,  Mstisjaf  the 
Bold,  son  of  Mstislaf  the  Brave.  "  Torjok  shall  not  hold  her- 
self higher  than  Novgorod,"  he  cried  ;  "  I  will  deliver  your 
lands  and  your  citizens,  or  leave  my  bones  among  you."  Thus 
Mstislaf  became  prince  of  Novgorod  ;  and  as  he  saw  that  the 
Grand  Prince  of  Vladimir  supported  his  brothers,  he  sought  an 
ally  in  Constantine  of  Rostof,  who  was  discontented  with  his 
inheritance.  The  Novgorodian  quarrel  speedily  expanded  into 
a  general  war,  and  Mstisaf  contrived  to  make  Souzdal  the  scene 
of  strife.  Before  a  battle  he  tried  to  effect  a  reconciliation  be- 
tween the  two  princes  of  Vladimir  and  Rostof.  But  George 
answered,  "  If  my  father  was  not  able  to  reconcile  me  with 
Constantine,  has  Mstislaf  the  right  to  judge  between  us  ?  Let 
Constantine  be  victorious  and  all  will  be  his."  This  strife  be- 
tween the  three  sons  of  Big-Nest  had  all  the  fierceness  of  frater- 
nal warefare.  Before  the  battle  George  and  laroslaf  issued 
orders  that  quarter  was  to  be  given  to  no  one,  to  kill  even  those 
vrho  had  "  embroideries  of  gold  on  their  shoulders  ;  "  that  is, 
the  princes  of  the  blood.  Already  they  had  decided  on  the 


90  HISTORY  OJr  RUSSIA. 

partition  of  Russia.  But  the  troops  of  Novgorod,  Pskof,  and 
Smolensk  attacked  them  with  such  fury  that  those  of  Souzdal 
and  Mourom  gave  way,  and  it  was  the  soldiers  of  Mstislaf  who 
in  their  turn  gave  no  quarter.  Nine  thousand  men  were  killed 
and  only  sixty  prisoners  taken.  George  threw  off  his  royal 
clothes,  wore  out  the  strength  of  three  horses,  and  with  the 
fourth  just  managed  to  reach  Vladimir.  (Battle  of  Iyipet,sk.  near 
Perdiaslavl-Zaliesski,  1216.)  Constantine  then  became  Grand 
Prince  of  Vladimir,  and  ceded  Souzdal  to  his  brother  George, 
laroslaf  was  obliged  to  renounce  Novgorod,  and  release  the  cap- 
tive citizens. 

At  the  death  of  Constantine  (1217)  George  regained  the 
throne  of  Vladimir.  Under  him  the  expeditions  against  the 
Bulgarians  of  the  Volga  and  the  Mordvians  were  continued. 
These  expeditions  were  organized  both  by  land  and  water ;  the 
infantry  descended  the  Oka  and  the  Volga  in  boats,  the  cavalry 
marched  along  the  banks.  They  attacked  and  burnt  the  wooden 
forts  of  the  Bulgars,  and  destroyed  the  population. 

During  a  campaign,  conducted  by  George  in  person  along 
the  whole  length  of  the  Volga,  he  noticed  a  small  hill  on  its  right 
bank,  near  its  junction  with  the  Oka.  Here,  in  the  midst  of  the 
Mordvian  tribes,  he  founded  N ij n i-Novgorod  {i 2 2 Q).  A  Mord- 
vian tradition  gives  its  own  account  of  this  important  event. 
"  The  prince  of  the  Russians  sailed  down  the  Volga  ;  on  the 
mountain  he  perceived  the  Mordva  in  a  long  white  coat,  adoring 
her  god  ;  and  he  said  to  his  warrors, '  What  is  that  white  birch  that 
bends  and  sways  up  there,  above  its  nurse  the  earth,  and  inclines 
towards  the  east  ? '  He  sent  his  men  to  look  nearer,  and  they 
came  back  and  said,  '  It  is  not  a  birch  that  bends  and  sways,  it 
is  the  Mordva  adoring  her  god.  In  their  vessels  they  have  a 
delicious  beer,  pancakes  hang  on  sticks,  and  their  priests  cook 
their  meat  in  caldrons.'  The  elders  of  the  Mordva,  hearing  of  the 
Russian  prince,  sent  young  men  with  gifts  of  meat  and  beer. 
But  on  the  road  the  young  men  ate  the  meat  and  drank  the  beer, 
and  only  brought  the  Russian  prince  earth  and  water.  The 
prince  was  rejoiced  at  this  present,  which  he  considered  as  a 
mark  of  submission  of  the  Mordva.  He  continued  to  descend 
the  Volga  :  where  he  threw  a  handful  of  this  earth  on  the  bank, 
a  town  sprang  up :  where  he  threw  a  pinch  of  this  earth,  a  village 
was  born.  It  was  thus  that  the  Mordvian  land  became  subject 
to  the  Russians." 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  gt 

ROMAN    (1188-1205)   AND    HIS   SON   DANIEL   (1205-1264)    IN 
GALITCH. 

Galitch  offers  a  remarkable  contrast  to  Souzdal  ;  peopled  by 
Khorvates  or  White  Croats,  she  had  preserved  a  purely  Slavonic 
character  in  spite  of  her  conquest  by  Varangian  princes.  "  The 
prince,"  says  M.  Kostomarof,  "  was  a  prince  of  the  old  Slavonic 
type.  He  was  elected  by  a  popular  assembly,  and  kept  his 
crown  by  its  consent." 

The  assembly  itself  was  governed  by  the  richest  men  of  the 
country,  the  boyards.  Under  the  influence  of  Polish  and  Hun- 
garian ideas  the  boyards  had  raised  themselves  above  the  mass 
of  the  people,  and  formed  a  strong  aristocracy  which  really 
ruled  the  country.  When  laroslaf  Osmomysl  (glorified  in  the 
Song  of  Igor)  neglected  his  lawful  wife  Olga  for  his  mistress 
Anastasia,  the  nobles  rose,  burnt  Anastasia  alive,  and  obliged 
the  prince  to  send  away  his  natural  son,  and  to  recognize  his 
legitimate  son  Vladimir  as  his  heir. 

When  Vladimir  became  prince,  he  lost  no  time  in  incurring 
their  hatred.  He  was  accused  of  abandoning  himself  to  vice 
and  drunkenness,  of  despising  the  councils  of  wise  men,  of  dis- 
honoring the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  nobles,  and  of  having 
married  as  his  second  wife  the  widow  of  a  priest.  It  did  not 
need  all  this  to  exhaust  the  patience  of  the  Gallicians.  They 
summoned  Vladimir  to  give  up  the  woman  that  they  might  punish 
her.  Vladimir  took  fright,  and  fled  to  Hungary  with  his  family 
and  his  treasures.  This  was  all  the  boyards  desired,  and  they 
offered  the  throne  to  Roman,  prince  of  Volhynia  (1188).  But 
Bela,  king  of  Hungary,  brought  back  the  fugitive  prince  with  an 
army,  and  entered  Galitch.  There  he  suddenly  changed  his 
mind,  and  coveted  this  beautiful  country,  rich  in  salt  and  miner- 
als, for  himself.  He  threw  his  prot/gJ  Vladimir  into  prison,  and 
proclaimed  his  own  son  AncLtejy.  The  Hungarian  yoke  seemed 
naturally  more  heavy  to  the  Gallicians  than  the  authority  of  their 
easy-going  princes.  They  expelled  the  strangers,  and  recalled 
Vladimir,  who  had  found  means  to  escape,  and  had  taken  refuge 
with  Frederick  Barbarossa.  When  Vladimir  died,  Roman  of 
Volhynia  resolved  at  all  hazards  to  enter  Galitch.  His  rival  had 
previously  appealed  to  the  Hungarians,  so  he  applied  to  the 
Poles,  and,  with  an  auxiliary  army  given  him  by  Casimir  the 
Just,  he  reconquered  Galitch.  The  turbulent  boyards  had  at 
last  found  their  master. 

This  time  Roman  held  the  crown,  not  by  election,  but  by  con- 
quest. He  resolved  to  subdue  the  proud  aristocracy.  The  Po- 
lish Bishop  Kadloubek,  a  contemporary  writer,  who  sympathsized 


g  2  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSJA. 

with  the  oligarchs,  draws  a  frightful  picture  of  the  vengeance 
exercised  by  Roman  on  his  enemies.  They  were  quartered, 
buried  alive,  riddled  with  arrows,  delivered  over  to  horrible  tor- 
tures. He  had  promised  pardon  to  those  who  had  fled ;  but 
when  they  returned,  he  accused  them  of  conspiracy,  condemned 
them  to  death,  and  confiscated  their  goods.  "  To  eat  a  drop  of 
honey  in  peace,"  he  said  cynically,  "  you  must  first  kill  the  bees." 
The  Russian  chroniclers,  on  the  contrary,  praise  him  highly.  He 
was  another  Monomachus,  an  invincible  and  redoubtable  hero, 
who  "  walked  in  the  ways  of  God,  exterminated  the  heathen,  flung 
himself  like  a  lion  upon  the  infidels,  was  savage  as  a  wildcat,  deadly 
as  a  crocodile,  swooped  on  his  prey  like  an  eagle."  More  than 
once  he  vanquished  the  Lithuanian  tribes  and  the  Polovtsi ;  in 
the  civil  wars  of  Russia  he  was  likewise  victorious,  and  gave  to 
one  of  his  relations  the  throne  of  Kief.  He  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  great  Pope,  Innocent  III.,  who  sent  missionaries  to 
convert  him  to  the  Catholic  faith,  promising  to  make  him  a  great 
king  by  the  sword  of  Saint  Peter.  Drawing  his  own  sword, 
Roman  proudly  answered  the  envoys  of  Innocent :  "  Has  the 
Pope  one  like  mine  ?  While  I  wear  it  at  my  side,  I  have  no  need 
of  another's  blade."  In  1205,  when  he  was  engaged  in  a  war 
with  Poland,  he  imprudently  ventured  too  far  from  his  army  on 
the  banks  of  the  Vistula,  and  perished  in  an  unequal  combat. 
His  exploits  were  long  remembered  in  Russia,  and  the  '  Chroni- 
cle of  Volhynia'  gives  him  the  surname  of  "  the  Great,"  and 
"  the  Autocrat  of  all  the  Russias."  A  historian  of  Lithuania  re- 
lates that,  after  his  victories  over  the  barbarous  inhabitants  of 
that  country,  he  harnessed  the  prisoners  to  the  plough.  Hence 
the  popular  saying,  "  Thou  art  terrible,  Roman ;  the  Lithuan- 
ians are  thy  laboring  oxen."  Roman  of  Volhynia  is  a  worthy 
contemporary  of  the  autocrat  of  the  north-west,  Andrew  of  Souz- 
dal. 

Roman  left  two  sons,  minors.  Daniel  the  elder  was  pro- 
claimed prince  of  Galitch  (1205-1264),  but  in  such  a  turbulent 
country,  rent  as  it  was  by  factions,  it  was  impossible  for  a  child 
to  reign  under  the  guardianship  of  his  mother.  Red  Russia  fell 
a  prey  to  a  series  of  civil  wars,  complicated  by  the  intervention 
of  Poles  and  Hungarians.  The  ferocity  shown  by  the  Gallicians 
in  their  intestine  struggles  has  gained  for  them  the  name  of 
atheist  in  the  Kievian  Chronicles.  The  princes  of  the  blood  of 
Saint  Vladimir  were  tortured  and  hung  by  the  boyards.  Daniel 
was  first  replaced  on  the  throne,  then  expelled,  then  again  re- 
called. His  infancy  was  the  toy  of  intriguing  factions.  Mstis- 
laf  the  Bold  also  came  hither  in  search  of  adventures.  He 
chased  the  Hungarians  from  Galitch,  took  the  title  of  Prince, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  93 

and  married  his  daughter  to  Daniel.  Both  were  immediately 
obliged  to  turn  their  arms  against  the  Poles.  Daniel,  whose 
character  had  been  formed  in  such  a  rough  school,  displayed  re- 
markable energy  and  courage  in  these  campaigns.  The  aid  of 
the  Polovtsi  had  to  be  sought  against  these  enemies  from  the 
west,  the  Hungarians  and  the  Poles — now  rivals,  now  allies. 
At  the  death  of  Mstislaf  the  Bold  (1228),  Daniel,  who  five  years 
previously  had  taken  part  in  the  battle_of_Kaj^a  against  the  Ta- 
tars, became  prince  of  Galitch.  Towards  the  boyards,  whose 
turbulence  had  ruined  the  country,  he  acted  with  the  salutary 
policy  of  Roman,  though  without  employing  the  same  severity. 

The  great  Mongol  invasion  once  more  expelled  him  from 
Galitch,  which  it  covered  with  ruins.  Daniel,  who  had  fled  to 
Hungary,  did  his  best  to  help  his  unhappy  country.  To  fill  up 
the  void  made  by  the  Mongols  in  the  population,  he  invited 
Germans,  Armenians,  and  Jews,  whom  he  loaded  with  privileges. 
The  economic  consequence  of  this  measure  was  a  rapid  develop- 
ment of  commerce  and  industry  ;  the  ethnographic  consequence 
was  the  introduction  into  Gallicia  of  a  Jewish  element,  very 
tenacious  and  very  persistent,  but  alien  to  the  dominant  nation- 
ality, and  forming  a  separate  people  in  the  midst  of  the  Rus- 
sians. Daniel  was  one  of  the  last  princes  to  make  his  submis- 
sion to  the  horde.  "  You  have  done  well  to  come  at  last,"  said 
the  khan  of  the  Mongols.  Bati  treated  him  with  distinction,  al- 
lowed him  to  escape  the  ordinary  humiliations,  and,  seeing  that 
the  fermented  milk  of  the  Tatars  was  not  to  his  taste,  gave  him 
a  cup  of  wine.  Daniel,  however,  bore  with  impatience  the  yoke 
of  these  barbarians. 

Feeling  himself  insolated  in  the  general  abasement  of  the 
orthodox  world,  the  prince  of  Galitch  turned  towards  Rome, 
and  promised  to  do  his  best  for  the  union  of  the  two  Churches 
and  to  add  his  contingent  to  the  crusade  preached  in  Europe 
against  the  Mongols.  Innocent  IV,  called  him  his  dear  son,  ac- 
corded him  the  title  of  king,  and  sent  him  a  crown  and  sceptre. 
Daniel  was  solemnly  crowned  at  Droguitchine  by  the  abbot  of 
Messina,  Legate  of  the  Pope  (1254).  Both  the  crusade  against 
the  Asiatics  and  the  reconciliation  between  the  two  .Churches 
came  to  nothing.  Daniel  braved  the  reproaches  and  threats  of 
Alexander  IV.,  but  kept  the  title  of  king.  He  took  part  in  the 
European  \vars  with  great  success.  "  The  Hungarians,"  says 
a  chronicler,  "  admired  the  order  that  reigned  among  his  troops, 
their  Tatar  weapons,  the  magnificence  of  the  prince,  his  Greek 
habit  embroidered  with  gold,  his  sabre  and  his  arrows,  his  sad- 
dles enriched  with  jewels  and  precious  metals  richly  chased." 
Encouraged  by  the  Hungarians  and  the  Poles,  he  tried  to  shake 


94 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


off  the  yoke  of  the  Mongols,  and  expelled  them  from  a  few 
places ;  but  he  was  soon  obliged  to  bow  to  superior  force,  and 
dismantle  his  fortresses.  No  prince  better  deserved  to  free 
Southern  Russia,  but  his  activity  and  talents  struggled  in  vain 
against  the  fate  of  his  country.  He  terminated  in  1264  one  of 
the  most  memorable  and  most  checkered  careers  in  the  history 
of  Russia.  The  civil  wars  of  his  youth,  the  Tatar  invasion  in 
his  ripe  age,  the  negotiations  and  wars  with  Western  Europe, 
left  him  no  repose.  After  him,  Russian  Galitch  passed  to  dif- 
ferent princes  of  his  family.  In  the  i4th  century,  she  was 
absorbed  into  the  kingdom  of  Poland.  She  was  lost  to  Russia. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSTA. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  RUSSIAN    REPUBLICS  :    NOVGOROD,  PSKOF,  AND    VIATKA,  UP  TO 

1224. 

Novgorod  the  Great — Her  struggles  with  the  princes — Novgorodian  institu- 
tions— Commerce — National  Church — Literature — Pskof  and  Vitaka. 


NOVGOROD  THE  GREAT — STRUGGLES    WITH  THE  PRINCES. 

NOVGOROD  has  been,  from  the  most  remote  antiquity,  the 
political  centre  of  the  Russia  of  the  North-west.  The  origin  of  the 
Slavs  of  the  Ilmen,  who  laid  her  foundations,  is  still  uncertain. 
Some  learned  Russians,  such  as  M.  Kostomarof,  suppose  them 
to  belong  to  the  Slavs  of  the  South,  others  to  the  Slavs  of  the 
Bakic  ;  others,  again,  like  M.  Bielaef  and  M.  Ilovaiski,  make 
them  a  branch  of  the  Krivitch  or  Smolensk  Slavs.  We  find  the 
Novgorodians,  at  the  opening  of  Russian  history,  at  the  head  of 
the  confederation  of  tribes  which  first  expelled  and  then  recalled 
the  Varangians  to  reign  over  Russia. 

Novgorod,  from  very  ancient  times,  was  divided  into  two 
parts,  separated  by  the  course  of  the  Volkhof,  which  rises  in  lake 
Ilmen  and  falls  into  the  Ladoga.  On  the  right  bank  was  the 
side  of  Saint  Sophia,  where  laroslaf  the  Great  built  his  celebrated 
cathedral ;  where  the  Novgorod  kremlin  was  situated,  enclosing 
both  the  palaces  of  the  Archbishop  and  the  prince  ;  and  where 
the  famous  Russian  monument  was  consecrated  in  1862.  On 
the  left  bank,  the  side  of  commerce,  will  its  Court  of  laroslaf ; 
the  bridge  which  joins  the  two  halves  of  the  city  is  celebrated  in 
the  annals  of  Novgorod.  The  side  of  Saint  Sophia  includes  the 
Nerevian  quarter  as  well  as  those  of  "  beyond  the  city,"  and  of 
the  potters  (Nerevski,  Zagorodni,  Gontcharni}.  The  side  of  com- 
merce comprised  the  quarters  of  the  carpenters  and  Slavs.  An- 
cient documents  also  speak  of  a  Prussian  (Lithuanian)  quarter. 
Some  of  these  names  seem  to  indicate  that  many  races  have 
concurred,  as  in  ancient  Rome,  to  form  the  city  of  Novgorod. 
Gilbert  of  Lannoy,  who  visited  the  republic  about  1413,  has  left 


pfi  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA, 

us  this  description  of  it :  "  Novgorod  is  a  prodigiously  large  town 
situated  in  a  beautiful  plain,  in  the  midst  of  vast  forests.  The 
soil  is  low,  subject  to  inundations,  marshy  in  places.  The  town 
is  surrounded  by  imperfect  ramparts,  formed  of  gabions  ;  the 
towers  are  of  stone."  Portions  of  these  ramparts  still  exist,  and 
allow  us  to  form  an  idea  of  the  immense  extent  of  the  ancient 
city.  The  kremlin  forms  its  acropolis.  The  cathedral  has  pre- 
served its  frescoes  of  the  i2th  century,  the  pillars  painted  with 
images  of  saints  on  a  golden  ground,  the  imposing  figure  of 
Christ  on  the  cupola,  the  banner  of  the  Virgin,  which  was  to  re- 
vive the  courage  of  the  besieged  on  the  ramparts :  the  tombs  of 
Saint  Vladimir  laroslavitch,  of  the  Archbishop  Nikita,  by  whose 
prayers  a  fire  was  extinguished,  of  Mstislaf  the  Brave,  the  de- 
voted defender  of  Novgorod,  and  of  many  other  saints  and  illus- 
trious people.  Without  counting  the  tributary  cities  of  Novgorod, 
such  as  Pskof,  Ladoga,  Izborsk,  Veliki  Louki,  Staraia  Roussa 
(Old  Russia),  Torjok,  Biejitchi,  her  primitive  territory  (the 
"  ager  Romanus  "  of  the  republic)  was  divided  into  five  fifths 
(piatincs),  the  Vodskaia,  the  Chelonskata,  the  Obonejs  kaia  the 
Biejetska'ia,  and  the  Dcreveksdia,  which  included  the  land  to  the 
south  of  the  lakes  Ladoga  and  Onega.  Her  conquests  formed 
five  bailiwicks  or  volosts  occupying  the  whole  of  Northern  Russia, 
and  extending  as  far  as  Siberia.  These  bailiwicks  were  the  Zavo- 
lotchit  between  the  Onega  and  the  Mezen  ;  the  Tr^  or  Russian 
Lapland  ;  Pertnia,  on  the  Upper  Kama  ;  Petchora,  on  the  river  of 
the  same  name  ;  and  lougria,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Oural 
mountains.  To  these  we  must  add  Ingria,  Carelia,  and  part  of 
Livonia  and  Esthonia. 

Novgorod,  which  had  summoned  the  Varangian  princes,  was 
too  powerful,  with  her  100,000  inhabitants  and  300,000  subjects, 
to  allow  herself  to  be  tyrannized  over.  An  ancient  tradition 
speaks  vaguely  of  a  revolt  against  Rurik  the  Old  under  the  hero 
Vadim.  Sviatoslaf,  the  conqueror  of  the  Bulgaria  of  the  Dan- 
ube, undertook  to  govern  her  by  mere  agents,  but  Novgorod  in- 
sisted on  having  one  of  his  sons  for  her  prince.  "  If  you  do  not 
come  to  reign  over  us,"  said  the  citizens,  "  we  shall  know  how 
to  find  ourselves  other  princes."  laroslaf  the  Great,  as  a  re- 
ward for  their  devotion,  accorded  them  immense  privileges,  of 
which  no  record  can  be  found,  but  which  are  constantly  in- 
voked by  the  Novgorodians,  as  were  the  true  or  false  charters 
of  Charles  the  Great  by  the  German  cities.  These  republicans 
could  not  exist  without  a  prince,  but  they  rarely  kept  one  long. 
The  assembly  of  the  citizens,  the  vctM,,  convoked  by  the  bell 
in  the  Court  of  laroslaf,  was  the  real  sovereign.  The  republic 
called  herself  "  My  Lord  Novgorod  th*  Great "  (Gospodine  Velr 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


97 


ikii  Novgorod).  "  Who  can  equal  God  and  the  great  Novgo- 
rod ? "  was  a  popular  saying.  From  the  distance  of  the  city 
from  the  Russia  of  the  Dnieper,  and  her  position  towards  the 
Baltic  and  Western  Europe,  she  took  little  part  in  the  civil  wars 
of  which  Kief  was  the  object  and  the  centre.  She  profited  by 
this  in  a  certain  sense  ;  for  in  the  midst  of  the  strifes  of  princes 
and  of  frequent  changes  in  the  grand  principality,  no  sovereign 
was  strong  enough  to  give  her  a  master.  She  could  choose  be- 
tween princes  of  the  rival  families.  She  could  impose  condi- 
tions on  him  whom  she  chose  to  reign  over  her.  If  discontented 
with  his  management,  she  expelled  the  prince  and  his  band  of 
antrustions.  According  to  the  accustomed  formula,  "  she  made 
a  reverence,  and  showed  him  the  way"  to  leave  Novgorod. 
Sometimes,  to  hinder  his  evil  designs,  she  kept  him  prisoner  in 
the  archbishop's  palace,  and  it  was  left  to  his  successor  to  set 
him  at  liberty.  Often  a  revolution  was  accompanied  by  a  gen- 
eral pillage  of  the  partisans  of  the  fallen  prince,  even  by  noyades 
in  the  Volkhof.  A  grand  Prince  of  Kief,  Sviatopolk,  wished  to 
force  his  son  on  them.  "  Send  him  here,"  said  the  Novgoro- 
dians,  "  if  he  has  a  spare  head."  The  princes  themselves  con- 
tributed to  the  frequent  changes  of  reign.  They  only  felt  them- 
selves half-rulers  in  Novgorod,,  so  they  accepted  any  other  ap- 
panage with  joy.  Thus,  in  H32,Vsevolod  Gabriel  abandoned 
Novgorod  to  reign  at  Pereiaslavl.  When  his  hopes  of  Kief  were 
crushed,  and  he  wished  to  return  to  Novgorod,  the  citizens  re- 
jected him.  "  You  have  forgotten  your  oath  to  die  with  us,  you 
have  sought  another  principality  ;  go  where  you  will."  Pres- 
ently they  thought  better  of  it,  and  took  him  back.  Four  years 
afterwards  he  was  again  obliged  to  fly.  In  a  great  vetche,  to 
which  the  citizens  of  Pskof  and  Ladoga  were  summoned,  they 
solemnly  condemned  the  exile,  after  reading  the  heads  of  very 
characteristic  accusations  :  "  He  took  no  care  of  the  poorer 
people  ;  he  desired  to  establish  himself  at  Perdiaslavl :  at  the 
battle  of  Mount  Idanof,  against  the  men  of  Souzdal,  he  and  his 
droujina  were  the  first  to  leave  the  battle-field ;  he  was  fickle  in 
the  quarrels  of  the  princes,  sometimes  uniting  with  the  Prince  of 
Tchernigof,  sometimes  with  the  opposite  party." 

The  power  of  a  prince  of  Novgorod  rested  not  only  on  his 
dronjina,  which  always  followed  his  fortunes,  and  on  his  family 
relations  with  this  or  that  powerful  principality,  but  also  on  a 
party  formed  for  him  in  the  heart  of  the  republic.  It  was  when 
the  opposing  party  grew  too  strong  that  he  was  dethroned,  and 
popular  vengeance  exercised  on  his  adherents.  Novgorod  being 
above  all  a  great  commercial  city,  her  divisions  were  frequently 
caused  by  diverging  economic  interests.  Among  the  citizens, 


98  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

some  were  occupied  in  trade  with  the  Volga  and  the  East,  others 
with  the  Dnieper  and  Greece.  The  former  naturally  sought  the 
alliance  of  the  princes  of  Souzdal,  masters  of  the  great  Oriental 
artery ;  the  latter  that  of  the  princes  of  Kief  or  Tchernigof, 
masters  of  the  road  to  the  south.  Each  of  the  two  parties  tried 
to  establish  a  prince  of  the  family  whose  protection  they  sought. 
If  he  fell,  yet  succeeded  in  escaping  from  the  town,  he  tried  to 
regain  his  throne  by  the  arms  of  his  family,  or  to  instal  himself 
and  his  droujina  either  at  Pskof,  like  Vsevolod-Gabriel,  who  be- 
came prince  of  that  town,  or  at  Torjok,  like  laroslaf  of  Souzdal, 
and  thence  blockaded  and  starved  the  great  city.  The  prince 
of  Souzdal  was  soon  the  most  formidable  neighbor  of  Novgorod. 
We  have  seen  that  Andrew  Bogolioubski  sent  an  army  against 
it,  then  that  his  nephew  laroslaf  besieged  his  ancient  subjects 
till  Mstislaf  the  Bold  freed  them  by  the  battle  of  Lipetsk  (1216). 
He  was  the  son  of  Mstislaf  the  Brave,  who  had  defended  them 
against  Vsevolod  Big-Nest,  and  against  Souzdal  and  the 
Tchouds.  The  remains  of  "  the  Brave  "  rest  at  Saint  Sophia,  in 
a  bronze  sarcophagus.  His  son,  "the  Bold,"  was  of  far  too 
restless  a  nature  to  leave  his  bones  also  at  Novgorod.  He  re- 
duced the  principality  to  order,  and  then  assembled  the  citizens 
in  the  Court  of  laroslaf,  and  said  to  them,  "  I  salute  Saint  So- 
phia, the  tomb  of  my  father,  and  you.  Novgorodians,  I  am 
going  to  reconquer  Galitch  from  the  strangers,  but  I  shall  never 
forget  you.  I  hope  I  may  lie  by  the  tomb  of  my  father,  in  Saint 
Sophia."  The  Novgorodians  in  vain  entreated  him  to  stay 
(1218).  We  have  seen  him  use  his  last  armies  in  the  troubles 
of  the  South-east,  and  die  Prince  of  Galitch. 

After  his  departure,  the  republic  summoned  his  nephew, 
Sviatoslaf,  to  the  throne  ;  but  he  could  not  come  to  terms  with 
magistrates  and  a  populace  equally  turbulent.  The  possadnik, 
Tvcrclislaf,  caused  one  of  the  boyarcls  of  Novgorod  to  be  arrested. 
This  was  the  signal  for  a  general  rising;  some  took  the  part  of 
the  boyard,  others  that  of  the  possadnik.  During  eight  days  the 
bell  of  the  kremlin  sounded.  Finally  both  factions  buckled  on 
their  cuirasses  and  drew  their  swords.  Tverclislaf  raised  his 
eyes  to  Saint  Sophia,  and  cried,  "  I  shall  fall  first  in  the  battle, 
or  God  will  justify  me  by  giving  the  victory  to  my  brothers." 
Ten  men  only  perished  in  this  skirmish,  and  then  peace  was  re 
established.  The  prince,  who  accused  Tverdislaf  of  being  the 
cause  of  the  trouble,  demanded  that  lie  shor.ld  be  deposed. 
The  vetcht  inquired  what  crime  he  had  committed.  "  None," 
replied  the  prince,  "  but  it  is  my  will."  "  I  am  satisfied,"  ex- 
claimed the  possadnik,  "as  they  do  not  accuse  me  of  any  ftuilt ; 
as  to  you,  my  brothers,  you  can  dispose  alike  of  possadniks  and 


tUS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA .  gg 

princes."  The  assembly  then  gave  their  decision.  "  Prince,  as 
you  do  not  accuse  the  possadnik  of  any  fault,  remember  that  you 
have  sworn  to  depose  no  magistrate  without  trial.  He  will  re- 
main our  possadnik — we  will  not  deliver  him  to  you."  On  this 
Sviatoslaf  quitted  Novgorod  (1219).  He  was  replaced  by  Vse- 
volod,  one  of  his  brothers,  who  was  expelled  two  years  later 
(1221). 

The  Souzdalian  party  having  made  some  progress,  they  re- 
called the  same  laroslaf  who  was  beaten  at  Lipetsk,  but  the 
princes  of  Souzdal  were  too  absolute  in  their  ideas  to  be  able  to 
agree  with  the  Novgorodians.  laroslaf  was  again  put  to  flight, 
and  replaced  by  Vsevolod  of  Smolensk,  who  was  expelled  in  his 
turn.  The  Grand  Prince  of  Souzdal  now  interposed,  levied  a 
contribution  on  Novgorod,  and  a  prince  of  Tchernigof  was  im- 
posed on  them,  who  hastened  in  1225  to  return  to  the  south  of 
Russia.  In  seven  years  the  Novgorodians  had  five  times  changed 
their  rulers.  laroslaf  himself  came  back  for  a  third  and  even  a 
fourth  time.  A  famine  so  much  reduced  the  Novgorodians  that 
42,000  corpses  were  buried  in  two  cemeteries  alone.  These 
proud  citizens  implored  strangers  to  take  them  as  slaves  for  the 
price  of  a  morsel  of  bread.  The  same  year  a  fire  destroyed  the 
whole  of  one  quarter  of  Novgorod.  These  calamities  subdued 
their  turbulence.  laroslaf  succeeded  in  governing  them  des' 
potically  till  he  was  called  to  fill  the  throne  of  the  Grand  Prinoe 
(1236).  He  left  them,  as  their  prince,  his  son  Alexander 
Nevski. 


NOVGORODIAN    INSTITUTIONS — COMMERCE — THE   NATIONAL 
CHURCH — LITERATURE. 

From  the  fact  that  no  dynasty  of  princes  could  establish  it- 
self at  Novgorod,  that  no  princely  band  could  take  a  place 
among  the  native  aristocracy,  it  follows  that  the  republic  kept 
her  ancient  liberties  and  customs  intact  under  the  short  reigns 
of  her  rulers.  In  all  Russian  cities,  it  is  true,  the  country  ex- 
isted side  by  side  with  the  prince  and  boyards,  the  assembly  of 
citizens  side  by  side  with  the  prince's  men,  and  the  native  militia 
side  by  side  with  the  foreign  droujina  ;  but  at  Novgorod,  the 
country,  the  vetche,  and  the  municipal  militia  had  retained  more 
vigor  than  elsewhere.  The  town  was  more  powerful  than  the 
prince,  who  reigned  by  virtue  of  a  constitution,  traces  of  which 
may  be  observed,  no  doubt,  in  other  regions  of  Russia,  but 
which  is  found  in  its  original  form  at  Novgorod  alone.  Each 
new  monarch  was  compelled  to  take  an  oath,  by  which  he  bound 


I0o  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

himself  to  observe  the  laws  and  privileges  of  laroslaf  the  Great. 
This  constitution,  like  the  pacta  conventa  of  Poland,  signified 
distrust,  and  was  intended  to  limit  the  power  of  the  prince  and 
his  men.  The  revenues  to  which  he  had  a  right,  and  which 
formed  his  civil  list,  were  carefully  limited,  as  also  were  his  judi- 
cial and  political  functions.  He  levied  tribute  on  certain  volosts, 
and  was  entitled  to  the  vira  (German  Wergekt)  as  well  as  to 
certain  fines.  In  some  bailiwicks  he  had  his  own  lieutenant, 
and  Novgorod  had  hers.  He  could  not  execute  justice  without 
help  of  the  possadnik,  nor  upset  any  judgment  ;  nor,  above  all, 
take  the  suit  beyond  Novgorod.  This  was  what  the  Novgoro- 
dians  feared  most,  and  with  reason.  The  day  when  the  people 
of  Novgorod  bethought  themselves  of  appealing  to  the  tribunal 
of  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow,  was  fatal  to  the  independence 
of  the  republic.  In  the  conflicts  between  the  men  of  the  prince 
and  those  of  the  city,  a  mixed  court  delivered  judgment.  The 
prince,  no  more  than  his  men,  could  acquire  villages  in  the  ter- 
ritory of  Novgorod,  nor  create  colonies.  He  was  forbidden  to 
hunt  in  the  woods  of  Starala  Roussa  except  in  the  autumn,  and 
had  to  reap  his  harvests  at  a  specified  season.  Though  they 
thus  mistrusted  their  prince,  the  Novgorodians  had  need  of  him 
to  moderate  the  ancient  Slav  anarchy.  As  in  the  days  of  Rurik, 
"  family  armed  itself  against  family,  and  there  was  no  justice." 
In  Novgorod  the  rctche  had  more  extensive  powers,  and  acted 
more  regularly  than  in  the  other  Russian  cities.  It  was  the 
vetch/  which  nominated  and  expelled  princes,  imprisoned  them 
in  the  archiepiscopal  palace,  and  formally  accused  them ;  elected 
and  deposed  the  archbishops,  decided  peace  and  war,  judged 
the  State  criminals.  According  to  the  old  Slav  custom  (pre- 
served in  Poland  till  the  fall  of  the  republic),  the  decisions  were 
always  made,  not  by  a  majority,  but  by  unanimity  of  voices.  It 
was  a  kind  of  liberum  veto.  The  majority  had  the  resource  of 
drowning  the  minority  in  the  Volkhof.  The  prince  as  well  as 
the  possadnik,  the  boyards  as  well  as  the  people,  had  the  right 
of  convoking  the  retch/.  It  met  sometimes  in  the  Court  of 
laroslaf,  sometimes  in  Saint  Sophia's.  As  Poland  had  her  con- 
federations, her  ''diets  under  the  shield,"  Novgorod  occasion- 
ally saw  on  the  banks  of  tke  Volkhof  two  rival  and  hostile  vetches, 
which  often  came  to  blows  on  the  bridge.  Before  being  sub- 
mitted to  the  general  assembly,  the  questions  were  sometimes 
deliberated  in  a  smaller  council,  composed  of  notable  citizens, 
of  acting  or  past  magistrates. 

The  chief  Novgorodian  magistrates  were :  i.  The  possadnik 
called  by  contemporary  German  writers  the  burgomaster,  who 
was  changed  nearly  as  often  as  the  prince.  The  possadnik  was 
chosen  from  some  of  the  influential  families,  one  of  which  alone 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  !  o t 

gave  a  dozc-n  possadniks  to  Novgorod.  The  first  magistrate 
was  charged  to  defend  civic  privileges,  and  shared  with  the 
prince  the  judicial  power  and  the  right  of  distributing  the 
taxes.  He  governed  the  city,  commanded  her  army,  directed 
her  diplomacy,  sealed  the  acts  with  her  seal.  2.  The  tysatski 
(from  tysatch,  thousand)  bears  in  German  documents  the  title  of 
dux  or  herzog ;  he  was  therefore  a  military  chief,  achiliarch  who 
had  the  centurions  of  the  town  militia  under  his  orders.  He  had 
a  special  tribunal,  and  seems  to  have  been  specially  entrusted 
with  the  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  people,  thus  recalling  the 
Roman  tribunes.  3.  Besides  the  centurions  there  was  a  starost, 
a  sort  of  district  mayor,  for  each  quarter  of  the  town. 

The  chief  document  of  the  Novgorodian  law  is  the  Letter  of 
Justice  (Soudna'ia  Gramotd),  of  which  the  definite  publication 
may  be  placed  at  1471.  It  contains  the  same  principles  as  the 
Rousskata  Pravda  of  laroslaf  the  Great.  As  in  all  the  early 
Germanic  and  Scandinavian  laws,  we  find  the  right  of  private 
revenge,  the  fixed  price  of  blood,  the  "  boot  "  or  fine  for  injury 
inflicted,  the  oath  admitted  as  evidence,  the  judgment  of  God, 
the  judicial  duel,  which  was  still  resorted  to  by  Novgorod  even 
after  her  decadence,  in  the  i6th  century.  We  also  find  records 
of  corporal  punishments.  The  thief  was  to  be  branded  ;  on  the 
second  relapse  into  crime,  he  was  to  be  hung.  Territorial  prop- 
erty acquires  a  greater  importance,  and,  a  sure  evidence  of 
Muscovite  influence,  a  second  court  of  appeal  is  admitted — the 
appeal  to  the  tribunal  of  the  Grand  Prince. 

From  a  social  point  of  view,  the  constitution  of  Novgorod 
presents  other  analogies  with  the  constitution  of  Poland. 
Great  inequality  then  existed  between  the  different  classes  of 
society.  An  aristocracy  of  boyards  had  ultimately  formed  itself,' 
whose  intestine  quarrels  agitated  the  town.  Below  the  boyards 
came  the  dieti  boyarskie1,  a  kind  of  inferior  nobility  ;  then  the 
different  classes  of  citizens,  the  merchantmen,  the  black  people, 
and  the  smerdes  or  peasants.  The  merchants  formed  an  asso- 
ciation of  their  own,  a  sort  of  guild,  round  the  Church  of  Saint 
John.  Military  societies  also  existed,  bands  of  independent  ad- 
venturers or  droujinas  of  some  boyard  who,  impelled  by  hungei 
or  a  restless  spirit,  sought  adventures  afar  on  the  great  rivers 
of  Northern  Russia,  pillaging  alike  friends  and  enemies,  or  es 
tablishing  military  colonies  in  the  midst  of  Tchoud  or  Finnish 
tribes. 

The  soil  of  Novgorod  was  sandy,  marshy,  and  unproductive : 
hence  the  famines  and  pestilences  that  so  often  depopulated  the 
country.  Novgorod  was  forced  to  extend  itself  in  order  to  live; 
she  became  therefore  a  commercial  and  colonizing  city.  In  the 


1 02  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USS1A. 

ioth  century,  Constantine  relates  how  the  Slavs  left  Nemogard 
(Novgorod),  descended  the  Dnieper  by  Milinisca  (Smolensk), 
Telioutza  (Loubetch),  Tchernigof,  Vychegord,  Kief  and  Viti- 
tchevo  ;  crossed  the  cataracts  of  the  Dnieper,  passed  the  naval 
stations  of  Saint  Gregory  and  Saint  P^therius,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  and  spread  themselves  over  all  the  shores  of  the 
Greek  empire.  The  Oriental  coins  and  jewels  found  in  the 
kourgans  of  the  Ilmen  show  that  the  Novgorodians  had  an  early 
and  extensive  commerce  with  the  East.  We  see  them  exchange 
iron  and  weapons  for  the  precious  metals  found  by  the  lougrians 
in  the  mines  of  the  Ourals.  They  traded  with  the  Baltic  Slavs ; 
and  when  the  latter  lost  their  independence,  and  a  flourishing 
centre,  Wisby,  was  formed  in  the  Isle  of  Gothland,  Novgorod 
turned  to  this  side  also.  In  the  I2th  century  there  was  a 
Gothic  trading  dfyot  and  a  Varangian  Church  at  Novgorod,  and 
a  Novgorodian  Church  in  Gothland.  When  the  Germans  began 
to  dispute  the  commerce  of  the  Baltic  with  the  Scandinavians, 
Novgorod  became  the  seat  of  a  German  dfyot,  which  ended  by 
absorbing  the  Gothic  one.  When  the  Hanseatic  League  be- 
came the  mistress  of  the  North,  we  find  the  Germans  established 
not  only  at  Novgorod,  but  at  Pskof  and  Ladoga,  at  all  the 
mouths  of  the  network  of  Novgorodian  lakes.  There  they  ob- 
tained considerable  privileges,  even  the  right  to  acquire  pasture- 
land.  They  were  masters,  and  at  home  in  their  fortified  depots, 
in  their  stockade  of  thick  planks,  where  no  Russian  had  the 
right  to  penetrate  without  their  leave.  This  German  trading 
company  was  governed  by  the  most  narrow  and  exclusive  ideas. 
No  Russian  was  allowed  to  belong  to  the  company,  nor  to  carry 
the  wares  of  a  German,  an  Englishman,  a  Walloon  or  a  Fleming. 
The  company  only  authorized  a  wholesale  commerce,  and,  to 
maintain  her  goods  at  a  high  price,  she  forbade  imports  beyond 
a  certain  amount.  "  In  a  word,"  says  a  German  writer,  "  dur- 
ing three  centuries  the  Hanseatic  League  concentrated  in  her 
own  hands  all  the  external  commerce  of  Northern  Russia.  If 
we  inquire  what  profit  or  loss  she  has  brought  this  country,  we 
must  recognize  that,  thanks  to  her,  Novgorod  and  Pskof  were 
deprived  of  a  free  commerce  with  the  West.  Russia,  in  order 
to  satisfy  the  first  wants  of  civilization,  fell  into  a  complete  inde- 
pendence. She  was  abandoned  to  the  good  pleasure  and  piti- 
less egotism  of  the  German  merchants."  (Riesenkampf,  '  Der- 
deutsche  Hof.') 

The  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  Russia  presents  a  special 
character.  In  the  rest  of  Russia  the  clergy  was  Russian-ortho- 
dox. At  Novgorod  it  was  Novgorodian  before  everything.  It 
was  only  in  the  i2th  century  that  the  Slavs  of  Ilmen,  who  had 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSTA. 


103 


been  the  last  to  be  converted,  could  have  an  archbishop  that 
was  neither  Greek  nor  Kievian,  but  of  their  own  race.  From 
that  time  the  archbishop  was  elected  by  the  citizens,  by  the 
vetcht.  Without  waiting  for  the  metropolitan  to  be  invested 
at  Kief,  he  was  at  once  installed  in  his  episcopal  palace. 
He  was  one  of  the  great  personages,  the  first  dignitary  of  the 
republic.  In  public  acts  his  name  was  placed  before  the 
others.  "  With  the  blessing  of  Archbishop  Moses,"  says  one 
letter-patent ;  "  possadnik  Daniel  and  tysatski  Abraham  salute 
you."  He  had  a  superiority  over  the  prince  on  the  ground  of 
being  a  native  of  the  country,  whilst  the  descendant  of  Rurik 
was  a  foreigner.  In  return,  the  revenues  of  the  archbishop,  the 
treasures  of  Saint  Sophia,  were  at  the  service  of  the  republic. 
In  the  1 4th  century  we  find  an  archbishop  building  at  his  own  ex- 
pense a  kremlin  of  stone.  In  the  15111  century,  the  riches  of 
the  cathedral  were  employed  to  ransom  the  Russian  prisoners 
captured  by  the  Lithuanians.  The  Church  of  Novgorod  was 
essentially  a  national  Church  ;  the  ecclesiastics  took  part  in  the 
temporal  affairs,  the  laics  in  the  spiritual.  In  the  i4th  century 
the  ztffo#/put  to  death  the  heretical  strigolniks,  proscribed  an- 
cient superstitions,  and  burnt  the  sorcerers.  As  Novgorod 
nominated  her  archbishop,  she  could  also  depose  him.  The 
orthodox  religion  extended  with  the  Novgorod  colonization 
among  the  Finnish  tribes.  In  face  of  the  Finns,  the  interests 
of  the  Church  and  the  Republic  were  identical.  It  was  religion 
that  contributed  to  the  splendor  of  the  city,  and  that  specially 
profited  by  her  wealth.  Novgorod  was  full  of  churches  and 
monasteries,  founded  by  the  piety  of  private  individuals.  Nov- 
gorod, which  had  shaken  off  the  political  supremacy  of  Kief, 
wished  also  to  free  herself  from  its  religious  domination,  and  no 
longer  to  be  obliged  to  seek  on  the  Dnieper  the  investiture  of 
her  archbishop,  but  to  make  him  an  independent  metropolitan. 
She  failed.  When  Moscow  became  of  importance,  she  threatened 
not  only  the  political,  but  the  religious  supremacy  of  Novgorod. 
Religion  was,  in  the  hands  of  the  Muscovite  princes,  an  instru- 
ment of  government.  The  Novgorodian  prelate  always  made 
common  cause  with  his  fellow-citizens,  and  endured  with  them 
their  master's  bursts  of  anger. 

The  literature  of  Novgorod  was  as  national  as  the  Church  her- 
self. The  pious  chronicles  of  the  Novgorodian  convents  shared 
all  the  quarrels  and  all  the  passions  of  their  fellow-citizens. 
"  Even  their  style,"  said  M.  Bestoujef,  "  reflects  vividly  the  ac- 
tive, business-like  character  of  the  Novgorodians.  It  is  short, 
and  sparing  of  words  ;  but  their  narratives  embrace  more  com- 
pletely than  those  of  other  Russian  countries  all  the  phases  of 


! 04  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

actual  life.  They  are  the  historians  not  merely  of  the  princes 
and  boyards,  but  of  the  whole  city.  The  lives  of  the  saints  are 
the  lives  of  Novgorodian  saints  ;  the  miracles  they  relate  are  to 
the  glory  of  the  city.  They  tell  you,  foi  example,  that  Christ 
appeared  to  the  artist  charged  with  the  paintings  under  the  dome 
of  Saint  Sophia,  and  said  to  him  :  '  Do  not  represent  me  with 
my  hand  extended  for  blessing,  but  with  my  hand  closed  be- 
cause in  it  I  hold  Novgorod;  and  when  it  is  opened  it  will  be 
the  end  of  the  city.'  "  The  tale  of  the  panic  excited  among  the 
soldiers  of  Andrew  Bogolioubski  by  the  image  of  the  Virgin 
wounded  by  a  Souzdalian  arrow,  was  spread  abroad.  Novgorod 
has  her  own  cycle  of  epic  songs,  Qibylinas.  Her  heroes  are  not 
those  of  the  Kievian  epopee.  There  is  Vassili  Bouslae'vitch, 
the  bold  boyard,  who  with  his  faithful  droujina  stood  up  to  his 
knees  in  blood  on  the  bridge  of  the  Vulkhof,  holding  in  check 
all  the  mougiks  of  Novgorod,  whom  he  had  defied  to  combat. 
Vassili  Bouslae'vitch  is  the  true  type  of  these  proud  adven- 
turers, who  knew  neither  friend  nor  enemy — a  true  Novgorodian 
oligarch,  a  hero  of  civil  war.  Still  more  popular  was  Sadko, 
the  rich  merchant,  a  kind  of  Novgorodian  Sindbad  or  Ulysses, 
a  worthy  representative  of  a  people  of  merchants  and  adven- 
turers, who  sought  his  fortunes  on  the  waves.  A  tempest  rose, 
and  men  drew  lots  to  decide  who  should  be  sacrificed  to  the 
wrath  of  the  gods.  Sadko  threw  a  little  wooden  ring  into  the 
water,  the  others  flung  in  iron  rings  :  O  prodigy  !  the  others 
swam,  his  sank.  He  obeyed  his  destiny,  and  threw  himself  into 
the  waves,  but  he  was  received  in  the  palace  of  the  king  of  the 
sea,  who  tested  him  in  various  ways,  and  wished  him  to  marry 
his  daughter.  Then  suddenly  Sadko  found  himself  on  the  shore 
with  great  treasures,  but  what  were  these  compared  to  the  treas- 
ures of  the  city?  "They  see  that  I  am  a  rich  merchant  of 
Novgorod,  but  Novgorod  is  still  more  "rich  than  I."* 


PSKOF  AND  VIATKA. 

Of  all  the  towns  subject  to  Novgorod,  Pskof  was  the  most  im- 
portant. On  the  point  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  Pskova 
and  the  Velikaia  rises  her  kremlin,  with  its  crumbling  ramparts, 
its  ruined  gates  and  towers.  These  once  famous  walls  are  to- 
day a  mass  of  ruins,  and  the  street-boys  amuse  themselves  by 
throwing  stones  in  the  Pskova  to  frighten  the  laundresses. 
Pskof  is  only  a  poor  little  place  with  10,000  souls.  There  only 

*  A.  Rambaud,  '  La  Russie  £pique,'  p.  130. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  IO^ 

remains  of  her  past  splendor  the  cathedral  of  the  Trinity  at  one 
end  of  the  kremlin.  There  rest  in  metal  coffins  the  bones  of  the 
best-loved  princes,  Vsevolod-Gabriel  and  Dovmont,  a  converted 
Lithuanian  who  came  in  the  i3th  century  to  defend  the  republic 
against  his  own  compatriots.  This  old  town  has  preserved 
many  churches  and  monasteries.  The  distant  view  of  Pskof  is 
beautiful,  and  on  fete-days  the  dead  city  seems  to  awake  at  the 
chimes  of  her  innumerable  bells,  which  sound  as  loudly  as  in 
the  days  of  her  glorious  past. 

Nestor  makes  Pskof  the  native  land  of  Saint  Olga.  The 
sum  of  his  history  is  nothing  more  than  these  two  facts  :  first, 
the  struggle  against  the  Tchouds,  and,  later,  against  the  Ger- 
mans of  Livonia  ;  second,  the  efforts  of  Novgorod  to  secure  her 
freedom.  The  independence  of  the  city  was  ultimately  secured 
by  her  wealth  and  her  commerce.  The  first  prince  who  ruled 
her  as  a  separate  state,  Vsevolod-Gabriel,  was  expelled  by  his 
subjects,  and  therefore  was  welcomed  with  the  greater  eager- 
ness by  the  Pskovians.  When  the  Souzdalian  party  ruled  at 
Novgorod,  it  was  generally  the  contrary  party  that  triumphed  in 
Pskof.  About  1214  the  little  republic  contracted  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance  with  the  Germans  ;  she  undertook  to 
help  them  against  the  Lithuanians,  and  they  were  to  support 
her  against  Novgorod.  This  was  playing  rather  a  dangerous 
game.  In  1240,  one  Tverdillo  delivered  up  Pskof  to  the  Livo- 
nian  knights  ;  shedidnot  free  herself  till  1242.  From  this  mo- 
ment Pskof  ceased  to  mix  in  the  civil  wars  of  Novgorod.  She 
had  enough  to  do  with  her  own  affairs  and  her  struggle  against 
the  Germans,  Swedes,  and  Lithuanians.  She  also  called  her- 
self "  My  Lord  Pskof  the  Great ;  "  but  it  was  only  in  1348  that 
the  Novgorodians,  needing  her  help  against  Magnus,  king  of 
Sweden,  formally  recognized  her  independence,  by  the  treaty  of 
Bolstof,  and  concluded  with  her  a  bond  of  fraternal  friendship. 
Novgorod  became  the  elder  sister,  and  Pskof  the  younger.  The 
organization  of  Pskof  is  almost  that  of  her  ancient  metropolis. 
We  again  find  the  prince,  the  vetche,  the  division  into  quarters, 
up  to  the  number  of  six,  each  one  having  its  starost. 

In  the  1 2th  century  a  new  Novgorodian  colony  was  formed 
between  the  Kama  and  the  Viatka,  which  remained  a  repubHc 
till  the  end  of  the  i5th  century.  "  This  distant  country,"  says  M. 
Bestoujef-Rioumine,  "  is  still  quite  Novgorodian.  When  the 
traveller  has  passed  the  Viatka,  he  meets  with  a  peculiar  mode 
of  constructing  the  huts.  There  are  no  longer  •whole  lines  of 
isbas  joined  one  to  the  other,  as  on  this  side  of  the  river,  but 
there  is  a  high  house,  where  the  court,  rooms,  and  offices  are 
surrounded  by  a  rampart  of  pales,  and  united  under  the  same 


T  06  MS  TORY  OF  R  USSIA. 

roof;  in  a  word,  it  was  a  Novgorodian  house.  You  hear 
the  Novgorodian  patois,  you  see  the  Novgorodian  cap.  It  is 
the  Novgorod  colonization  still  living."  In  1174  some 
adventurers  from  the  Great  Republic  came  from  the  Kama 
to  the  Viatka,  and  advanced  from  east  to  west,  and  founded 
a  colony  on  this  river,  which  is  to-day  the  village  of  Nikou- 
litsyne.  Another  band  defeated  the  Tcheremisses,  and  on 
their  territory  raised  Kochkarof,  at  present  called  Kotelnitch. 
Then  the  two  bands  reunited,  and  penetrated  into  the  Votiak 
country.  On  the  right  bank  of  the  Viatka,  on  the  summit  of  a 
high  mountain,  they  perceived  a  city  surrounded  by  a  rampart 
and  a  ditch,  which  contained  one  of  the  sanctuaries  of  the  peo- 
ple. As  pious  as  the  companions  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro,  the 
Russian  adventurers  prepared  themselves  for  the  assault  by  a 
fast  of  several  days,  then  invoked  Saints  Boris  and  Gleb,  and 
captured  the  town.  Next,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Khlynovitsa,  in 
the  Vintka,  not  very  far  off,  they  built  the  city  of  Khlynof, 
which  became,  under  the  name  of  Viatka,  the  capital  of  all  their 
colonies.  She  had  no  walls,  but  the  houses,  built  close  together, 
formed  an  unbroken  rampart  against  the  enemy,  a  wall  and  de- 
fence. At  the  news  of  this  success,  other  colonists  flocked  from 
Novgorod  and  the  forests  of  the  north,  and  founded  other  cen- 
tres of  population.  These  bold  pioneers  had  more  than  once 
to  re-unite,  sometimes  against  the  aboriginal  Finns  or  the  Tatar 
invaders,  sometimes  against  the  pretensions  of  Novgorod,  or 
the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow.  We  find  among  them,  as  in  the 
metropolis,  boyards,  merchants,  and  citizens.  They  had  vo'ie- 
vodes  or  atamans  for  their  military  chiefs.  Their  spirit  of  re- 
ligious independence  equalled  their  political  independence. 
Jonas,  metropolitan  of  Moscow,  writes  angrily  about  the  indo- 
cility  of  their  clergy,  and  avenges  himself  by  blaming  their 
morals.  "Your  spiritual  sons,"  he  wrote  to  the  priests  of 
Viatka,  "live  contrary  to  the  law.  They  have  five,  six,  or  even 
seven  wives.  And  you  dare  to  bless  these  marriages  !  " 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


107 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   LIVONIAN   KNIGHTS  :    CONQUEST   OF   THE   BALTIC   PROVINCES 
BY   THE   GERMANS. 


Conversion  of  Livonia — Rise  of  the  Livonian  knights :  union  with  the 
Teutonic  knights. 

THREE  new  races  of  men,  three  invasions  (from  the  i2th  to 
the  i3th  century),  were  to  modify  the  historical  development 
of  the  different  parts  of  Slavonia  ;  the  Russia  of  the  north-west 
was  to  make  acquaintance  with  the  Germans,  Russia  of  the  east 
and  south  with  the  Tatar-Mongols,  Russia  of  the  west  with  the 
Lithuanians. 

Part  of  the  Tchoud  or  Lett  tribes  of  the  Baltic  were  con- 
sidered by  the  Russiai  princes  and  republics  of  the  north-west 
as  their  subjects  or  tributaries.  If  the  Danish  Cnut  the  Great 
had  conquered  Esthonia,  laroslaf  the  Great  had  founded  lourief 
(Dorpat)  on  the  Embach  which  falls  into  the  Pei'pus,  and  then 
separated  the  Danish  and  Russian  dominions.  It  separates  to- 
day the  country  of  the  Finns  into  two  peoples  speaking  different 
dialects,  the  dialect  of  Revel  and  that  of  Dorpat.  A  Mstislaf, 
son  of  Vladimir  Monomachus,  had  conquered  the  city  of  Oderi- 
paeh  (Finnish  bear's  head)  from  the  Tchouds.  In  the  Lett 
country  the  princes  of  Polotsk  had  captured  the  native  fortresses 
of  Gersike  and  Kokenhausen  on  the  Dwina,  and  extended  their 
influence  along  this  river  to  Thorei'da  and  Ascheraden. 

With  the  German  merchants  Latin  missionaries  soon  began 
to  make  their  appearance  on  the  Baltic.  The  monk  Meinhard, 
sent  by  the  Archbishop  of  Bremen,  converted  the  Livonians, 
and  was  created  bishop  of  Livonia.  That  which  the  Germans 
really  brought,  under  the  cloak  of  Christianity,  to  the  Lett  and 
descendants  of  the  Tchoud  hero  Kalevy,  and  to  many  other 
Slav,  Lithuanian,  or  Finnish  tribes,  now  extinct,  was  the  ruin 
of  their  national  independence  and  servitude.  The  German 
merchant  and  the  German  missionary  appeared  almost  at  the 
same  time  on  the  Dwina.  The  apostle  Meinhard  built  a  church 


I0g  /        HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

at  Uexkiill,  and  a  fortress  round  the  church  (1187).  From  this 
fatal  day  these  brave  tribes  lost  their  lands  and  their  liberty. 
The  Livonians  soon  saw  to  what  this  mission  tended.  They  rose 
against  the  missionaries,  and  in  1198  the  second  bishop  of 
Livonia  perished  in  battle.  The  natives  returned  to  their  gods, 
and  plunged  in  the  Dwina  to  wash  off  the  baptism  they  had  re- 
ceived, and  to  send  it  back  to  Germany.  Then  Innocent  III. 
preached  a  crusade  against  them,  and  Albert  of  Buxhoewden 
(1108^1229),  their  third  bishop  and  the  true  founder  of  the  Ger- 
man Tule  in  "Livonia,  entered  the  Dwina  with  a  fleet  of  twenty- 
three  ships,  and  built  the  town  of  Riga,  which  he  made  his 
capital  (1200).  The  following  year  he  installed  the  Order  of 
the  Brothers  of  the  Army  of  Christ,  or  the  Sword-bearers,  to 
whom  the  Pope  gave  the  statutes  of  the  Templars.  They  wore 
a  white  mantle,  with  a  red  cross  on  the  shoulders.  The  greater 
number  were  natives  of  Westphalia  and  Saxony.  Vinno^  de 
Rohrbach  was  their  first  grand  master.  The  Livonians,  after 
having  implored  the  help  of  the  princes  of  Polotsk,  marched  on 
Riga,  and  suffered  an  entire  defeat  (1206).  The  prince  of  Po- 
lotsk in  his  turn  besieged  the  city  during  the  absence  of  the 
bishop,  but  it  was  saved  by  the  arrival  of  a  German  flotilla. 

Three  causes  were  particularly  favorable  to  the  success  of 
the  knights  of  the  sword,  namely  :  the  weakness  of  the  princes 
of  Polotsk,  the  intestine  quarrels  of  Novgorod,  which  prevented 
her  from  watching  over  Russian  interests,  and  the  divisions 
among  the  natives  who  had  not  yet  been  able  to  raise  their 
minds  from  the  conception  of  the  tribe  to  that  of  the  nation. 
The  knights  were  likewise  far  superior  in  their  arms  and  tactics. 
The  German  fortresses  were  solidly  built  in  cemented  stone, 
while  those  of  the  natives  were  ramparts  of  earth,  wood,  or  loose 
stones.  In  vain  they  tried  to  drag  down  with  ropes  the  pali- 
sades of  the  German  ramparts.  The  Swo'd-bearers  afterwards 
undertook  a  series  of  campaigns  against  the  Livonians  and  the 
Semigalli  of  the  Dwina,  and  against  the  Tchouds  of  the  north 
and  the  Letts  of  the  south-east.  If  a  tribe  declined  baptism 
and  obedience,  it  was  delivered  a  prey  to  fire  and  sword  ;  when 
it  submitted,  hostages  were  taken,  and  castles  built  on  its  terri- 
tory, these  being  often  merely  German  reconstructions  of  the 
ancient  native  fortresses. 

It  wras  in  this  manner  that  Riga,  Kirchholm,  Uexkiill,  Len- 
newarden,  Ascheraden,  and  Kreuzburg  were  built  on  the  Dwina  ; 
Neuhausen,  near  the  Peipus,  Wolmar,  Wenden,  Segevold,  and 
Kremon  on  the  Aa ;  Fellin  and  Weissenstein  among  the 
Northern  Tchouds.  The  strangers  managed  to  take  Koken- 
hausen  and  Gersike  from  the  princes  of  Polotsk,  Odenpaeh  and 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


109 


Dorpat  from  the  Novgorodians  ;  Pskof  was  threatened.  In  the 
north  Kolyvan  was  bought  from  the  king  of  Denmark,  after 
the  fiercest  disputes.  Under  its  rock  lies  Kolyvan,  a  Titan 
hero  of  Finnish  mythology.  The  town  is  now  called  Revel. 

The  conquered  country  was  divided  into  fiefs,  some  of  which 
belonged  to  the  Order  by  whom  they  were  distributed  among 
the  knights,  the  rest  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  archbishop,  who 
enfeoffed  his  own  men.  The  new  towns  received  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  merchant  cities  of  Lubeck,  Bremen,  or  Hamburg. 
Riga  was  the  most  powerful  of  them.  The  archbishop  of  Riga, 
the  chapter,  the  town  and  the  grand  master  of  the  Order,  often, 
quarrelled  over  their  respective  rights.  Their  divisions  were 
one  day  to  bring  about  the  decline  of  the  institution. 

About  1225  another  military  fraternity  was  established 
among  the  Prussian  Lithuanians,  the  Teutonic  Order,  which,  on 
the  remains  of  the  subject  pagan  tribes,  raised  Thorn,  Marien- 
berg,  Elbing  and  Koenigsberg.  The  Teutons  of  Prussia  and 
the  knights  of  Livonia  were  certain  to  be  friendly;  the  black 
cross  fraternized  with  the  red,  and,  in  1237,  the  two  orders  united 
into  one  association.  The  Teutonic  landmeister,  Hermann  de 
Balk,  became  landmeister  of  Livonia.  The  grand  master  of  the 
Teutonic  Order  took  precedence  of  all  the  landmeisters. 
Strengthened  by  this  alliance,  the  "  brothers  of  the  army  of 
Christ "  were  able  to  impose  the  most  cruel  servitude  on  the 
aboriginal  Letts,  Livonians,  and  Finns.  These  brave  barbarians 
soon  became  peasants  attached  to  the  glebe.  The  German  no- 
bility restored  them  their  liberty  at  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury, but  it  did  not  restore  them  their  lands. 

The  conquering  and  conquered  races  are  always  separate. 
To  the  Tchoucl,  the  word  Saxa  (Saxon,  German)  always  signifies 
the  master.  A  song  of  the  Tchoud  country  of  Pskof,  called  The 
days  of  Slavery,  deplores  the  time  when  "  the  banners  of  the 
strangers  waved,  when  the  intruders  made  us  slaves,  enchained 
us  as  the  serfs  of  tyrants,  forced  us  to  be  their  servants. 
Brother,  what  can  I  sing?  Sadly  sounds  the  song  of  tears. 
The  lot  of  the  slave  is  too  hard."  Another  song  of  Wiesland 
(Esthonia)  is  entitled  The  Days  of  the  Past.  "  The  past,  that 
was  the  time  of  massacre,  a  long  time  of  suffering  .  .  .  Destroy- 
ing fiends  were  unchained  against  us.  The  priests  strangled  us 
with  their  rosaries,  the  greedy  knights  plundered  us,  troops  of 
brigands  ravaged  us,  armed  murderers  cut  us  in  pieces.  The 
father  of  the  cross  stole  our  riches,  stole  the  treasure  from  the 
hiding-place,  attacked  the  tree,  the  sacred  tree,  polluted  the 
waters  and  the  fountain  of  salvation.  The  axe  smote  on  the 


1 10  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

oak  of  Tara,  the  woful  hatchet  on  the  tree  of  Kero."     (Richter, 
'Geschichte  der  deutschen  Ostseeprovinzen.') 

In  the  Kalevy-poeg,  or  "  the  son  of  Kalev,"  the  national  poem 
of  the  Tchoud-Esthonians,  the  hero,  who  is  the  personification  of 
the  race,  displays  in  his  various  adventures  a  wonderful  Titanic 
force.  He  swam  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  he  rooted  up  oak-trees  to 
make  his  clubs  ;  with  his  horse  and  his  colossal  harrow  he 
ploughed  up  the  land  of  Esthonia ;  he  exterminated  the  bears 
and  the  beasts  of  prey;  he  conquered  the  magician  of  Finland, 
and  the  genii  of  the  caves ;  he  descended  into  hell  and  fought 
with  Sarvig  the  horned  ;  he  sailed  away  to  explore  the  utmost 
limits  of  the  world,  and  when  the  hot  breath  of  the  spirits  of  the 
north  burnt  up  his  wooden  vessel,  he  disembarked  in  a  vessel 
of  silver  with  fittings  of  metal.  He  braved  whirlwinds  at  sea  ; 
discovered  the  isle  of  flame  (which  is  perhaps  Iceland,  where 
the  three  volcanoes  vomit  forth  fire),  of  smoke,  and  boiling 
water ;  he  encountered  a  gigantic  woman  who  plucked  up  sev- 
eral sailors  with  the  grass  for  the  kine,  as  if  the  men  had  been 
insects  ;  he  rallied  the  courage  of  his  pilot,  horror-stricken  by 
the  flames  with  which  the  spirits  of  the  north  filled  heaven,  and 
said  to  him,  "Let  them  send  their  darts  of  fire,  they  will  only 
lighten  us  on  our  way,  since  the  daylight  would  not  accompany 
us,  and  the  sun  has  long  since  gone  to  rest."  He  fought  with 
men  whose  bodies  were  like  dogs  (possibly  the  Esquimaux  of 
Greenland),  and  only  retraced  his  steps  because  a  magician  as- 
sured him  '•  that  the  wall  of  the  world's  end  was  still  far  off." 
It  is  at  the  close  of  the  poem,  when  he  is  told  that  the  men  of 
iron  (raudamched  in  Tchoud)  have  landed,  that  his  unconquer- 
able heart  is  troubled.  The  iron  cannot  penetrate  their  armor, 
nor  the  axe  break  it.  In  vain  he  seeks  counsel  at  the  tomb  of 
his  father;  the  tomb  is  silent,  "the  leaves  murmur  plaintively, 
the  winds  sigh  drearily,  the  dew  itself  is  troubled,  the  eye  of  the 
clouds  is  wet; "  all  Esthonian  nature  shares  in  the  sinister  fore- 
bodings of  the  national  hero.  He  raised,  however,  the  battle- 
cry,  and  his  warriors  assembled  on  the  Embach.  Bloody  is  the 
battle  !  The  Esthonians  gain  the  victory,  but  what  a  victory  ! 
The  bravest  of  them  are  dead,  the  two  brothers  of  Kalevy-poeg 
perish,  his  charger  is  struck  down  by  the  axe  of  a  stranger.  The 
end  of  Esthonia,  the  age  of  slavery  has  arrived  ;  it  is  time  that 
Kalevy-poeg,  the  representative  of  the  heroic  age,  should  dis- 
appear ;  he  who  had  vanquished  the  demon  Sarvig,  the  sorcer- 
»rs  of  Finland,  and  the  spirits  of  the  pole,  could  not  subdue 
these  men  whom  an  unknown,  irresistible  force  sustained,  superior 
w>  that  of  the  gods.  Behold  him,  the  captive  of  Mana,  god  of 
death,  his  wrist  held  fast  in  a  rock,  which  is  the  gate  of  hell. 


HISTOR Y  OF  K USSIA.  HI 

Long  his  sons  trusted  that  Mana  would  give  him  back  his  lib- 
erty, and  that  once  again  the  iron  men  would  feel  the  weight  of 
his  arm  ;  but,  like  King  Arthur,  he  has  never  appeared,  bring« 
ing  to  his  people  the  liberty  that  the  Germans  have  taken  from 
them. 


1 1  a  aisrojt  Y  OF  Jt  USSIA. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   TATAR    MONGOLS.       ENSLAVEMENT   OF    RUSSIA. 

Origin  and  manners  of  the  Mongols — Battles  of  the  Kalka,  of  Riazan,  of 
Kolomna,  and  of  the  Sit — Conquest  of  Russia — Alexander  Nevski— The 
Mongol  yoke — Influence  of  the  Tatars  on  the  Russian  development. 


ORIGIN  AND  MANNERS  OF  THE  MONGOLS. 

UP  to  this  time  the  destinies  of  Russia  had  presented  some 
analogy  with  those  of  the  West.  Slavonia,  Jike  Gaul,  had  re- 
ceived Roman  civilization  and  Christianity  from  the  South.  The 
Northmen  had  brought  her  an  organization  which  recalls  that  of 
the  Germans  ;  and  under  laroslaf,  like  the  W«st  under  Charles 
the  Great,  she  had  enjoyed  a  certain  semblai  ce  of  unity,  while 
she  was  afterwards  dismembered  and  divided  like  France  in 
feudal  times.  But  in  the  i3th  century,  Russia  suffered  an  un- 
heard-of misfortune — she  was  invaded  and  subjugated  by  Asiatic 
hordes.  This  fatal  event  contributed  quite  as  n  uch  as  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  soil  and  the  climate  to  retard  htr  development 
by  many  centuries.  "  Nature,"  as  M.  Solovief  sa\s,  "  has  been 
a  step-mother  to  Russia;"  fate  was  another  step-niut.'ier. 

"  In  those  times,"  say  the  Russian  chroniclers.  "  there  came 
upon  us  for  our  sins,  unknown  nations.  No  one  could  tell  their 
origin,  whence  they  came,  what  religion  they  professed.  God 
alone  know  who  they  were,  God  and  perhaps  wise  men  learned 
in  books."  When  we  think  of  the  horror  of  the  whole  of  Europe 
at  the  arrival  of  the  Mongols,  and  the  anguish  of  a  Frederick,  of 
a  Saint  Louis,  an  Innocent  IV.,  we  may  imagine  the  terror  of 
the  Russians.  They  bore  the  first  shock  of  those  mysterious 
foemen,  who  were,  so  the  people  whispered,  Gog  and  Magog, 
who  "  were  to  come  at  the  end  of  the  world,  when  Antichrist  is 
to  destroy  everything."  (Joinville.) 

The  Ta-ta  or  Tatars  seem  to  have  been  a  tribe  of  the  great 
Mongol  race,  living  at  the  foot  of  the  Altai,  who  in  spite  of  their 
long-continued  discords  frequently  found  means  to  lay  waste 
China  by  their  invasions.  The  portrait  drawn  of  them  recalls  in 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R 17SSIA.  1 1$ 

many  ways  those  already  traced  by  Chinese,  Latin,  and  Greek 
authors,  of  the  Huns,  the  Avars,  and  other  nomad  peoples  of 
former  invasions.  "  The  Ta-tzis  or  the  Das"  says  a  Chinese 
writer  of  the  i3th  century,  "occupy  themselves  exclusively  with 
their  flocks ;  they  go  wandering  ceaselessly  from  pasture  to 
pasture,  from  river  to  river.  They  are  ignorant  of  the  nature  cf 
a  town  or  a  wall.  They  are  unacquainted  with  writing  and 
books ;  their  treaties  are  concluded  orally.  From  infancy  they 
are  accustomed  to  ride,  to  aim  their  arrows  at  rats  and  birds, 
and  thus  acquire  the  courage  essential  to  their  life  of  wars  and 
rapine.  They  have  neither  religious  ceremonies  nor  judicial  in- 
stitutions. From  the  prince  to  the  lowest  among  the  people  all 
are  nourished  by  the  flesh  of  the  animals  whose  skin  they  use 
for  clothing.  The  strongest  among  them  have  the  largest  and 
fattest  morsels  at  feasts  ;  the  old  men  are  put  off  with  the  frag- 
ments that  are  left.  They  respect  nothing  but  strength  and 
bravery ;  age  and  weakness  are  condemned.  When  the  father 
dies,  the  son  marries  his  youngest  wives."  A  Mussulman  writer 
adds,  that  they  adore  the  sun,  and  practice  polygamy  and  the 
community  of  wives.  This  pastoral  people  did  not  take  an  in- 
terest in  any  phenomenon  of  nature  except  the  growth  of  grass. 
The  names  they  gave  to  their  months  were  suggested  by  the 
different  aspects  of  the  prairie.  Born  horsemen,  they  had  no 
infantry  in  war.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  art  of  sieges.  "  But," 
says  a  Chinese  author,  "  when  they  wish  to  take  a  town,  they 
fall  on  the  suburban  villages.  Each  leader  seizes  ten  men,  and 
every  prisoner  is  forced  to  carry  a  certain  quantity  of  wood, 
stones,  and  other  materials.  They  use  these  for  filling  up  fosses, 
or  digging  trenches.  In  the  capture  of  a  town,  the  loss  of  10,000 
men  was  thought  nothing.  No  place  could  resist  them.  After 
a  siege,  all  the  population  was  massacred,  without  distinction  of 
old  or  young,  rich  or  poor,  beautiful  or  ugly,  those  who  resisted 
or  those  who  yielded  ;  no  distinguished  person  escaped  death,  if 
a  defence  was  attempted." 

It  was  these  rough  tribes  that  Temoutchine  or  GenghisJQiart 
(i  iC4-i_2_2j)  succeeded  in  uniting  into  one  nation  after  forly  years 
of  obscure  struggles.  Then  in  a  general  congress  of  their  princes 
he  proclaimed  himself  emperor,  and  declared  that,  as  there  was 
only  one  sun  in  heaven,  there  ought  only  to  be  one  emperor  on 
the  earth.  At  the  head  of  their  forces  he  conquered  Mantchouria, 
the  kingdom  of  Tangout,  Northern  China,  Turkestan,  and  Great 
Bokhara,  which  never  recovered  this  disaster,  and  the  plains  of 
Western  Asia  as  far  as  the  Crimea.  When  he  died,  he  left  to 
be  divided  between  his  four  sons  the  largest  empire  that  ever 
existed. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


It  \vas  during  his  conquest  of  Bokhara  that  his  lieutenants 
Tchepe  and  Souboudai-bogadour  subdued  in  their  passage  a 
multitude  of  Turkish  peoples,  passed  the  Caspian  by  its  southern 
shore,  invaded  Georgia  and  the  Caucasus,  and  in  the  southern 
steppes  of  Russia  came  in  contact  with  the  Polovtsi. 


BATTLES   OF   THE   KALKA,    OF   RIAZAN,    OF    KOLOMNA,    AND   OF   THE 
SIT CONQUEST   OF    RUSSIA. 

The  hereditary  enemies  of  the  Russians  proper,  the  Polovsti, 
asked  the  Christian  princes  for  help  against  these  Mongols  and 
Turks,  who  were  their  brothers  by  a  common  origin.  "  They 
have  taken  our  country,"  said  they  to  the  descendants  of  Saint 
Vladimir;  "to-morrow  they  will  take  yours."  Mstislaf  the 
Bold,  then  prince  of  Galitch,  persuaded  all  the  dynasties  of 
Southern  Russia  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Tatars  :  his  nephew 
Danial,  prince  of  Volhynia,  Mstislaf  Romanovitch,  Grand  Prince 
of  Kief,  Oleg  of  Koursk,  Mstislaf  of  Tchernigof,  Vladimir  of 
Smolensk,  Vsevolod  for  a  short  time  prince  of  Novgorod,  re- 
sponded to  his  appeal.  To  cement  his  alliance  with  the  Russians, 
Basti,  khan  of  the  Polovsti,  embraced  orthodoxy.  The  Russian 
army  had  already  arrived  on  the  Lower  Dnieper,  when  the  Tatar 
ambassadors  made  their  appearance.  "  We  have  come  by  God's 
command  against  our  slaves  and  grooms,  the  accursed  Polovtsi. 
Be  at  peace  with  us ;  we  have  no  quarrel  with  you."  The  Rus- 
sians, with  the  promptitude  and  thoughtlessness  that  character- 
ized the  men  of  that  time,  put  the  ambassadors  to  death.  They 
then  went  further  into  the  steppe,  and  encountered  the  Asiatic 
hordes  on  the  Kalka,  a  small  river  running  into  the  Sea  of  Azof. 
The  Russian  chivalry  on  this  memorable  day  showed  the  same 
disordered,  and  the  same  ill-advised  eagerness  as  the  French 
chivalry  at  the  opening  of  the  English  wars.  Mstislaf  the  Bold, 
Daniel  of  Galitch,  and  Oleg  of  Koursk  were  the  first  to  rush 
into  the  midst  of  the  infidels,  without  waiting  for  the  princes 
of  Kief,  and  even  without  giving  them  warning,  in  order  to 
gain  for  themselves  the  honors  of  victory.  In  the  middle  of 
the  combat,  the  Polovsti  were  seized  with  a  panic  and  fell  back 
on  the  Russian  ranks,  thus  throwing  them  into  disorder.  The 
rout  became  general,  and  the  leaders  spurred  on  their  steeds  in 
hopes  of  reaching  the  Dnieper. 

Six  princes  and  seventy  of  the  chief  boyarclsor  voi'evodes  re- 
mained on  the  field  of  battle.  It  was  the  Cregy  and  Poictiers  of 
the  Russian  chivalry.  Hardly  a  tenth  of  the  army  escaped  ;  the 
Kievians  alone  left  10,000  dead.  The  Grand  Prince  of  Kief, 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  j  I  s 

however,  Mstislaf  Romanovitch,  still  occupied  a  fortified  camp 
on  the  banks  of  the  Kalka.  Abandoned  by  the  rest  of  the  army, 
he  tried  to  defend  himself.  The  Tatars  offered  to  make  terms  •- 
he  might  retire  on  payment  of  a  ransom  for  himself  and  his 
droujina.  He  capitulated,  and  the  conditions  were  broken.  His 
guard  was  massacred,  and  he  and  his  two  sons-in-law  were 
stifled  under  planks.  The  Tatars  held  their  festival  over  the 
inanimate  bodies  (1224). 

After  this  thunderbolt,  which  struck  terror  into  the  whole  of 
Russia,  the  Tatars  paused  and  returned  to  the  East.  Nothing 
more  was  heard  of  them.  Thirteen  years  passed,  during  which 
the  princes  reverted  to  their  perpetual  discords.  Those  in  the 
north-east  had  given  no  help  to  the  Russians  of  the  Dnieper; 
perhaps  the  Grand  Prince,  George  II.  of  Souzdal,  may  have  re- 
joiced over  the  humiliation  of  the  Kievians  and  Gallicians.  The 
Mongols  were  forgotten  ;  the  chronicles,  however,  are  filled  with 
fatal  presages  :  in  the  midst  of  scarcity,  famine  and  pestilence, 
of  incendiaries  in  the  towns  and  calamities  of  all  sorts,  they  re- 
mark on  the  comet  of  1224,  the  earthquake  and  eclipse  of  the 
sun  of  1230. 

The  Tatars  were  busy  finishing  the  conquest  of  China,  but 
presently  one  of  the  sons  of  Genghis,  Ougoudei  or  Okta'i,  sent 
his  nephew  BaLi  to  the  West.  As  the  reflux  of  the  Polovtsi  had 
announced  the  invasion  of  1224,  that  of  the  Saxin  nomads,  related 
to  the  Khirghiz  who  took  refuge  on  the  lands  of  the  Bulgarians 
of  the  Volga,  warned  men  of  a  new  irruption  of  the  Tatars,  and 
indicated  its  direction.  It  was  no  longer  South  Russia,  but 
Souzdalian  Russia  that  was  threatened.  In  1237  Bati  conquered 
the  Great  City,  capital  of  the  half-civilized  Bulgars,  who  were, 
like  the  Polovtsi,  ancient  enemies  of  Russia,  and  who  were  to 
be  included  in  her  ruin.  Bolgary  was  given  up  to  the  flames, 
and  her  inhabitants  were  put  to  the  sword.  The  Tatars  next 
plunged  into  the  deep  forests  of  the  Volga,  and  sent  a  sorcerer 
and  two  officers  as  envoys  to  the  princes  of  Riazan.  The  three 
princes  of  Riazan,  those  of  Pronsk,  Kolomna,  Moscow  and 
Mourom,  advanced  to  meet  them.  "  If  you  want  peace,"  said 
the  Tatars,  "give  us  the  tenth  of  your  goods."  "  When  we  are 
dead,"  replied  the  Russian  princes,  "  ypu  can  have  the  whole." 
Though  abandoned  by  the  princes  of  Tchernigof  and  the  Grand 
Prince  George  II.,  of  whom  they  had  implored  help,  the  dynasty 
of  Riazan  accepted  the  unequal  struggle.  They  were  completely 
crushed  ;  nearly  all  their  princes  remained  on  the  field  of  battle. 
Legend  has  embellished  their  fall.  It  is  told  how  Feodor  pre- 
ferred to  die  rather  than  see  his  young  wife,  Euphrasia,  the  spoil 
of  Bati ;  and  how,  on  learning  his  fate,  she  threw  herself  and  her 


1 1 6  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

son  from  the  window  of  the  terem.  Oleg  the  Handsome,  found 
still  alive  on  the  battle-field,  repelled  the  caresses,  the  attention- 
and  religion  of  the  Khan,  and  was  cut  in  pieces.  Riazan  was 
immediately  taken  by  assault,  sacked,  and  burned.  All  the 
towns  of  the  principality  suffered  the  same  fate. 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  Grand  Prince,  for  the  Russia  of  the 
North-east  had  not  even  the  honor  of  falling  in  a  great  battle  like 
the  Russia  of  the  South-west,  united  for  once  against  the  common 
enemy.  The  Souzdalian  army,  commanded  by  a  son  of  George 
II.,  was  beaten  on  the  day  of  Kolomna,  on  the  Oka.  The  Tatars 
burned  Moscow,  then  beseiged^V ladTmir  on  the  Kliazma,  which 
George  II.  had  abandoned  to  seek  for  help  in  the  North.  His 
two  sons  were  charged  with  the  defence  of  the  capital.  Princes 
and  boyards,  feeling  there  was  no  alternative  but  death  or  servi- 
tude, prepared  to  die.  The  princesses  and  all  the  nobles  prayed 
Bishop  Metrophanes  to  give  them  the  tonsure ;  and  when  the 
Tatars  rushed  into  the  town  by  all  its  gates,  the  vanquished  re- 
tired into  the  cathedral,  where  they  perished,  men  and  women, 
in  a  general  conflagration.  Souzdal,  Rostof,  laroslavl,  fourteen 
towns,  a  multitude  of  villages  in  the  Grand  Principality,  were  all 
given  over  to  the  flames  (1238).  The  Tatars  then  went  to  seek 
the  Grand  Prince,  who  was  encamped  on  the  Sit,  almost  on  the 
frontier  of  the  possessions  of  Novgorod.  George  II.  could 
neither  avenge  his  people  nor  his  family.  After  the  battle,  the 
bishop  of  Rostof  found  his  headless  corpse  (1238).  His  nephew, 
Vassilko,  who  was  taken  prisoner,  was  stabbed  for  refusing  to 
serve  Bati.  The  immense  Tatar  army,  after  having  sacked  Tver, 
took  Torjok ;  there  "  the  Russian  heads  fell  beneath  the  sword 
of  the  Tatars  as  grass  beneath  the  scythe."  The  territory  of 
Novgorod  was  invaded  ;  the  great  republic  trembled,  but,  the 
deep  forests  and  the  swollen  rivers  delayed  Bati.  The  invading 
flood  reached  the  Cross  of  Ignatius,  about  fifty  miles  from  Nov- 
gorod, then  returned  to  the  South-east.  On  the  way  the  small 
town  of  Kozelsk_fnear  Kalouga)  checked  the  Tatars  for  so  long, 
and  inflicted^ on  them  so  much  loss,  that  it  was  called  by  them 
the  wicked  town.  Its  population  was  exterminated,  and  the  prince 
Vassili,  still  a  child,  was  "  drowned  in  blood." 

The  two  following  years  (1239-1240)  were  spent  by  the  Tatars 
in  ravaging  Southern  Russia.  They  burnt  Pereiaslaf,  and 
Tchernigof,  defended  with  desperation  by  its  princes.  Next 
Mangou.  grandson  of  Genghis  Khan,  marched  against  the  famous 
town  or  Kief,  whose  name  resounded  through  the  East,  and  in 
the  books  of  the  Arab  writers.  From  the  left  bank  of  the  Dnieper, 
the  barbarian  admired  the  great  city  on  the  heights  of  the  right 
bank,  towering  over  the  wide  river  with  her  white  walls  and 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


117 


towers  adorned  by  Byzantine  artists,  and  innumerable  churches 
with  cupolas  of  gold  and  silver.  Mangou  proposed  a  capitula- 
tion to  the  Kievians  ;  the  fate  of  Riazan,  of  Tchernigof,  of  Vladi- 
mir, the  capitals  of  powerful  states,  announced  to  them  the  lot 
that  awaited  them  in  case  of  refusal,  yet  the  Kievians  dared  to 
massacre  the  envoys  of  the  Khan.  Michael,  their  Grand  Prince, 
fled  ;  his  rival,  Daniel  of  Galitch,  did  not  care  to  remain.  On 
hearing  the  report  of  Mangou,  Bati  came  to  assault  Kief  with 
the  bulk  of  his  army.  The  grinding  of  the  wooden  chariots,  the 
bellowings  of  the  buffaloes,  the  cries  of  the  camels,  the  neighing  o; 
the  horses,  the  howlings  of  the  Tatars,  rendered  it  impossible,  say- 
the  annalist,  to  hear  your  own  voice  in  the  town.  The  Tatars  as 
sailed  the  Polish  Gate,  and  knocked  down  the  walls  with  a  batter 
ing-ram.  "  The  Kievians,  supported  by  the  brave  Dmitri,  a  Galli- 
cian  boyard,  defended  the  fallen  ramparts  till  the  end  of  the  day, 
then  retreated  to  the  Church  of  the  Dime,  which  they  surrounded 
by  a  palisade.  The  last  defenders  of  Kief  found  themselves  group- 
ed around  the  tomb  of  laroslaf.  Next  day  they  perished.  The 
Khan  gave  the  boyard  his  life,  but,  the  '  Mother  of  Russian  cities ' 
was  sacked.  This  third  pillage  was  the  most  terrible,  Even 
the  tombs  were  not  respected.  All  that  remains  of  the  Church 
of  the  Dime  is  only  a  few  fragments  of  mosaic  in  the  Museum 
at  Kief.  Saint  Sophia,  and  the  Monastery  of  the  Catacombs, 
were  delivered  up  to  be  plundered  "  (1240^. 

Volhynia  and  Gallicia  still  remained,  but  their  princes  could 
not  defend  them,  and  Russia  found  herself,  with  the  exception 
of  Novgorod  and  the  north-west  country,  under  the  Tatar  yoke. 
The  princes  had  fled  or  were  dead  ;  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Russians  were  dragged  into  captivity.  Men  saw  the  wives  of 
boyards,  "  who  had  never  known  work,  who  a  short  time  ago 
had  been  clothed  in  rich  garments,  adorned  with  jewels  and 
collars  of  gold,  surrounded  with  slaves,  now  reduced  to  be  them- 
selves the  slaves  of  barbarians  and  their  wives,  turning  the 
wheel  of  the  mill,  and  preparing  their  coarse  food." 

If  we  look  for  the  causes  which  rendered  the  defeat  of  the 
brave  Russian  nation  so  complete,  we  may,  with  Karamsin,  in- 
dicate the  following  : — i.  Though  the  Tatars  were  not  more  ad- 
vanced, from  a  military  point  of  view,  than  the  Russians,  who 
had  made  war  in  Greece  and  in  the  West  against  the  most  war- 
like and  civilized  people  of  Europe,  yet  they  had  an  enormous 
superiority  of  numbers.  Bad  probably  had  with  him  500,000 
warriorp.  2.  This  immense  army  moved  like  one  man  ;  it  could 
successively  annihilate  the  droujinas  of  the  princes,  or  the  militia 
of  the  towns,  which  only  presented  themselves  successively  toils 
blows.  The  Tatars  had  found  Russia  divided  against  herself. 


n8  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

3.  Even  though  Russia  had  wished  to  form  a  confederation,  the 
sudden  irruptions  of  an  army  entirely  composed  of  horsemen 
did  not  leave  her  time.  4.  In  the  tribes  ruled  by  Bad,  every 
man  was  a  soldier;  in  Russia  the  nobles,  and  citizens  alone  bore 
arms :  the  peasants,  who  formed  the  bulk  of  the  population, 
allowed  themselves  to  be  stabbed  or  bound  without  resistance. 
5.  It  was  not  by  a  weak  nation  that  Russia  was  conquered. 
The  Tatar-Mongols,  under  Genghis  Khan,  had  filled  the  East 
with  the  glory  of  their  name,  and  subdued  nearly  all  Asia. 
They  arrived,  proud  of  their  exploits,  animated  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  a  hundred  victories,  and  reinforced  by  numerous  peoples 
whom  they  had  vanquished,  and  hurried  with  them  to  the  West. 
When  the  princes  of  Galitch,  of  Volhynia,  and  of  Kief  ar- 
rived as  fugitives  in  Poland  and  Hungary,  Europe  was  terror- 
stricken.  The  Pope,  whose  support  had  been  claimed  by  the 
Prince  of  Galitch,  summoned  Christendom  to  arms.  Louis  IX. 
prepared  for  a  crusade.  Frederic  II.,  as  Emperor,  wrote  to  the 
sovereigns  of  the  West :  "  This  is  the  moment  to  open  the  eyes 
of  body  and  soul,  now  that  the  brave  princes  on  whom  we  reck- 
oned are  dead  or  in  slavery."  The  Tatars  invaded  Hungary, 
gave  battle  to  the  Poles  in  Liegnitz  in  Silesia,  had  their  prog- 
ress a  long  while  arrested  by  the  courageous  defence  of  Olmiitz 
in  Moravia,  by  the  Tcheque  voi'evode  laroslaf,  and  stopped 
finally,  learning  that  a  large  army,  commanded  by  the  King  of 
Bohemia  and  the  dukes  of  Austria  and  Carinthia,  was  approach- 
ing. The  news  of  the  death  of  Oktai,  second  Emperor  of  all 
)he  Tatars,  in  China,  recalled  Bati  from  the  West,  and  during 
the  long  march  from  Germany  his  army  necessarily  diminished 
m  number.  The  Tatars  were  no  longer  in  the  vast  plains  of 
Asia  and  Eastern  Europe,  but  in  a  broken  hilly  country,  bristling 
xith  fortresses,  defended  by  a  population  more  dense  and  a 
chivalry  more  numerous  than  those  in  Russia.  To  sum  up,  all 
«he  fury  of  the  Mongol  tempest  spent  itself  on  the  Slavonic  race. 

(It  was  the  Russians  who  fought  at  the  Kalka,  at  Kolomna,  at 
the  Sit ;  the  Poles  and  Silesians  at  Liegnitz  ;  the  Bohemians 
and  Moravians  at  Olmiitz.  The  Germans  suffered  nothing  from 
Jhe  invasion  of  the  Mongols  but  the  fear  of  it.  It  exhausted  it- 
*elf  principally  on  those  plains  of  Russia  which  seem  a  continu- 
ation of  the  steppes  of  Asia.  Only  in  Russian  history  did  the 
invasion  produce  great  results.  About  the  same  time  Bati  built 
on  one  of  the  arms  of  the  Lower  Volga  a  city  called  Sara'f  (the 
Castle),  which  became  the  capital  of  a  powerful  Tatar  Empire, 
the  Golden  Horde,  extending  from  the  Oural  and  Caspian  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Danube.  The  Golden  Horde  was  formed  not  only 


of  Tatar-Mongols   or  Nogai's,   who  even  now  survire   in    the 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  I  jg 

Northern  Crimea,  but  particularly  of  the  remains  of  ancient 
nomads,  such  as  the  Patzinaks  and  Polovtsi,  whose  descendants 
seem  to  be  the  present  Kalmucks  and  Bachkirs  ;  of  Turkish 
tribes  tending  to  become  sedentary,  like  the  Tatars  of  Astrakhan 
in  the  present  day ;  and  of  the  Finnish  populations  already  es- 
tablished in  the  country,  and  which  mixed  with  the  invaders. 
Oktaj',  Kouiiouk,  and  Mangou,  the  first  three  successors  of  Gen- 
ghis Khan,  elected  by  all  the  Mongol  princes,  took  the  title  of 
Great  Khans,  and  the  Golden  Horde  recognized  their  authority  ; 
but  under  his  fourth  successor,  KjiQuboulai,  who  usurped  the 
throne  and  established  himself  in  China,  this  bond  of  vassalage 
was  broken.  The  Golden  Horde  became  an  independent  State 
(1260).  United  and  powerful  under  the  terrible  Bati,  who  died 
in  1255,  it  fell  to  pieces  under  his  successors ;  but  in  the  i4th 
century  the  Khan  Uzbeck  reunited  it  anew,  and  gave  the  horde 
a  second  period  of  prosperity.  The  Tatars,  who  were  pagans 
when  they  entered  Russia,  embraced  about  1272  the  faith  of 
Islam,  and  became  its  most  formidable  apostles. 


ALEXANDER   NEVSKI  (1252-1263). 

laroslaf,  after  his  defeat  at  Lipetsk,  entered  Souzdal  on  the 
tragic  death  of  his  brother,  the  Grand  Prince  George  II.  laros- 
laf (1238-1246)  found  his  inheritance  in  the  most  deplorable 
condition.  The  towns  and  villages  were  burnt,  the  country  and 
roads  covered  with  unburied  corpses  ;  the  survivors  hid  them- 
selves in  the  woods.  He  recalled  the  fugitives  and  began  to 
rebuild.  Bati,  who  had  completed  the  devastation  of  South 
Russia,  summoned  laroslaf  to  do  him  homage  at  Sarai",  on  the 
Volga.  laroslaf  was  received  there  with  distinction.  Bati  con- 
firmed his  title  of  Grand  Prince,  but  invited  him  to  go  in  person 
to  the  Great  Khan,  supreme  chief  of  the  Mongol  nation,  who 
lived  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Sakhalian  or  Amour.  To  do 
this  was  to  cross  the  whole  of  Russia  and  Asia.  laroslaf  bent 
his  knees  to  the  new  master  of  the  world,  OktaT,  succeeded  in 
refuting  the  accusations  brought  against  him  by  a  Russian  boy- 
ard,  and  obtained  a  new  confirmation  of  his  title.  On  his  return 
he  died  in  the  desert  of  exhaustion,  and  his  faithful  servants 
brought  his  body  back  to  Vladimir.  His  son  Andrew  succeeded 
him  in  Souzdal  (1246-1252).  His  other  son,  Alexander,  reigned 
at  Novgorod  the  Great. 

Alexander  was  as  brave  as  he  was  intelligent.  He  was  the 
hero  of  the  North,  and  yet  he  forced  himself  to  accept  the  neces- 
sary humiliations  of  his  terrible  situation.  In  his  youth  we  see 


j  2  o  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

him  fighting  with  all  the  enemies  of  Novgorod,  Livonian  knights 
and  Tchouds,  Swedes  and  Finns.  The  Novgorodians  found 
themselves  at  issue  with  the  Scandinavians  on  the  subject  of 
their  possessions  on  the  Neva  and  the  Gulf  of  Finland.  As  they 
had  helped  the  natives  to  resist  the  Latin  faith,  King  John  obtain- 
ed the  promise  of  Gregory  IX.  that  a  crusade,  with  plenary  in- 
dulgences, should  be  preached  against  the  Great  Republic  and 
her  protfgh,  the  pagans  of  the  Baltic.  His  son-in-law,  Birger, 
with  an  army  of  Scandinavians,  Finns,  and  Western  Crusaders, 
took  the  command  of  the  forces,  and  sent  word  to  the  Prince  of 
Novgorod,  "  Defend  yourself  if  you  can  :  know  that  I  am  already 
in  your  provinces."  The  Russians  on  their  side,  feeling  they  were 
fighting  for  othodoxy,  opposed  the  Latin  crusade  with  a  Greek 
one.  Alexander  humbled  himself  in  Saint  Sophia,  received  the 
benediction  of  the  Archbishop  Spiridion,  and  addressed  an  ener- 
getic harangue  to  his  warriors.  He  had  no  time  to  await  reinforce- 
ments from  Souzdal.  He  attacked  the  Swedish  camp,  which 
was  situated  on  the  Ijora,  one  of  the  southern  affluents  of  the 
Neva,  which  has  given  its  name  to  Ingria.  Alexander  won  a 
brilliant  victory,  which  gained  him  his  surname  of  Nevski,  and 
the  honor  of  becoming  under  Peter  the  Great,  the  second 
conqueror  of  the  Swedes,  one  of  the  patrons  of  St.  Petersburg. 
By  the  orders  of  his  great  successor  his  bones  repose  in  the 
Monastery  of  Alexander  Nevski.  The  battle  of  the  Neva  was 
preserved  in  a  dramatic  legend.  An  Ingrian  chief  told  Alexan- 
der how,  in  the  eve  of  the  combat,  he  had  seen  a  myste- 
rious bark,  manned  by  two  warriors  with  shining  brows,  glide 
through  the  night.  They  were  Boris  and  Gleb,  who  came 
to  the  rescue  of  their  young  kinsman.  Other  accounts  have 
preserved  to  us  the  individual  exploits  of  the  Russian  heroes — 
Gabriel,  Skylaf  of  Novgorod,  James  of  Polotsk,  Sabas,  who  threw 
down  the  tent  of  Birger,  and  Alexander  Nevski  himself,  who  with 
a  stroke  of  the  lance  "  imprinted  his  seal  on  his  face"  (1240). 
Notwithstanding  the  triumph  of  such  a  service,  Alexander  and 
the  Novgorodians  could  not  agree ;  a  short  time  after,  he  retired 
to  Perdiaslavl-Zaliesski.  The  proud  republicans  soon  had  reason  to 
regret  the  exile  of  this  second  Camillus.  The  Order  of  the 
Sword-bearers,  the  indefatigable  enemy  of  orthodoxy,  took  Pskof, 
their  ally  ;  the  Germans  imposed  tribute  on  the  Vojans,  vassals 
of  Novgorod,  constructed  the  fortress  of  Koporid  on  her  territory 
of  the  Neva,  took  the  Russian  town  of  Tessof  in  Esthonia,  and 
pillaged  the  merchants  of  Novgorod  within  seventeen  miles  of 
their  ramparts.  During  this  time  the  Tchouds  and  the  Lithua- 
nians captured  the  peasants,  and  the  cattle  of  the  citizens.  At 
last  Alexander  allowed  himself  to  be  touched  by  the  prayers  of 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  ! 2 , 

the  archbishop  and  the  people,  assembled  an  army,  expelled  the 
Germans  from  Koporie,  and  next  from  Pskof,  hung  as  traitors 
the  captive  Vojans  and  Tchouds,  and  put  to  death  six  knights 
\vho  fell  into  his  hands.  This  war  between  the  two  races  and 
two  religions  was  cruel  and  pitiless.  The  rights  of  nations  were 
hardly  recognized.  More  than  once  Germans  and  Russians  slew 
the  ambassadors  of  the  other  side.  Alexander  Nevski  finally 
gave  battle  to  the  Livonian  knights  on  the  ice  of  Lake  Pei'pus, 
killed  400  of  them,  took  50  prisoners,  and  exterminated  a  multi- 
tude of  Tchouds.  Such  was  the  Battle  of  the  Ice  (1242).  He 
returned  in  triumph  to  Novgorod,  dragging  with  him  his  prisoners 
in  armor  of  iron.  The  Grand  Master  expected  to  see  Alexander 
at  the  gates  of  Riga,  and  implored  help  of  Denmark.  The  Prince 
of  Novgorod,  satisfied  with  having  delivered  Pskof,  concluded 
peace,  recovered  certain  districts,  and  consented  to  the  exchange 
of  prisoners.  At  this  time  Innocent  IV.,  deceived  by  false  in- 
formation, addressed  a  bull  to  Alexander,  as  a  devoted  son  of 
the  Church,  assuring  him  that  his  father  laroslaf,  while  dying 
among  the  Horde,  had  desired  to  submit  himself  to  the  throne 
of  St.  Peter.  Two  cardinals  brought  him  this  letter  from  the 
Pope  (1251). 

It  is  this  hero  of  the  Neva  and  Lake  Pei'pus,  this  vanquisher 
of  the  Scandinavians  and  Livonian  knights,  that  we  are  presently 
to  see  grovelling  at  the  feet  of  a  barbarian.  Alexander  Nevski 
had  understood  that,  in  presence  of  this  immense  and  brutal 
force  of  the  Mongols,  all  resistance  was  madness,  all  pride  ruin. 
To  brave  them  was  to  complete  the  overthrow  of  Russia.  His  con- 
duct may  not  have  been  chivalrous,  but  it  was  wise  and  humane. 
Alexander  disdained  to  play  the  hero  at  the  expense  of  his  peo- 
ple, like  his  brother  Andrew  of  Souzdal,  who  was  immediately 
obliged  to  fly,  abandoning  his  country  to  the  vengeance  of  the 
Tatars.  The  Prince  of  Novgorod  was  the  only  prince  in  Russia 
who  had  kept  his  independence,  but  he  knew  Bati's  hands  could 
extend  as  far  as  the  Ilmen.  "  God  has  subjected  many  peoples 
to  me,"  wrote  the  barbarian  to  him  :  "  will  you  alone  refuse  to 
recognize  my  power  ?  If  you  wish  to  keep  your  land,  come  to 
me ;  you  will  see  the  splendor  and  the  glory  of  my  sway."  Then 
Alexander  went  to  Sara'i  with  his  brother  Andrew,  who  disputed 
the  Grand  Principality  of  Vladimir  with  his  uncle  Sviatoslaf. 
Bati  declared  that  fame  had  not  exaggerated  the  merit  of 
Alexander,  that  he  far  excelled  the  common  run  of  Russian 
princes.  He  enjoined  the  two  brothers  to  show  themselves, 
like  their  father  laroslaf,  at  the  Great  Horde  ;  they  returned  from 
it  in  1257.  Kou'iouk  had  confirmed  the  one  in  the  possession  of 


1 2j  HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

Vladimir,  and  the  other  in  that  of  Novgorod,  adding  to  it  a!l 
South  Russia  and  Kief. 

The  year  1260  put  the  patience  of  Alexander  and  his  politic 
obedience  to  the  Tatars  to  the  proof.  Oulavtchi,  to  whom  the 
Khan  Berkal  had  confided  the  affairs  of  Russia^  demanded  that 
Novgorod  should  submit  to  the  census  and  pay  tribute.  It  was 
the  hero  of  the  Neva  that  was  charged  with  the  humiliating  and 
dangerous  mission  of  persuading  Novgorod.  When  the  possad- 
nik  uttered  in  the  vetch/  the  doctrine  that  it  was  necessary  to 
submit  to  the  strongest,  the  people  raised  a  terrible  cry  and 
murdered  the  possadnik.  Vassili  himself,  the  son  of  Alexander, 
declared  against  a  father  "  who  brought  servitude  to  free  men  ;" 
and  retired  to  the  Pskovians.  It  needed  a  soul  of  iron  temper 
to  resist  the  universal  disapprobation,  and  counsel  the  Novgoro- 
dians  to  the  commission  of  the  cowardly  though  necessary  act. 
Alexander  arrested  his  son,  and  punished  the  boyards  who  had 
led  him  into  the  revolt  with  death  or  mutilation.  The  vetch/  had 
decided  to  refuse  the  tribute,  and  send  back  the  Mongol  am- 
bassadors with  presents.  However,  on  the  rumor  of  the  approach 
of  the  Tatars,  they  repented,  and  Alexander  could  announce  to 
the  enemy  that  Novgorod  submitted  to  the  census.  But  when 
they  saw  the  officers  of  the  Khan  at  work,  the  population  re- 
volted again,  and  the  prince  was  obliged  to  keep  guard  on  the 
officers  night  and  day.  In  vain  the  boyards  advised  the  citizens 
to  give  in  :  assembled  around  St.  Sophia,  the  people  declared 
they  would  die  for  liberty  and  honor.  Alexander  then  threaten- 
ed to  quit  the  city  with  his  men,  and  abandon  it  to  the  vengeance 
of  the  Khan.  This  menace  conquered  the  pride  of  the  Novgoro- 
dians.  The  Mongols  and  their  agents  might  go,  register  in 
hand,  from  house  to  house  in  the  humiliated  and  silent  city  to 
make  the  list  of  the  inhabitants.  "  The  boyards,"  says  Karam- 
sin,  "  might  yet  be  vain  of  their  rank  and  their  riches,  but  the 
simple  citizens  had  lost  with  their  national  honor  their  most 
precious  possession  "  (1260). 

In  Souzdal  also  Alexander  found  himself  in  the  presence  of 
insolent  victors  and  exasperated  subjects.  In  1262  the  inhab- 
itants of  Vladimir,  of  Souzdal,  of  Rostof,  rose  against  the  collec- 
tors of  the  Tatar  impost.  The  people  of  laroslavl  slew  a  ren- 
egade named  Zozimus,  a  former  monk,  who  had  become  a  Mos- 
lem fanatic.  Terrible  reprisals  were  sure  to  follow.  Alexander 
set  out  with  presents  for  the  Horde  at  the  risk  of  leaving  his 
head  there.  He  hail  likewise  to  excuse  himself  for  having  re- 
fused a  body  of  auxiliary  Russians  to  the  Mongols,  wishing  at 
least  to  spare  the  blood  and  religious  scruples  of  his  subjects. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that,  over  the  most  profound  humilia- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


123 


tions  of  the  Russian  nationality,  the  contemporary  history  al- 
ways throws  a  ray  of  glory.  At  the  moment  that  Alexander 
went  to  prostrate  himself  at  Sara'i,  the  Souzdalian  army,  united 
to  that  of  Novgorod,  and  commanded  by  his  son  Dmitri,  defeated 
the  Livonian  knights,  and  took  Dorpat  by  assault.  The  Khan 
Berkai  gave  Alexander  a  kind  greeting,  accepted  his  explana- 
tions, dispensed  with  the  promised  contingent,  but  kept  him  for 
a  year  near  his  court.  The  health  of  Alexander  broke  down  ; 
he  died  on  his  return  before  reaching  Vladimir.  When  the  news 
arrived  at  his  capital,  the  Metropolitan  Cyril,  who  was  finishing 
the  liturgy,  turned  towards  the  faithful,  and  said,  "  Learn,  my 
dear  children,  that  the  Sun  of  Russia  is  set,  is  dead."  "  We  are 
lost,"  cried  the  people,  breaking  forth  into  sobs.  Alexander  by 
this  policy  of  resignation,  which  his  chivalrous  heroism  does  not 
permit  us  to  despise,  had  secured  some  repose  for  exhausted 
Russia.  By  his  victories  over  his  enemies  of  the  West  he  had 
given  her  some  glory,  and  hindered  her  from  despairing  under 
the  most  crushing  tyranny,  material  and  moral,  which  a  European 
people  had  ever  suffered. 


THE   MONGOL   YOKE — INFLUENCE    OF   THE    TATARS    ON    THE   RUS 
SI  AN    DEVELOPMENT. 

The  Mongol  khans,  after  having  devastated  and  abased  Rus- 
sia, did  not  introduce  any  direct  political  change.  They  left  to 
each  country  her  laws,  her  courts  of  justice,  her  natural  chiefs. 
The  house  of  Andrew  Bogolioubski  continued  to  reign  in  Souz- 
dal,  that  of  Daniel  Romanovitch  in  Galitch  and  Volhynia,  the 
Olgovitches  in  Tchernigof,  and  the  descendants  of  Rogvolod  the 
Varangian  at  Polotsk.  Novgorod  might  'continue  to  expel  and 
recall  her  princes,  and  the  dynasties  of  the  South  to  dispute  the 
throne  of  Kief.  The  Russian  States  found  themselves  under 
the  Mongol  yoke,  in  much  the  same  situation  as  that  of  the 
Christians  of  the  Greco-Slav  peninsula  three  centuries  later, 
under  the  Ottomans.  The  Russians  remained  in  possession  of 
all  their  lands,  which  their  nomad  conquerors,  encamped  on  the 
steppes  of  the  East  and  South,  disdained.  They  were,  like  their 
Danubian  kinsmen,  a  sort  of  rayahs,  over  whom  the  authority  of 
the  khans  was  exerted  with  more  or  less  rigor,  but  whom  their 
conquerors  never  tried  in  any  way  to  Tatarize.  Let  us  see  ex- 
actly in  what  consisted  the  obligations  of  the  vanquished,  and 
their  relations  with  their  conquerors,  during  the  period  of  the 
Mongol  yoke  or  latarchtchitia. 


124 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


i.  The  Russian  princes  were  forced  to  visit  the  Horde, 
either  as  evidence  of  their  submission,  or  to  give  the  Khan  op- 
portunity of  judging  their  disputes.  We  have  seen  how  they 
had  to  go  not  only  to  the  Khan  of  the  Golden  Horde,  but  often 
also  to  the  Grand  Khan  at  the  extremity  of  Asia,  on  the  borders 
of  the  Sakhalian  or  Amour.  They  met  there  the  chiefs  of  the 
Mongol,  Tatar,  Thibetian  and  Bokharian  hordes,  and  sometimes 
the  ambassador  of  the  Caliph  of  Bagdad,  of  the  Pope,  or  of  the 
King  of  France.  The  Grand  Khans  tried  to  play  off  against 
each  other  these  ambassadors,  who  were  astonished  to  meet  at 
his  court.  Mangou  Khan  desired  Saint  Louis  to  recognize  him 
as  the  master  of  the  world,  "for,"  said  he,  "  when  the  universe 
has  saluted  me  as  sovereign,  a  happy  tranquillity  will  reign  on 
the  earth."  In  the  case  of  refusal,  "neither  deep  seas  nor  inac- 
cessible mountains  "  would  place  the  King  of  France  beyond 
the  power  of  his  wrath.  To  the  princes  of  Asia  and  Russia  he 
displayed  the  presents  of  the  King  of  France,  affecting  to  con- 
sider them  as  tributes  and  signs  of  submission.  "  We  will  send 
to  seek  him  to  confound  you,"  he  said  to  them,  and  Joinville  as- 
sures us  that  this  threat,  and  "  the  fear  of  the  King  of  France," 
decided  many  to  throw  themselves  on  his  mercy.  This  journey 
to  the  Grand  Horde  was  terrible.  The  road  went  through  des- 
erts, or  countries  once  rich,  but  changed  by  the  Tatars  into  vast 
wastes.  Few  who  went  returned.  Planus  Carpinus,  envoy  of 
Innocent  IV.,  saw  in  the  steppes  of  the  Kirghiz  the  dry  bones 
of  the  boyards  of  the  unhappy  laroslaf,  who  had  died  of  thirst 
in  the  sand.  Planus  Carpinus  thus  describes  the  Court  of  Bati 
on  the  Volga: — "It  is  crowded  and  brilliant.  His  army  con- 
sists of  600,000  men,  150,000  of  whom  are  Tatars,  and  450,000 
strangers,  Christians  as  well  as  infidels.  On  Good  Friday  we 
were  conducted  to  his  tent,  between  two  fires,  because  the  Ta- 
tars pretend  that  a  fire  purifies  everything,  and  robs  even  poison 
of  its  danger.  We  had  to  make  many  prostrations,  and  enter 
the  tent  without  touching  the  threshold.  Bati  was  on  his  throne 
\vith  one  of  his  wives ;  his  brothers,  his  children,  and  the  Tatar 
lords  were  seated  on  benches;  the  rest  of  the  assembly  were  on 

the  ground,  the  men  on  the  right,  the  women  on  the  left 

The  Khan  and  the  lords  of  the  Court  emptied  from  time  to  time 
cups  of  gold  and  silver,  while  the  musicians  made  the  air  ring 
with  their  melodies.  Bati  has  a  bright  complexion ;  he  is  affa- 
ble with  his  men,  but  inspires  general  terror."  The  Court  of 
the  Grand  Khan  was  still  more  magnificent.  Planus  Carpinus 
found  there  a  Russian  named  Koum,  who  was  the  favorite  and 
special  goldsmith  of  Galouk  or  Kouiouk,  and  Rubruquis  discov- 
ered a  Parisian  goldsmith,  named  Guillaume.  Much  money  was 


HISTORY  OF  R  125 

needed  for  success,  either  at  the  Court  of  the  Grand  Khan  or  of 
Bati.  Presents  had  to  be  distributed  to  the  Tatar  princes,  to 
the  favorites  ;  above  all  to  the  wives  and  the  mother  of  the 
Khan.  At  this  terrible  tribunal  the  Russian  princes  had  to 
struggle  with  intrigues  and  corruption  ;  the  heads  of  the  pleaders 
were  often  the  stakes  of  these  dreadful  trials.  The  most  dan- 
gerous enemies  they  engountered  at  the  Tatar  Court  were  not 
the  barbarians,  but  the  Russians,  their  rivals.  The  history  of 
the  Russian  princes  at  the  Horde  is  very  tragic.  Thus  Michael 
of  Tchernigof  perished  at  the  Horde  of  Sarai  in  1246,  and  Mi- 
chael of  Tver  in  1319,  the  one  assassinated  by  the  renegade 
Doman,  the  other  by  the  renegade  Romanetz,  at  the  instigation 
and  under  the  eyes  of  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow. 

2.  The  conquered   people  were  obliged  to  pay  a  capitation 
tax,  which  weighed  as  heavily  on  the  poor  as  on  the  rich.     The 
tribute  was  paid  either  in  money  or  in  furs  ;  those  who  were 
unable  to  furnish  it  became  slaves.     The  Khans  had  for  some 
time  farmed  out  this  revenue  to  some  Khiva    merchants,  who 
collected  it  with  the  utmost  rigor,  and  whom  they  protected  by 
appointing  superior  agents  called  baskaks,  with  strong  guards  to 
support  them.      The  excesses   of   these    tax-gatherers   excited 
many  revolts  :  in  1262,  that  of  Souzdal ;  in  1284,  that  of  Koursk ; 
in  1318,  that  of  Kolomna  ;  in  1327,  that  of  Tver,  where  the  in- 
habitants slew  the  baskak  Chevkal,  and  brought  down  on  them- 
selves frightful  reprisals.     Later,  the  princes  of  Moscow  them- 
selves farmed  not  only  the  tax  from  their  own  subjects,  but  alsc 
from  neighboring  countries.     They  became  the  farmers-general 
of  the  invaders.     This  was  the  origin  of  their  riches  and  their 
power. 

3.  Besides  the  tribute,  the  Russians  had  to  furnish  to  theii 
master  the   blood-tax,   a   military   contingent.     Already  at  the 
time  of  the  Huns  and  Avars,  we  have  seen   Slavs   and  Goths 
accompany  the  Asiatic  hordes,  form  their  vanguards,  and  be  as 
it  were  the  hounds  of  Ba'ian.     In  the  i3th  century,  the  Russian 
princes  furnished  to  the  Tatars  select  troops,  especially  a  solid 
infantry,  and  marched  in  their  armies  at  the  head  of  their  drou- 
jinas.     It  was  thus  that  in  1276  Boris  of  Rostof,  Gleb  of  Bie"lo- 
rersk,   Feodor  of  laroslavl,  and  Andrew  of  Gorodetz  followed 
Mangou  Khan  in  a  war  against  the  tribes  of  the  Caucasus,  and 
sacked  Dediakof  in  Daghestan,  the  capital  of  the  lasses.     The 
Mongols  scrupulously  reserved  to  them  their  part  of  the   booty. 
The  same  Russian  princes  took  part  in    an  expedition  against 
an  adventurer  named  Lachan  by  the  Greek  historians,  formerly 
a  keeper  of  pigs,  who  had  raised  Bulgaria.      The  descendants 
of  Monomachus  behaved  still  more  dishonorably  in  the  troubles 


1 2  6  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

in  the  interior  of  Russia.  They  excited  the  Mongols  against 
their  countrymen  and  aided  the  invaders.  Prince  Andrew,  son 
of  Alexander  Nevski,  pillaged  in  1281,  in  concert  with  the 
Tatars,  the  provinces  of  Vladimir,  Souzdal,  Mourom,  Moscow, 
and  Pere'iaslavl,  which  he  was  disputing  with  Dmitri,  his  elder 
brother.  He  helped  the  barbarians  to  profane  churches  and 
convents.  In  1327  it  was  the  princes  of  Moscow  and  Souzdal 
who  directed  the  military  execution  against  Tver.  In  1284,  two 
Olgovitches  reigned  in  the  land  of  Koursk  ;  one  of  them,  Oleg, 
put  the  other  to  death  in  the  name  of  the  Khan.  Servitude  had 
so  much  abased  all  characters,  that  even  the  annalists  share  the 
general  degradation.  They  blame,  not  Oleg  the  murderer,  but 
Sviatoslaf  the  victim.  Was  it  not  his  unbridled  conduct  that 
caused  the  anger  of  the  Khan  ? 

4.  No  prince  could  ascend  the  throne  without  having  received 
the  investiture  and  the  iarlikh,  or  letters  patent,  from  the  Khan. 
The  proud  Novgorodians  themselves  rejected  Michael,  their 
prince,  saying,  "  It  is  true  we  have  chosen  Michael,  but  on  the 
condition  that  he  should  show  us  the  iarlikh." 

4.  No  Russian  State  dared  to  make  war  without  being 
authorized  to  do  so.  In  1269  the  Novgorodians  asked  leave  to 
march  against  Revel.  In  1303,  in  an  assembly  of  princes,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  Metropolitan  Maximus,  a  decree  of  the 
Khan  Tokhta  was  read,  enjoining  the  princes  to  put  an  end  to 
their  dissensions,  and  to  content  themselves  with  their  appan- 
ages, it  being  the  will  of  the  Grand  Khan  that  the  Grand  Princi- 
pality should  enjoy  peace.  When  the  Mongol  ambassadors 
brought  a  letter  from  their  sovereign,  the  Russian  princes  were 
ofjliged  to  meet  them  on  foot,  prostrate  themselves,  spread 
precious  carpets  under  their  feet,  present  them  with  a  cup  filled 
with  gold  pieces,  and  listen,  kneeling,  while  the  iarlikh  was 
read. 

Even  while  the  Tatars  conquered  the  Russians,  they  respected 
their  bravery.  Matrimonial  alliances  were  contracted  between 
their  princes.  About  1272,  Gleb,  prince  of  Bidlozersk,  took  a 
wife  out  the  Khan's  family,  which  already  professed  Christianity, 
and  Feodor  of  Riazan  became  the  son-in-law  of  the  Khan  of  the 
Nogais,  who  assigned  to  the  young  couple  a  palace  in  SaraT.  In 
1318  the  Grand  Prince  George  married  Kontchaka,  sister  of 
Uzbeck  Khan,  who  was  baptized  by  the  name  of  Agatha.  To- 
wards the  end  of  the  i4th  century,  the  Tatars  were  no  longer 
the  rude  shepherds  of  the  steppes.  Mingled  with  sedentary 
and  more  cultivated  races,  they  rebuilt  fresh  cities  on  the  ruins 
of  those  they  had  destroyed  ;  Krym  in  the  Crimea,  Kazan, 
Astrakhan,  and  Saral.  They  had  acquired  a  taste  for  luxury  and 


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HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


127 


magnificence,  honored  the  national  poets  who  sang  their  ex- 
ploits, piqued  themselves  on  their  chivalry  and  even  on  their 
gallantry.  Notwithstanding  the  difference  of  religion,  a  recon- 
ciliation was  taking  place  between  the  aristocracy  of  the  two 
countries,  between  the  Russian  kniazes  and  the  Tatar  mourzas. 

The  Russian  historians  are  not  entirely  agreed  as  to  the 
nature  and  degree  of  influence  exerted  by  the  Mongol  yoke  on 
the  Russian  development.  Karamsin  and  M.  Kostomarof  be- 
lieve it  to  have  been  considerable.  "  Perhaps,"  says  the  former 
"  our  national  character  still  presents  some  blots  which  are 
derived  from  the  Mongol  barbarism."  M.  Solovief,  on  the 
contrary,  affirms  that  the 'Tatars  hardly  influenced  it  more  than 
the  Patzinaks  or  Polovtsi.  M.  Bestoujef-Rioumine  estimates 
the  influence  to  have  been  specially  exerted  on  the  financial  ad- 
ministration and  military  organization.  On  one  side  the  Tatars 
established  the  capitation-tax,  which  has  remained  in  the  financial 
system  of  Russia  ;  on  the  other,  the  conquered  race  had  a 
natural  tendency  to  adopt  the  military  system  of  the  victors.  The 
Russian  or  Mongol  princes  formed  a  caste  of  soldiers  hence- 
forth quite  distinct  from  Western  chivalry,  to  which  the  Russian 
heroes  of  the  i2th  century  belonged.  The  warriors  of  Daniel 
of  Galitch,  it  is  said,  astounded  the  Poles  and  Hungarians  by 
the  Oriental  character  of  their  equipment.  Short  stirrups,  very 
high  saddles,  a  long  caftan  or  floating  dress,  a  sort  of  turban 
surmounted  by  an  aigret,  sabres  and  poniards  in  their  belts,  a 
bow  and  arrows — such  was  the  military  costume  of  a  Russian 
prince  of  the  i5th  century. 

On  the  other  side,  many  of  the  peculiarities  in  which  the 
Mongol  influence  is  thought  traceable  may  be  attributed  as  well 
or  better  to  purely  Slav  traditions,  or  imitations  of  Byzantine 
manners.  If  the  Muscovite  princes  inclined  to  autocracy,  it 
was  not  that  they  formed  themselves  on  the  model  of  the  Grand 
Khan,  but  that  they  naturally  adopted  imperial  ideas  of  absolu- 
tism imported  from  Constantinople.  It  is  always  the  Roman 
Emperor  of  Tzargrad,  and  not  the  leader  of  Asiatic  shepherds, 
who  is  their  typical  monarch.  If  from  this  time  the  Russian 
penal  law  makes  more  frequent  use  of  the  pain  of  death  and 
corporal  punishment,  it  is  not  only  the  result  of  imitation  of  the 
Tatars,  but  of  the  evergrowing  influence  of  Byzantine  laws,  and 
the  progressive  triumph  of  their  principles  over  those  of  the  an- 
cient code  of  laroslaf.  Now  these  laws  so  very  easily  admitted 
torture,  flogging,  mutilation,  the  stake,  &c.,  that  there  is  no  need 
to  explain  anything  by  Mongol  usages.  The  habit  of  prostration, 
of  beating  the  forehead,  of  affecting  the  servile  submission,  is 
certainly  Oriential,  but  it  is  also  Byzantine.  The  seclusion  of 


1 28  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

women  was  customary  in  ancient  Russia,  moulded  by  Greek 
missionaries,  and  the  Russian  terem  proceeds  more  certainly 
from  the  Hellenic  gynceceum  than  from  the  Oriental  harem  \  all 
the  more  because  the  Tatar  women,  before  the  conversion  of  the 
Mongols  to  Islamism,  do  not  appear  to  have  been  secluded.  If 
the  Russians  of  the  iyth  century  seem  strange  to  us  in  their 
long  robes  and  Oriental  fashions,  we  must  remember  that  the 
French  and  Italians  of  the  i5th  century,  dressed  by  Venetian 
merchants,  displayed  the  same  taste.  Only  in  France  fashions 
made  advances,  while  in  Russia,  isolated  from  the  rest  of  Europe 
they  remained  stationary. 

From  a  social  point  of  view,  two  Russian  expressions  seem 
to  date  from  the  Tatar  invasion  :  tcherne,  or  the  black  people,  to 
designate  the  lower  orders  ;  and  krestianine,  signifying  the  peas- 
ant, that  is,  the  Christian  par  excellence,  who  was  always  a 
stranger  to  the  Mongol  customs  adopted  for  a  short  time  by  the 
aristocracy.  As  to  the  amount  of  Mongol  or  Tatar  blood  mixed 
with  the  blood  of  the  Russians,  it  must  have  been  very  small : 
the  aristocracy  of  the  two  countries  may  have  contracted  mar- 
riages, a  certain  number  of  mourzas  may  have  become  Russian 
princes  by  their  conversion  to  orthodoxy,  but  the  t\vo  races,  as  a 
whole,  remained  strangers.  Even  to-day,  while  the  autochtho- 
nous Finns  continue  to  be  Russified,  the  Tatar  cantons,  even 
though  converted  to  Christianity,  are  still  Tatar. 

If  the  Mongol  yoke  has  influenced  the  Russian  development, 
it  is  very  indirectly,  i.  In  separating  Russia  from  the  West,  in 
making  her  a  political  dependency  of  Asia,  it  perpetuated  in  the 
country  that  Byzantine  half  civilization  whose  inferiority  to 
European  civilization  became  daily  more  obvious.  If  the  Rus- 
sians of  the  i  yth  century  differ  so  much  from  Western  nations,  it 
is  above  all  because  they  have  remained  at  the  point  whence  all 
set  out.  2.  The  Tatar  conquest  also  favored  indirectly  the  es- 
tablishment of  absolute  power.  The  Muscovite  princes,  respon- 
sible to  the  Khan  for  the  public  tranquillity  and  the  collection  of 
the  tax,  being  all  the  while  watched  and  supported  by  the  baskaks, 
could  the  more  easily  annihilate  the  independence  of  the  towns, 
the  resistance  of  the  second  order  of  princes,  the  turbulence  of 
the  boyards,  and  the  privileges  of  the  free  peasants.  The 
Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  had  no  consideration  for  his  subjects 
because  no  man  had  any  consideration  for  him,  and  be- 
cause his  life  was  always  at  stake.  The  Mongol  tyranny  bore 
with  a  frightful  weight  on  all  the  Russian  hierarchy,  and  sub- 
jected more  closely  the  nobles  to  the  princes,  and  the  peasants  to 
the  nobles.  "The  princes  of  Moscow,"  says  Karamsin,  "  took 
the  humble  title  of  servants  of  the  khans,  and  it  was  by  this 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA.  1 39 

means  that  they  became  powerful  monarchs."  No  doubt  the 
Russian  principalities  would  always  have  ended  by  losing  their, 
selves  in  the  same  dominion,  but  Russian  unity  would  have  been 
made,  like  French  unity,  without  the  entire  destruction  of  local 
autonomies,  the  privileges  of  the  towns,  and  the  rights  of  the 
subjects.  It  was  the  crushing  weight  of  the  Mongol  domination 
that  stifled  all  the  germs  of  political  liberty.  We  may  say  with 
Mr.  Wallace,  that  "  the  first  Tzars  of  Muscovy  were  the  political 
descendants,  not  of  the  Russian  princes,  but  of  the  Tatar  khans." 
3.  A  third  indirect  result  of  the  conquest  was  the  growth  of  the 
power  and  riches  of  the  Church.  In  spite  of  the  saintly  legends 
about  the  martyrdom  of  certain  princes,  the  Tatars  were  a  toler- 
ant nation.  Rubruquis  saw  in  the  presence  of  the  Grand  Khan 
Mangou,  Nestorians,  Mussulmans,  and  Shamans  celebrating 
their  own  particular  worships. 

Kouiouk  had  a  Christian  chapel  near  his  palace  ;  Khoubilal 
regularly  took  part  in  the  feast  of  Easter.  In  1261  the  Khan  of 
Sara'i  authorized  the  erection  of  a  church  and  orthodox  bishopric 
in  his  capital.  The  Mongols  had  no  sectarian  hatred  against 
bishops  and  priests.  With  a  sure  political  instinct,  the  Tatars, 
like  the  Sultans  of  Stamboul,  understood  that  these  men  could 
agitate  or  calm  the  people.  After  the  first  fury  of  the  conquest 
was  passed,  they  applied  themselves  to  gaining  them  over. 
They  excepted  priests  and  monks  from  the  capitation-tax  ;  they 
received  them  well  at  the  Horde,  and  gave  pardons  at  their  in- 
tercession. They  settled  disputes  of  orthodox  prelates,  and  es- 
tablished the  peace  in  the  Church  that  they  imposed  on  the 
State.  In  1313  the  Khan  Uzbeck,  at  the  prayer  of  Peter,  Met- 
ropolitan of  Moscow,  confirmed  the  privileges  of  the  Church 
and  forbade  her  being  deprived  of  her  goods,  "  for,"  says  the 
edict,  "these  possessions  are  sacred,  because  they  belong  to 
men  whose  prayers  preserve  our  lives  and  strengthen  our  armies." 
The  right  of  justice  in  the  Church  was  formally  recognized. 
Sacrilege  was  punished  by  death. 

The  convents  also  increased  in  numbers  and  riches.  They 
filled  enormously  :  were  they  not  the  safest  asylums  ?  Their  peas- 
ants an  cl  servants  multiplied  :  was  not  the  protection  of  the  Church 
the  surest  ?  Gifts  of  land  were  showered  on  them,  as  in  France  in 
the  year  1000.  It  was  thus  that  the  great  ecclesiastical  patri- 
mony of  Russia,  a  wealthy  reservoir  of  revenues  and  capital, 
was  constituted,  on  which  more  than  once  in  national  crises  the 
Russian  sovereigns  were  glad  to  draw.  The  Church,  which, 
even  in  her  weakness,  had  steadily  tended  to  unity  and  autoc- 
racy, was  to  place  at  the  service  of  the  crown  a  power  which 
had  become  enormous.  The  Metropolitans  of  Moscow  were 
nearly  always  the  faithful  allies  of  the  Grand  Princes. 


HISTORY  OF  XUSSIA. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  LITHUANIANS:  CONQUEST  OF  WESTERN  RUSSIA  (1240-1430) 

The  Lithuanians — Conquests  of  Mindvog  (1240-1263),  of  Gedimin  (1315- 
1340),  and  of -Olgerd  (1345-1377) — Jagellon— Union  of  Lithuania  with  Po. 
land  (1386)— The  Grand  Prince  Vitovt  (1392-1430) — Battles  of  the  Vorskla 
(1399),  and  of  Tannenberg  (1410). 


THE    LITHUANIANS  -  CONQUESTS    OF     MINDVOG     (1240-1263),    OF 
GEDIMIN    (1315-1340),    AND   OF   OLGERD 


THE  Lithuanian  tribes  had  already  been  greatly  broken  up 
by  the  German  conquest.  Russians,  Korsi,  Semigalli,  and  Letts 
had  been  brought  into  subjection  either  by  the  Teutonic  or 
Livonian  knights.  Two  among  the  tribes,  the  Jmouds  and  the 
Lithuanians  properly  so  called,  had  preserved  in  the  deep  forests 
and  marshes  of  the  Niemen  their  proud  independence,  their  fero- 
city, and  their  ancient  gods.  A  Russian  tradition  affirms  that 
they  formerly  had  paid  the  Russians  the  only  tribute  their  poverty 
could  afford  —  bark  and  brooms.  Jmouds  and  Lithuanians  were 
divided,  like  the  ancient  Slavs,  into  rival  and  jealous  tribes.  Al- 
though more  than  once  they  marched  from  their  forests,  blowing 
long  trumpets,  careering  on  rough  ponies  —  though  they  had 
made  many  incursions  into  the  Russian  territory  —  they  were 
not  really  dangerous.  This  old  Aryan  people,  whom  European 
influences  had  never  modified,  had  preserved  from  the  time  they 
dwelt  in  Asia  a  powerful  sacerdotal  caste,  —  the  va'iddotes  above 
whom  were  the  krivites,  whose  chief,  the  krivc-kriveito,  was  high- 
priest  of  the  nation.  Their  principal  divinity  was  Perkun,  the 
god  of  thunder,  analogous  to  the  Perun  of  the  Russians.  The 
sacred  fire,  the  znitch,  burned  constantly  before  this  idol.  They 
had  also  priestesses,  the  wild  Velledas,  like  that  Birouta  who, 
captured  by  Kestout,  became  the  mother  of  the  great  Vitovt. 
The  time  had  come  when  the  Lithuanians  must  perish  like  the 
Prussians  or  Letts,  if  they  did  not  succeed  in  uniting  against 
Germany.  The  emigrants  from  the  countries  already  conquered 
would  doubtless  lend  them  new  strength  and  energy.  A  wily 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  !  3  ! 

barbarian,  Mindvog,  created  Lithuanian  unity  at  the  beginning 
of  the  i3th  century  in  much  the  same  way  as  Clovis — by  ex- 
terminating the  princes.  "  He  began,"  says  a  chronicle,  "  by 
slaying  his  brothers  and  his  sons,  chased  the  survivors  from  the 
country,  and  reigned  alone  over  the  land  of  Lithuania."  Thence 
he  led  his  savage  warriors  against  the  Russian  principalities, 
now  enfeebled  by  the  Mongol  invasions,  and  conquered  Grodno 
and  Novogrodek.  Happily  Western  Russia  had  two  great  men 
at  its  head,  Alexander  Nevski  and  Daniel  of  Volhynia.  Threat- 
ened on  one  side  by  these  princes,  on  the  other  by  the  knights 
of  Livonia,  the  Lithuanians  bethought  themselves  of  hastening 
to  the  Pope  and  embracing  the  Catholic  faith.  A  legate  of  In- 
nocent IV.  and  the  landmeister  of  the  Teutonic  Order  came  to 
Grodno,  escorted  by  a  brilliant  suite  of  cavaliers.  In  presence 
of  an  immense  concourse  of  people,  Mindvog  received  baptism 
with  his  wife,  and  was  consecrated  King  of  Lithuania  (1252). 
The  danger  passed,  and  Rome  was  forgotten.  He  and  his  new 
co-religionists  did  not  agree,  and  he  was  forced  to  cede  the 
Jmoud  country  to  the  Livonian  knights.  Sharing  the  irritation 
of  his  subjects,  he  washed  off  his  baptism  as  the  unfortunate 
Livonians  had  done,  re-established  paganism,  invaded  Mazovia, 
ravaged  the  lands  of  the  Order,  and  defeated  the  landmeister  in 
person.  He  had  taken  the  wife  of  one  of  his  princes  named 
Dovmont,  and  had  married  her.  Dovmont  awaited  him  on 
the  road,  and  assassinated  him  (1263),  and  then  fled  from 
the  vengeance  of  Mindvog's  son  to  the  Pskovians.  He 
became  their  prince,  was  baptized,  and  defended  them 
bravely  against  his  pagan  compatriots  till  he  died,  and 
was  buried  at  the  church  of  the  Trinity.  Vojchel,  son  of 
Mindvog,  in  the  first  fervor  of  an  ephemeral  Christianity,  had 
become  a  monk.  When  he  heard  of  the  murder  of  his  father,  he 
threw  his  cowl  to  the  winds,  and  began  a  war  of  extermination 
with  the  confederates.  Lithuania  fell  back  into  anarchy  during 
the  contest  of  the  descendants  of  Mindvog  with  the  rest  of  the 
princes  who  refused  to  accept  their  supremacy. 

She  recovered  herself  under  die  enterprising  and  energetic 
the    real    founder    of     her   power.     He 


turned  the  exhaustion  and  divisions  of  South  Russia  to  his  own 
profit ;  and  to  the  conquests  of  his  predecessors — Grodno, 
Pinsk,  Brest,  and  Polotsk — soon  added  Tchernigof,  and  all 
Volhynia  with  Vladimir,  under  whose  walls  he  defeated  the 
Russians,  aided  though  they  were  by  an  auxiliary  army  of  Ta- 
tars (1321).  As  to  Kief,  it  is  not  known  in  what  year  she  fell 
under  his  power ;  in  the  universal  disorder,  this  memorable 
event  passed  almost  unnoticed.  The  old  capital  of  Russia  was, 


'3* 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


however,  destined  to  remain  for  400  years — up  to  the  time  of 
Alexis  Rornanof — in  the  hands  of  strangers.  The  Russian  pop- 
ulations willingly  received  this  new  master,  who  would  free 
them  from  the  heavy  yoke  of  the  Mongols  and  the  unceasing 
civil  wars.  As  he  respected  their  internal  constitution  and  the 
rights  of  the  orthodox  clergy,  it  appears  that  many  towns  readily 
opened  their  gates  to  him.  Gedimin  sought  to  legalize  his  con- 
quests by  contracting  alliances  with  the  house  of  St.  Vladimir, 
allowed  his  sons  to  embrace  the  orthodox  faith,  and  authorized 
the  construction  of  Greek  churches  in  his  residences  at  Wilna 
and  Novogrodek.  In  the  North  he  had  a  perpetual  struggle  to 
sustain  against  the  deadly  enemies  of  his  race,  the  military 
monks  of  Prussia  and  Livonia.  Like  Mindvog,  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  Pope,  John  XXII.,  and  informed  him  that  he 
wished  to  preserve  his  independence,  that  he  only  asked  pro- 
tection for  his  religion,  that  he  was  surrounded  by  Fran- 
ciscans and  Dominicans  to  whom  he  gave  full  liberty  to 
teach  their  doctrine,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  recognize  the 
Pope  as  supreme  head  of  the  Church,  if  he  would  arrest  the  dep- 
redations of  the  Germans.  The  French  Pope  sent  him  Bar- 
tholomew, Bishop  of  Alais,  and  Bernard,  Abbot  of  Puy.  In  the 
interval  he  had  been  exasperated  by  renewed  attacks  of  the 
Teutonic  knights,  and  forced  the  two  legates  to  fly.  He  had 
transferred  his  capital  to  Wilna  on  the  Wilia,  and  the  ruins  of 
his  castle  may  still  be  perceived  on  the  height  which  overlooks 
the  citadel.  He  drew  thither  by  immunities  German  artists  and 
artisans,  and  granted  them  the  rights  of  Riga  and  the 
Hanseatic  towns.  A  Russian  quarter  was  also  formed  in 
his  capital.  He  died  and  was  buried  according  to  the  pagan 
rite  :  his  body  was  burned  in  a  caldron  with  his  war-horse  and 
his  favorite  groom. 

After  his  death  his  sons  Olgerd  (n4t;-i:s77^  and  Kestoijt  de- 
prived two  of  their  brothers  of  their  appanages,  and  together 
governed  Lithuania,  now  re-united  into  a  single  State.  Olgerd 
humiliated  Novgorod  the  Great,  which  had  received  another  of 
his  fugitive  brothers,  ravaged  her  territory,  and  forced  her  to 
put  to  death  the  possadnik  who  had  been  the  cause  of  the  war. 
He  extended  his  possessions  to  the  east  and  south,  and  con- 
quered Vitepsk,  Mohilef,  Briansk,  Novgorod-Severski,  Kamenetz 
and  Podolia ;  thus  rendering  himself  master  of  nearly  all  the 
basin  of  the  Dnieper,  and  obtaining  a  footing  on  the  coast  of 
the  Black  Sea,  between  the  mouths  of  the  Dnieper  and  the 
Dniester.  With  the  republic  of  Pskof  he  maintained  relations 
sometimes  friendly,  sometimes  hostile  ;  gave  her  help  against 
the  Germans,  and  sent  his  son  Andrew  to  govern  her,  and  oc- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'33 


casionally  arrested  her  merchants  and  laid  waste  her  territory. 
The  Poles  disputed  Volhynia  with  him,  oppressed  the  orthodox 
faith,  and  changed  the  Greek  into  Latin  churches.  Olgerd  then 
made  advances  to  Simeon  the  Proud,  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow, 
and,  though  a  pagan,  married  Juliana,  princess  of  Tver.  Under 
Simeon's  successors  the  Lithuanian  army  three  times  took  the 
road  to  Moscow,  and,  without  the  check  imposed  on  him  by  the 
Poles  and  the  two  German  orders,  Olgerd  might  have  made  the 
conquest  of  Eastern  Russia.  In  ij68  he  had  annihilated  the 
Mongol  hordes  which  infested  the  Lower  Dnieper,  and,  more 
destructive  than  even  these  barbarians,  completed  the  ruin  of 
Cherson  in  the  Crimea. 


JAGELLON — UNION   OF   LITHUANIA   AND   POLAND   (1386). 

Although  Olgerd  had  reconstituted  the  Lithuanian  unity,  he 
fell  back  into  the  old  error,  and  divided  his  States  between  his 
sons  and  his  brother,  the  brave  Kestout,  who  had  been  his  faith- 
ful associate.  One  of  his  sons,  lagailo  or  Jagellon ^(1377-1434), 
cruelly  repaired  the  fault  of  his  father.  He~made  his  uncle 
Kestout  prisoner  by  treachery,  and  caused  him  to  be  put  to 
death.  His  brothers  and  cousins  escaped  a  similar  fate  by  fly- 
ing to  neighboring  states.  In  spite  of  this  the  bloody  pagan 
was  the  Apostle  of  Lithuania.  For  a  long  while  Christianity 
had  sought  to  penetrate  by  two  different  channels, — under  the 
Latin  form  from  Poland,  and  under  the  Greek  form  from  Russia. 
The  fierce  war  sustained  by  the  Lithuanians  against  the  military 
monks  of  the  North  had  rendered  Catholicism  particularly  hate- 
ful to  them.  Under  Olgerd  the  people  of  Wilna  had  risen,  and 
fourteen  Franciscans  were  slain.  On  the  other  side  the  larger 
part  of  the  Lithuanian  conquests  was  composed  of  Russian  ter- 
ritory, and  Lithuania  underwent  the  influence  of  the  Russian 
religion  as  well  as  of  the  Russian  language.  Russian  became 
the  official  tongue  ;  it  even  seemed  as  if  orthodoxy  was  to  be- 
come the  ruling  faith,  and  the  victors  were  to  be  absorbed  by 
the  vanquished,  and  Russified  by  their  conquest.  An  unexpected 
event  turned  the  natural  course  of  history.  The  Angevin  and 
French  dynasty  in  Poland  had  lately  been  extinguished  in  the 
person  of  Louis  of  Hungary,  whose  only  heir  was  his  daughter 
Hedwiga.  The  Polish  nobles  felt  that  the  best  way  of  putting 
a  stop  to  the  eternal  warfare  with  the  Lithuanians  was  by  marry- 
ing their  queen  to  the  powerful  Prince  of  Wilna.  The  heart  of 
Hedwiga  is  said  to  have  been  elsewhere  engaged ;  but  t.hfc 
Catholic  clergy  set  forth  her  consent  to  this  union  as  a  duty,  th« 


134  fflSTOR  Y  OF  SUSSfA. 

fulfilment  of  which  was  to  insure  in  Lithuania  proper  l!:c  tr:.. 

of  the  Latin  faith,  and  thus  to   separate  it  from   the  Lithuanian 

Russian  provinces  which  still  remained  orthodox. 

In  1386  Jagellon  went  to  Cracow  and  received  baptism  and 
the  crown  of  Poland. 

The  conversion  of  the  Lithuanians  was  then  conducted  after 
a  fashion  as  summary  as  that  of  the  Russians  in  the  time  of  Vladi- 
mir. They  were  divided  into  groups,  and  the  priest  then  sprin- 
kled them  with  holy  water,  pronouncing,  as  he  did  so,  a  name 
of  the  Latin  Calendar.  To  one  group  he  gave  the  name  of 
Peter,  to  another  that  of  Paul  or  John.  Jagellon  overthrew  the 
idol  Perkun,  extinguished  the  sacred  fire  that  burned  in  the  castle 
of  Wilna,  killed  the  holy  serpents,  and  cut  clown  the  magic 
woods.  The  people,  however,  worshipped  their  gods  for  some 
time  longer;  like  the  Northmen  who  were  converted  by  the 
Carolingians,  many  Lithuanians  presented  themselves  more  than 
once  to  be  baptized,  in  order  to  receive  again  and  again  the 
white  tunic  of  the  neophyte.  By  transferring  his  capital  to 
Cracow,  in  deference  to  his  new  subjects,  Jagellon  necessarily 
irritated  his  old  subjects.  To  the  determined  pagans  the  ortho- 
dox allied  themselves,  provoked  by  the  king's  propaganda  in 
favor  of  Catholicism.  Lithuania  believed  that  by  her  union  with 
Poland  she  had  forfeited  her  independence. 


THE   GRAND    PRINCE   VITOVT    (1392-1430) — BATTLES   OF   THE 
VORSKLA  (1399),  AND    OF   TANNENBERG    (1410). 

Vitovt,  son  of  the  hero  Kestout  and  the  priestess  Birouta, 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  malcontents.  He  allied  himself 
with  the  Teutonic  knights,  and  twice  besieged  the  Polish  garri- 
son in  the  Castle  of  Wilna.  Weary  of  war,  Jagellon  ended  by 
ceding  him  Lithuania  with  the  title  of  Grand  Prince  (1392). 

Vitovt  (1^92-14.30).  brother-in-law  of  the  Grand  Prince  of 
Moscow  (Va^sili  Dmitrie'vitch),  took  up  the  plans  of  Olgerd  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  north-east  of  Russia.  Sviatoslaf,  the  last 
prince  but  one  of  Smolensk,  had  made  himself  hated,  even  in 
that  iron  century,  by  his  cruelties.  Fighting  in  the  Ru^siai 
ritory,  he  took  pleasure  in  impaling  a;ul  burning  alive  women 
and  children.  He  was  killed  in  1387  in  a  battle  against  the 
Lithuanians,  and  his  son  loury  was  only  the  shadow  of  a  Grand 
Prince  of  Smolensk,  under  the  guardianship  of  Vitovt.  The 
latter,  who  combined  perfidy  with  the  courage  and  energy  of  his 
father,  made  himself  master  of  the  town  by  a  stratagem  worthy 
of  Caesar  Borgia.  He  contrived  to  induce  the  prince  and  his 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'35 


brothers  to  visit  him  in  his  tent,  embraced  and  pressed  them  in 
his  arms,  and  then  declared  them  prisoners  of  war,  while  his 
army  surprised  and  pillaged  Smolensk.  This  queenly  city  on 
the  Upper  Dneiper  was  lost  to  Russia.  The  Lithuanian  Em- 
pire now  bordered  on  the  ancient  Souzdal  and  the  principality 
of  Riazun.  These  two  countries,  with  Novgorod  and  Pskof, 
were  the  only  ones  which  had  preserved  their  independence. 
It  seemed  as  if  one  campaign  would  suffice  to  annihilate  the 
Russian  name.  But  Vitovt  cherished  great  projects,  in  which 
the  conquest  of  Moscow  was  only  an  incident.  He  had  already 
fought  against  the  Mongols,  and  with  the  prisoners  taken  in  the 
environs  of  Azof,  had  peopled  many  villages  round  Wilna,  where 
their  posterity  still  exist.  He  took  under  his  protection  the 
Khan  Tokhtamych,  whom  Timour  Koutlou'i  had  expelled  from 
Sarai,  and  resolved  to  subjugate  the  Golden  Horde,  to  instal  a 
vassal  there,  and  finally  add  to  the  conquest  of  the  Tatar  Em- 
pire that  of  Moscow  and  Riazan.  The  army  that  he  assembled 
under  the  walls  of  Kief  was  perhaps  the  most  important  that 
had  marched  against  the  infidels  since  the  first  crusade.  To 
his  Lithuanian  troops  he  had  united  the  Polish  contingent  sent 
by  Jagellon  under  the  famous  voi'evodes  Spitko  of  Cracow,  John 
of  Mazovia,  Sandivog  of  Ostorog,  Dobrogost  of  Samotoul,  and  the 
droujinas  of  the  Russian  princes,  Gleb  of  Smolensk,  Michael 
and  Dmitri  of  Volhynia,  the  Mongols  of  Tokhtamych,  and  five 
hundred  knights,  "iron  men,"  richly  armed,  sent  by  the  Grand 
Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order.  He  came  up  with  the  enemy 
on  the  banks  of  the  Vorskla,  an  affluent  of  the  Dnieper,  that 
runs  near  Pultowa.  It  was  almost  the  battle-field  where  fought 
in  1709  the  heroes  of  the  North.  To  Timour's  proposals  of 
peace,  Vitovt  answered  that  God  had  designed  him  to  be  mas- 
ter of  the  world,  and  that  the  Khan  must  recognize  him  as 
his  father,  pay  him  tribute,  and  place  his  armorial  bearings  on 
the  Mongol  coins.  The  Khan  only  negotiated  to  gain  time 
till  the  bulk  of  the  Tatar  army,  commanded  by  Ediger,  came 
up.  Ediger,  in  his  turn,  ironically  summoned  Vitovt  to  ac- 
knowledge him  as  father,  and  to  place  his  arms  on  the  Lithu- 
anian coins.  Vitovt,  who  hoped  to  make  up  for  his  deficiency 
in  numbers  by  his  artillery,  gave  the  signal  for  battle.  A 
manoeuvre  of  the  Tatars  on  the  rear  of  the  enemy  assured 
them  the  victory.  Two-thirds  of  the  Lithuanian  army,  with 
the  princes  of  Smolensk  and  Volhynia,  remained  on  the  field 
of  battle.  The  remnant  was  pursued  by  Timour  to  the  Dnieper. 
He  levied  war  contributions  on  Kief  and  the  Monastery  of 
the  Catacombs  (1399).  So  fell  the  prestige  of  Vitovt.  Even 
the  princes  of  Riazan  thought  that  they  might  safely  insult 


,  36  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSfA. 

his  frontiers.  But  he  was  still  formidable,  and  the  Grand  Prince 
of  Moscow,  after  having  tried  to  attack  him,  judged  it  more 
prudent  to  make  peace. 

When  Vitovt  began  to  recover  from  his  disaster,  he  directed 
a  still  more  famous  expedition  against  the  Teutonic  knights. 
The  Grand  Prince  of  Lithuania  had  more  than  once  found 
himself  at  issue  with  the  two  German  orders.  About  this  time 
the  Teutonic  knights  had  lost  their  early  energy,  thanks  to  the 
development  of  the  system  of  fiefs,  and  to  the  progress  of  the 
commercial  towns.  In  1409  the  Jmouds  and  Oriental  Prussia, 
after  having  protested  against  the  severity  of  the  yoke  imposed 
on  them,  revolted,  counting  on  Vitovt  to  support  them.  A  new 
Grand  Master,  the  warlike  Ulrich  of  Jungingen,  refused  the 
mediation  of  Vitovt's  suzerain,  the  King  of  Poland.  Upon  this 
the  united  forces  of  Poland  and  Lithuania,  with  40,000  Tatars 
and  21,000  Bohemian,  Hungarian,  Moravian  and  Silesian  mer- 
cenaries, making  a  total  of  97,000  infantry,  66,000  cavalry,  and 
60  cannons,  entered  Prussia.  The  Grand  Master  had  only  57,- 
ooo  infantry  and  26,000  cavalry,  with  which  to  oppose  them. 
The  battle  of  Tannenberg  (1410),  gained  chiefly  by  Vitovt,  who 
broke  the  German  centre  and  left  wing,  was  a  blow  from  which 
the  power  of  the  Teutonic  Order  never  recovered.  The  Grand 
Master  and  nearly  all  the  high  dignitaries,  200  Knights  of  the 
Order,  and  400  foreign  knights,  besides  4000  soldiers,  were 
killed.  Nearly  all  the  princes  of  Western  Russia  took  part  in 
the  combat,  and  the  contingent  of  Smolensk  especially  distin- 
guished itself.  The  Jmoud  country  was  freed  from  the  Teutonic 
rule  and  united  to  Lithuania. 

Three  years  afterwards  (1413)  the  Congress  of  Horodlo  on 
the  Bug.  between  Jagellon,  accompanied  by  the  Polish  pans,  and 
Vitovt,  accompanied  by  his  Lithuanian  chiefs,  took  place.  It 
was  settled  that  the  Lithuanian  Catholics  should  receive  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  the  Polish  schliachta ;  and  that  the 
representatives  of  the  two  countries  should  unite  in  a  common 
diet  to  elect  the  Kings  of  Poland  and  the  Grand  Dukes  of 
Lithuania,  and  decide  important  affairs.  Vitovt  soon  had  dif- 
ferences with  his  own  subjects:  the  Jmouds,  so  refractory  under 
the  Teutonic  rule,  were  pagans  and  Lithuanians  at  heart.  They 
hated  Catholicism  and  the  Polish  domination.  They  rose  and 
expelled  the  monks.  Vitovt  could  only  govern  them  by  force. 

The  Russian  provinces  of  Lithuania  were  orthodox,  and  de- 
pended upon  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow.  Vitovt  wished  to 
shake  off  his  religious  supremacy,  and  demanded  of  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople  a  special  metropolitan  f:>r  Western  Russia. 
In  spite  of  the  Patriarch's  refusal,  he  convoked  a  council  of 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  !  2  7 

orthodox  prelates :  a  learned  Bulgarian  monk,  Gregory  Tsam- 
blak,  was  elected  Metropolitan  of  Kief.  Thus  Russia  had  two 
religious  chiefs,  as  she  had  two  Grand  Princes — the  Metropolitan 
of  Eastern  Russia,  and  the  Metropolitan  of  Western  Russia ; 
one  at  Moscow,  the  other  at  Kief.  Vitovt  also  wished  to  free 
himself  on  the  western  side,  and  deprive  Poland  of  her  suprem- 
acy over  Lithuania.  In  1429  he  had  an  interview  with  the 
Emperor  Sigismond,  who  promised  to  create  him  King  of 
Lithuania.  Vitovt,  then  eighty  years  of  age,  was  at  the  height 
of  his  power.  We  see  him  at  the  fetes  of  Troki  and  Wilna,  at- 
tended by  his  grandson  Vassili  Vassilidvitch,  Grand  Prince  of 
Moscow,  who  was  accompanied  by  the  Muscovite  Metropolitan 
Photius,  the  Princes  of  Tver  and  Riazan,  Jagellon,  king  of  Poland, 
the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  the  exiled  Hospodar  of  Wallachia,  the 
Grand  Master  of  Prussia,  the  Landmeister  of  Livonia,  and  the 
ambassadors  of  the  Emperor  of  the  East.  Daily  were  700  oxen, 
1400  sheep,  and  game  in  proportion,  consumed.  In  the  midst 
of  these  fetes  the  ambitious  old  man  had  to  swallow  a  bitter 
draught.  The  Poles  had  intrigued  with  the  Pope,  and  he  was 
forbidden  to  dream  of  royalty.  The  ambassadors  of  Sigismond 
were  checked  as  they  were  bringing  him  the  sceptre  and  the 
crown.  Vitovt  fell  ill,  and  died  of  disappointment  (1430). 

After  this  Lithuania  ceased  to  be  formidable.  We  find  it  in 
turns  governed  by  a  Grand  Duke  of  its  own,  united  to  Poland 
under  Vladislas,  separated  again,  then  definitely  placed  under 
the  Polish  sceptre  from  1501.  Though  henceforward  it  always 
had  the  same  sovereign  as  Poland,  it  remained  a  State  apart — 
the  Grand  Principality  or  Grand  Duchy  of  Lithuania.  Her 
Lithuanian  and  Russian  provinces  became  steadily  Polish,  and 
the  princely  descendants  of  Rurik  and  St.  Vladimir,  or  of 
Mindvog  and  Gedimin,  assumed  the  manners  and  language  of 
the  Polish  aristocracy. 


,38  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  GRAND    PRINCES     OF   MOSCOW:  ORGANIZATION    OF     EASTERN 
RUSSIA   (1303-1462). 

Origin  of  Moscow — Daniel — George  Danielovitch  (1303-1325)  and  Ivan  Kalita 
(1328-1341) — Contest  with  the  house  of  Tver — Simeon  the  froud  and 
Ivan  the  DeTxmnaire  (1341-1359) — Dmitri  Donskoi  (1363-1389) — Battle  of 
Koulikovo— Vassili  Dmitrie'vitch  and  Vassili  the  Blind  (1389-1462). 


ORIGIN    OF   MOSCOW — DANIEL. 

WHILST  Western  Russia  grouped  herself  around  the  Lithu- 
anian State,  which  had  given  the  conquered  Russian  provinces 
a  new  capital  in  Wilna,  and  soon  involved  them  in  her  own 
union  with  Poland,  Eastern  Russia  grouped  herself  around 
Moscow.  When  this  double  concentration  on  the  Moskowa 
and  on  the  Wilna  should  be  accomplished,  Great  Russia,  proud 
of  her  national  and  religious  unity,  and  Lithuanian  Russia  (or 
rather  a  foreign  State  composed  of  the  Russian,  Lithuanian,  and 
Polish  races,  and  of  three  religions,  the  Greek,  Roman,  and 
Protestant,  besides  the  Jewish),  would  find  themselves  face  to 
face.  The  contest  of  these  two  sister-enemies  will  fill  many 
centuries  of  the  history  of  the  North.  To  other  sovereigns,  in 
other  centuries,  will  fall  the  task  of  reconstituting  the  Russian 
unity  in  its  fullest  extent.  The  honor  of  the  princes  of  Mos- 
cow is  to  have  created  the  living  germ  which  became  Great 
Russia. 

Around  Moscow,  under  the  Mongol  yoke,  a  race  was  formed, 
patient  and  resigned,  yet  energetic  and  enterprising,  born  to 
endure  bad  fortune  and  profit  by  good,  which  in  the  long  run 
was  to  get  the  upper  hand  over  Western  Russia  and  Lithuania. 
There  a  dynasty  of  princes  grew,  politic  and  persevering,  pru- 
dent and  pitiless,  of  gloomy  and  terrible  mien,  whose  foreheads 
were  marked  by  the  seal  of  fatality.  They  were  the  founders  of 
the  Russian  empire,  as  the  Capctians  were  of  the  French  mon- 
archy. 

The  means  used  by  the  sovereigns  of  Russia   were   very 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA 


139 


different.  Here  we  shall  find  no  sympathetic  figures  like  that 
of  Louis  VI.  careering  proudly  in  the  narrow  domains  of  France, 
capturing  rebel  castles  in  the  face  of  the  sun — of  a  Louis  IX., 
true  mirror  of  chivalry,  the  noblest  incarnation  of  the  kingly 
ideal.  The  princes  of  Moscow  gained  their  ends  by  intrigue, 
corruption,  the  purchase  of  consciences,  servility  to  the  khans, 
perfidy  to  their  equals,  murder,  and  treachery.  They  were  at 
once  the  tax-gatherers  and  the  police  of  the  khans.  But  they 
created  the  germ  of  the  Russian  monarchy,  and  made  it  grow. 
Henceforward  we  have  a  fixed  centre  around  which  gathers  that 
scattered  history  of  Russia  which  we  have  had  to  follow  in  so 
many  different  places — in  Novgorod  and  Pskof,  in  Livonia  and 
in  Lithuania,  at  Smolensk  and  in  GalHcia,  at  Tchernigof  and 
at  Kief,  at  Vladimir  and  at  Riazan.  The  mutilation  of  Russia, 
conquered  on  the  west  by  the  Lithuanians,  enslaved  on  the  east 
by  the  Mongols,  was  to  facilitate  the  work  of  organization.  In 
this  diminished  fatherland  the  sovereigns  of  Moscow  could  play 
more  easily  the  part  of  Grand  Princes. 

The  extent  of  country  which  had  by  the  middle  of  the  i5th 
century  escaped  the  Lithuanian  conquest  was  very  small.  With- 
out counting  Smolensk,  whose  days  were  numbered,  there  re- 
mained the  following  principalities  : — i.  Riazan,  with  its  appan- 
ages of  Pronsk  and  Perdiaslavl-Riazanski ;  2.  Souzdal,  with  the 
towns  of  Vladimir,  Nijni-Novgorod,  Souzdal,  Gaikch  in  Souzdal, 
Kostroma,  and  Gorodetz  ;  3.  Tver,  situated  on  the  Upper  Volga, 
and  chiefly  made  up  of  bailiwicks  taken  from  Novgorod  by  the 
Grand  Princes  of  Souzdal,  with  the  towns  of  Rjef,  Kachine,  and 
Zoubtsof  ;  4.  Moscow,  shut  in  on  the  north  bv  Tver,  on  the  east 
by  Souzdal,  on  the  south  by  Riazan,  nearly  stified  by  its  power- 
ful neighbors,  like  the  France  of  the  Capetians  between  the 
formidable  States  of  English  Normandy,  Flanders,  and  Cham- 
pagne. 

The  name  of  Moscow  appears  for  the  first  time  in  the  chron- 
icXes^at  the  date  of  rrj.7.  It  is  there  said  that  the  Grand  Prince 
George  Dolgorouki,  Having  arrived  on  the  domain  of  a  boyard 
named  Stephen  Koutchko,  caused  him  to  be  put  to  death  on 
some  pretext,  and  that,  struck  by  the  position  of  one  of  the 
villages  situated  on  a  height  washed  by  the  Moskowa,  the  very 
spot  whereon  the  Kremlin  now  stands,  he  built  the  city  of  Mos- 
cow. In  the  Capitol  of  ancient  Rome  the  founder,  Romulus,  dis- 
covered the  head  of  a  man  ;  the  Capitol  of  Moscow,  destined  to 
become  the  centre  of  an  empire,  was  sprinkled  in  its  beginning 
by  human  blood.  The  name  of  a  still-existing  church,  "  St. 
Saviour  of  the  Pines  "  (Spass  no,  Boroii),  preserves  the  memory 
of  the  thick  forests  that  then  clothed  both  banks  of  the  Moskowa, 


)  40  HISTOR  \    OF  KUSSfA. 

on  the  space  now  covered  by  an  immense  capital.  During  the 
century  following  its  foundation,  Moscow  remained  an  obscure 
and  insignificant  village  of  Souzdal.  The  chroniclers  do  not 
allude  to  it  except  to  mention  that  it  \vas  burned  by  the  Tatars 
(1237),  or  that  a  brother  of  Alexander  Nevski,  Michael  of  Mos- 
cow, was  killed  there  in  a  battle  with  the  Lithuanians.  The  real 
founder  of  the  principality  of  the  name  was  Daniel,  a  son  of 
Alexander  Nevski,  who  had  received  this  small  town  and  a  few 
villages  as  his  appanage.  He  increased  his  State  by  an  impor- 
tant town,  Pere"iaslavl-Zaliesski,  that  belonged  to  one  of  his 
nephews,  and  by  the  addition  of  Kolomna,  which  he  took  from 
the  Riazanese.  At  his  death  in  1303  he  was  the  first  to  be 
buried  in  the  church  of  Saint  Michael  the  Archangel,  which 
till  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great  remained  the  bur)  ing-place  of 
the  Russian  princes.  He  was  followed,  in  due  course,  by  his 
brothers  George  and  Ivan. 


GEORGE    DANIELOVITCH     (1303-1325)     AND    IVAN     KALITA    (1328* 
1341) — STRUGGLE   WITH   THE    HOUSE   OF    TVER. 

The  first  act  of  George  Danielovitch  (1303-1325)  was  to  capt- 
ure Mojaisk  from  the  Prince  of  Smolensk,  and  to  take  the  latter 
prisoner.  Almost  at  the  same  time  began  the  bloody  struggle 
with  the  house  of  Tver,  which,  transmitted  from  father  to  son, 
lasted  for  eighty  years.  When  Andrew  Alexandrovitch,  Grand 
Prince  of  Souzdal,  died  in  1304,  two  competitors  presented 
themselves — Michael  of  Tver,  cousin-german  of  the  deceased, 
and  his  nephew  George  of  Moscow.  The  claim  of  Michael  was 
incontestable  ;  was  he  not  the  eldest  of  the  family  ?  The  boyards 
of  Vladimir  and  the  citizens  of  Novgorod  did  not  hesitate  to 
acknowledge  him  as  Grand  Prince  ;  at  Sara'i  Tokhta  the  khan 
declared  in  his  favor,  and  ordered  him  to  be  installed.  Michael, 
who  had  on  his  side  the  national  law  and  the  sovereign  will  of 
the  Mongols,  could  also  use  force  ;  he  twice  besieged  Moscow, 
and  obliged  the  son  of  Daniel  to  leave  him  in  peace.  In  this 
young  man  he  had  an  implacable  enemy.  The  chronicles,  in- 
dignant at  the  revolt  of  George  against  the  old  hereditary  cus- 
tom, unanimously  pronounced  against  him.  While  making  due 
allowance  for  their  efforts  to  blacken  his  character,  we  cannot 
help  seeing  that  he  was  not  a  man  to  shrink  from  any  crime. 
His  father  had  taken  the  Prince  of  Riazan  prisoner.  He  had 
him  assassinated  in  his  dungeon,  and  would  have  taken  posses- 
sion of  his  territories,  if  the  Khan  had  not  ordered  the  rights  of 
the  young  heir  to  be  respected.  Then  George  caused  himself  to 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  !4I 

be  recognized  as  Prince  of  Novgorod,  to  the  prejudice  of 
Michael,  but  the  army  of  Tver  and  Vladimir  defeated  that  fur- 
nished him  by  the  republic.  An  unexpected  event  suddenly 
changed  the  face  of  things.  The  Khan  Tokhta  died  ;  George 
managed  to  gain  the  good  graces  of  his  successor  Uzbeck,  so 
that  the  latter  gave  him  his  sister  Lontchaka  in  marriage,  and, 
reversing  the  decision  of  Tokhta,  adjudged  him  the  grand  princi- 
pality. The  son  of  Daniel  returned  to  Russia  with  a  Mongol 
army,  commanded  by  the  baskak  Kavgadi.  Michael  consented, 
say  the  chronicles,  to  cede  Vladimir,  if  his  hereditary  appanage 
were  respected ;  but  George  began  to  lay  waste  the  country  of 
Tver,  and  war  was  inevitable.  Michael  triumphed  completely. 
The  Tatar  wife  of  George,  his  brother  Boris,  the  Mongol  general 
Kavgadi,  and  nearly  all  the  officers  of  the  Khan,  fell  into  his 
hands.  Michael  covered  his  prisoners  with  attentions  dictated 
by  prudence.  Kavgadi,  released  with  honor,  swore  to  be  his 
friend,  but,  as  the  sister  of  the  Khan  died,  the  enemies  of  the 
Prince  of  Tver  set  on  foot  a  report  that  he  had  poisoned  her. 
The  cause  of  the  two  princes  was  carried  before  the  tribunal  of 
the  Khan.  Whilst  the  indefatigable  Muscovite  went  in  person, 
with  his  hands  full  of  presents,  to  the  Horde,  Michael  had  the 
imprudence  to  send  his  son,  a  boy  of  twelve  years  old,  in  his 
place.  Finding  George  was  occupied  in  accusing,  intriguing, 
and  corrupting,  Michael  at  last  made  up  his  mind  to  follow  him. 
Not  unprepared  for  the  lot  that  awaited  him,  he  made  his  will, 
and  distributed  appanages  among  his  children.  He  was  accused 
of  having  drawn  his  sword  against  a  baskak,  envoy  of  the  Khan, 
and  of  having  poisoned  Kontchaka.  These  accusations  were  so 
manifestly  absurd,  that  Uzbeck  deferred  judgment.  This,  how- 
ever, did  not  meet  George's  views,  and,  by  means  of  intrigues, 
he  obtained  the  arrest  of  his  kinsman.  The  Khan  now  set  out 
for  some  months'  hunting  in  the  Caucasus.  Michael  was  dragged 
in  the  train  of  the  court,  loaded  with  irons,  from  the  Sara'i  to 
Dediakof  in  Daghestan.  One  day  he  was  put  in  the  pillory  in 
the  market  of  a  thickly-populated  town,  and  the  spectators 
crowded  to  see  him,  saying,  "  This  prisoner  was,  a  short  time  ago, 
a  powerful  prince  in  his  own  country."  The  boyards  of  Michael 
had  told  him  to  escape ;  he  refused,  not  wishing  his  people  to 
suffer  for  him.  George  was  so  energetic,  and  scattered  about  so 
much  money,  that,  finally,  the  death-warrant  was  signed.  One 
of  Michael's  pages  entered  the  tent  which  served  him  as  a  pri- 
son, in  great  alarm,  to  tell  him  that  George  and  Kavgadi  were 
approaching,  followed  by  a  multitude  of  people.  "  I  know  the 
reason,"  replied  the  prince  ;  and  he  sent  his  young  son  Constan- 
t:ne  to  one  of  the  Khan's  wivess  who  had  promised  to  take  him 


14* 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


under  her  protection.  His  two  enemies  took  their  stand  near 
his  tent,  dismissed  the  boyaicls  of  Tver,  and  sent  their  hired 
ruffians  to  assassinate  the  prince.  They  threw  him  down,  and 
trampled  him  under  their  feet.  As  in  the  case  of  Michael  of 
Tchernigof,  it  was  not  a  Mongol  that  stabbed  him  and  tore  out 
his  heart,  but  a  renegade  named  Romanetz.  When  George  and 
Kavgadi  entered  and  contemplated  the  naked  corpse,  "  What," 
said  the  Tatar,  "  will  you  allow  the  body  of  your  uncle  to  be  out- 
raged ?  "  One  of  George's  servants  threw  a  mantle  over  the 
victim  (1319).  Michael  was  bewailed  by  the  Tverians.  His 
body,  incorruptible  as  that  of  a  martyr,  was  afterwards  deposited 
in  a  silver  bier  in  the  cathedral  of  Tver.  He  became  a  saint, 
and  the  patron  of  his  city.  On  the  walls  of  the  cathedral, 
ancient  and  m^uem  pictures  recall  his  martyrdom,  and  condemn 
the  crime  of  the  Muscovite.  All  the  contemporary  chronicles 
warmly  take  his  part  against  the  assassin.  Karamsin  has  made 
himself  the  echo  of  their  apologies  and  curses.  But  at  the  same 
time  that  Michael  became  a  saint,  George  became  the  all-power- 
ful sovereign  of  Moscow,  Souzdal,  and  Novgorod.  The  tragic 
fate  of  Michael  foretold  the  ruin  of  Tver. 

Some  years  afterwards,  things  were  reversed  at  the  Horde. 
Dmitri  of  the  terrible  eyes,  son  of  the  unhappy  Michael,  obtained 
the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  and  the  baskak  Seventch  Bonga  was 
charged  to  place  him  on  the  throne  of  Vladimir.  George  found 
himself  obliged  to  go  again  to  Saraif ;  there  the  t\yo  rivals,  Dmitri 
of  Tver  and  George  of  Moscow,  met.  Dmitri  had  his  father  to 
avenge  ;  his  sword  leaped  from  the  scabbard,  and  the  Prince  of 
Moscow  fell  mortally  wounded  (1325).  All  that  his  friends 
could  obtain  was  that  Dmitri  should  be  put  to  death.  The 
latter  was  succeeded  in  Vladimir  by  his  brother  Alexan- 
der. 

Unluckily  for  the  house  of  Tver,  the  following  year  the  Tver- 
ians, exasperated  by  the  baskak  Chevkal,  rose  in  rebellion  and 
murdered  him  and  all  his  suite.  Alexander,  instead  of  imitating 
the  firm  prudence  of  his  Muscovite  neighbors,  allowed  himselt 
to  be  carried  away  by  the  popular  passion.  It  was  he  who  as- 
saulted the  palace  of  the  baskak,  and  lighted  the  fire.  After 
such  an  action,  he  had  no  pity  to  expect  from  the  Khan  ;  and  if 
Uzbeck  could  have  forgotten  the  insult  to  his  majesty,  the  princes 
of  Moscow  would  have  kept  him  in  mind  of  it.  The  brother  of 
George,  Ivan  Kalita,  offered  to  complete  the  ruin  of  Tver.  Uz- 
beck promised  him  the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  and  gave  him  an 
army  of  50,000  Tatars,  to  whom  were  joined  the  contingents  of 
Moscow  and  Souzdal.  Alexander,  who  had  not  had  the  wisdom 
to  resist  his  people,  had  likewise  not  the  courage  to  defend  them 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


143 


and  die  with  them.  He  fled  with  his  brothers,  to  Pskof  and  Ladoga. 
Pitiless  was  the  vengeance  of  the  Khan,  and  the  vengeance  of 
Moscow.  Tver,  Kachine,  and  Torjok  were  sacked.  Novgorod 
had  to  buy  herself  off  by  a  war  indemnity.  Not  content  with  exter- 
minating the  Tverians,  Uzbeck  put  to  death  at  the  same  time  the 
Prince  of  Riazan,  son  of  that  Prince  laroslaf  whom  George  Daniel- 
ovitch  had  murdered  in  prison.  The  Horde  and  Moscow  seemed 
to  have  the  same  enemies — they  struck  in  concert.  It  is  remark- 
able that  it  was  in  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  Michael  of  Tver 
and  Dmitri  "  with  the  terrible  eyes,"  that  "  holy  Russia  "  came 
to  her  growth. 

Ivan  Kalita  (1328-1341)  became  Grand  Prince,  and  made 
the  journey  to  the  Horde  with  Constantine,  son  of  Michael, 
who  had  replaced  the  fugitive  Alexander  on  the  throne  of  Tver. 
Ivan  was  well  received,  but  Uzbeck  commanded  him  to  make 
Alexander  appear  before  him.  The  ambassadors  of  the  Grand 
Prince  went  to  Pskof,  to  conjure  Alexander  to  appear,  or  to  sum- 
mon the  Pskovian-s  to  deliver  him  up.  "  Do  not  expose,"  they 
said,  "  a  Christian  people  to  the  wrath  of  the  infidels."  But 
the  Pskovians,  touched  by  the  prayers  of  the  Prince  of  Tver,  re- 
plied, "  Do  not  go  to  the  Horde,  my  lord  ;  whatever  happens, 
\ve  will  die  with  thee."  As  magnanimous  as  the  Novgorodians  at 
the  time  of  Alexander  Nevski,  as  heroically  absurd,  they  ordered 
the  ambassadors  to  be  gone,  took  up  arms,  and  built  a  new  fort- 
ress near  Izborsk.  Ivan  assembled  an  army  and  persuaded  the 
Metropolitan  Theognostus  to  place  Alexander  and  the  Pskov- 
ians under  an  interdict.  Thus  men  saw  a  Christian  prince  perse- 
cute one  of  his  kinsmen  by  order  of  the  Tatars,  and  a  metropolitan 
excommunicate  the  Christians  to  force  them  to  obey  the  Khan. 
The  Pskovians,  though  alarmed,  would  not  yield  an  inch  ;  but 
Alexander  left  them  and  took  refuge  in  Lithuania.  Then  they 
said  to  the  Grand  Prince,  "  Alexander  is  gone  ;  all  Pskof  swears 
it,  from  the  smallest  to  the  greatest,  popes,  monks,  nuns, 
orphans,  women,  and  children  "  (1329). 

Alexander  afterwards  returned,  and  was  again  recognized 
by  them  as  their  prince,  but  still  regretted  his  good  city  of  Tver. 
The  protection  of  the  Lithuanian  Gedimin  was  too  dangerous 
and  too  burdensome.  Alexander  thought  it  would  be  easier  to 
bend  the  terrible  Uzbeck.  He  went  to  the  Horde  with  his  boy- 
ards.  "  Lord,  all-powerful  Tzar,"  he  said  to  Uzbeck,  "  if  I  have 
done  anything  against  you,  I  have  come  hither  to  receive  of  you 
life  or  death.  Do  as  God  inspires  you  ;  I  am  ready  for  either." 
The  Khan  pardoned  him,  and  Alexander  returned  to  Tver, 
Ivan  Kalita  had  hoped  he  had  forever  got  rid  of  him.  In  Alex- 
ander's absence  he  was  the  master  of  Russia,  had  interfered  in 


j  44  H1STOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

the  affairs  of  Tver,  married  one  of  his  daughters  to  Vladimir  of 
laroslavl  and  another  to  Constantine  of  Rostof,  brother  of  the 
banished  prince.  The  return  of  Alexander  gave  a  chief  to  those 
who  were  discontented  with  Ivan.  Instead  of  declaring  war, 
Ivan  preferred  to  resort  to  his  ordinary  means.  He  flew  to  the 
Horde,  and  there  represented  Alexander  as  the  most  dangerous 
enemy  of  the  Mongols.  In  consequence  of  these  insinuations, 
Alexander  was  summoned  before  the  Khan  ;  this  time  he  was 
beheaded,  with  his  son  Feodor.  The  rivalry  with  Moscow  had 
already  cost  four  princes  of  the  house  of  Tver  their  lives.  Uz- 
beck  who  had  only  confidence  in  Moscow,  and  who  wished  to 
govern  the  rest  of  Russia  by  terror,  about  this  time  put  the 
Prince  of  Starodoub  to  death.  The  princes  Constantine  and 
Vassili  of  Tver,  sons,  brothers,  and  uncles  of  the  victims,  felt 
that  they  could  only  maintain  themselves  by  obedience  to  their 
terrible  father-in-law.  As  a  proof  of  submission  they  sent  to 
Kalita  the  great  bell  of  the  cathedral  of  Tver.  The  princes  of 
Riazan  and  Souzdal  were  also  obliged  to  fight  under  his  stand- 
ards. Novgorod,  threatened  by  him,  began  the  course  which 
afterwards  proved  so  fatal  to  her,  and  might  have  proved  the 
ruin  of  Russia ;  she  allied  herself  with  Lithuania,  accepted  as 
prince,  Narimond,  a  son  of  Gedimin,  and  gave  him  the  Novgo- 
rodian  possessions  in  Ingria  and  Carelia,  as  hereditary  appanages. 
She  tried  also  to  make  friends  with  the  Grand  Prince  of  Mos- 
cow, but  Ivan  only  desired  to  restrict  her  liberties,  and  exacted, 
in  the  name  of  the  Khan,  a  double  capitation-tax. 

This  unwarlike  prince,  at  the  same  time  as  he  strengthened 
his  supremacy,  acquired  by  purchase  the  towns  of  Ouglitch, 
Galitch,  Bie'lozersk,  and  lands  in  the  neighborhoods  of  Kostroma, 
Vladimir,  and  Rostof.  He  was  at  once  Prince  of  Moscow  and 
Grand  Prince  of  Vladimir  ;  but  Moscow  was  his  inheritance,  of 
which  he  could  not  legally  be  despoiled  by  the  Khan,  while 
Vladimir  could  be  given  to  another  house.  It  was  thus  that  in 
Germany  the  archduchy  of  Austria  was  hereditary,  whilst  the 
imperial  crown  might  legally  pass  to  another  family.  It  may 
therefore  be  imagined  how  Kalita  chose  to  sacrifice  Vladimir  to 
Moscow,  as  the  Hapsburgs  sacrificed  Frankfort  to  Vienna. 
His  Tverian  rivals,  the  two  grand  princes,  his  predecessors,  had 
acted  in  the  same  way.  Michael  and  Dmitri  of  Tver  had  hardly 
appeared  at  Vladimir,  except  to  be  crowned  in  the  cathedral. 
They  lived  habitually  in  their  appanage  towns,  one  at  Tver,  the 
other  at  Perdiaslavl.  Under^Kalita,  Vladimir  remainedljhe 
legal  capital  of  Russia ;  Moscow  was  the  real  capital,  andKaHta 
was  working  to  ni  •  he  capital  dejiirc  as  well  as  Jc^acto. 

The  Metropolitan  of  Vladimir,  Peter,  who  had  an  affection  foi 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  145 

Moscow,  often  resided  there.  His  successor,  Theognostus, 
established  himself  there  completely.  Then  the  religious  su« 
premacy  which  had  first  belonged  to  Kief,  and  next  to  Vladimir, 
passed  to  Moscow.  Kalita  did  his  best  to  give  it  the  prestige 
of  a  metropolis.  He  built  magnificent  churches  in  the  Kremlin, 
among  others  that  of  tho  Arsr.mption,  the  Ouspienski  sobor. 
The  first  Metropolitans  of  Moscow,  thanks  to  him  and  his  suc- 
cessors, were  beatified.  St.  Alexis  and  St.  Peter  are  reckoned 
among  the  patron-saints  of  Russia.  It  is  related  that  the 
Metropolitan  Peter  himself  marked  out  the  place  of  his  tomb  in 
the  new  church,  and  that  he  said  to  Ivan,  "  God  will  bless  thee, 
and  elevate  thee  above  all  the  other  princes,  and  raise  this  town 
above  all  other  towns.  Thy  race  will  reign  in  this  place  during 
many  centuries  ;  their  hands  will  conquer  all  their  enemies  ;  the 
saints  will  make  their  dwelling  here,  and  here  shall  my  bones 
repose." 

What  made  the  chief  glory  of  Kief  the  ancient  metropolis 
was  the  famous  Petcherski  monastery,  with  its  holy  catacombs 
and  the  tombs  of  so  many  ascetics  and  wonder-workers.  Mos- 
cow had  also  her  heritage  of  virtues  and  glorious  austerity. 
Under  Kalita's  successor,  not  far  from  the  capital,  in  a  deep 
forest,  where  he  had  at  first  no  companion  but  a  bear,  on  water- 
courses which  were  haunted  only  by  the  beavers,  St.  Sergius 
founded  the  Troi'tsa  monastery  (the  Trinity],  which  became  one 
of  the  richest  and  most  venerated  of  Eastern  Russia.  On  its 
increase  of  wealth,  it  was  obliged  to  be  surrounded  with  ram- 
parts ;  and  its  thick  brick  walls  with  a  triple  row  of  embrasures, 
its  nine  war-towers,  and  its  still  existing  fortifications,  were 
afterwards  destined  to  brave  the  assaults  of  Catholics  and  infi- 
dels. The  princes  of  Moscow,  in  spite  of  their  perfidious  and 
pitiless  policy,  were  as  pious  as  good  King  Robert — devots, 
alms-givers,  indefatigable  in  building  churches  and  monasteries, 
in  honoring  the  clergy,  and  in  helping  the  poor.  The  surname 
of  Kalita  given  to  Ivan  comes  from  the  kalita  or  alms-bag  he 
wore  always  at  his  girdle.  This  kalita  may  also  have  been  Shy- 
lock's  purse — the  bag  of  a  prince  who  was  farmer-general  and 
usurer  who  demanded  from  Novgorod  double  what  he  intended 
to  pay  on  her  behalf  to  Uzbeck.  Ivan  liked  to  converse  with 
the  monks  in  his  Convent  of  the  Transfiguration.  Like  all  the 
other  princes  of  the  house,  he  took  care,  when  at  the  point  of 
death,  to  be  tonsured  and  adopt  the  religious  dress  and  a  new 
name. 

If  the  princes  of  Moscow  labored  with  fierce  energy  to  bind 
together  the  Russian  soil,  they  continued  to  divide  it  into  ap- 
panages among  their  sons.  Many  causes  contributed  to  prevent 


1  46  ni±  TOK  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

the  return  of  the  former  anarchy.  These  princes,  as  a  rule,  had 
few  sons  ;  they  gradually  got  into  the  way  of  giving  only  very 
weak  appanages  to  the  younger  ones,  and  these  on  condition  of 
an  absolute  dependence  on  the  eldest.  Ivan,  for  example,  had 
only  three  sons  ;  he  gave  by  far  the  larger  share  (Mojaisk  and 
Kolomna)  to  Simeon,  and  forbade  Moscow  to  be  divided.  The 
idea  of  the  State  as  one  and  indivisible  was  certain  to  end  by 
gaining  the  day. 

SIMEON  THE   PROUD  AND     IVAN    THE    DEBONNAIRE    (1341-1359). 


Sjmeon  the   Proud  (1341-1353)  and   Ivan   II.  . 

succeeded  one  after  the  other  their  father  Kalita.  They  were 
all  three  contemporaries  of  the  early  Valois.  At  the  news  of 
the  death  of  Ivan,  many  princes  at  once  disputed  the  throne  of 
Vladimir  with  his  sons.  Constantine  of  Tver,  and  Constantine 
of  Souzdal,  especially,  were  supported  by  the  other  princes  who 
did  not  desire  the  title  of  Grand  Prince  to  be  perpetuated  in 
the  house  of  Moscow.  They  went  to  the  Horde  at  the  same 
time  as  Simeon  and  his  two  sons  travelled  thither.  Simeon 
owed  his  success  neither  to  his  eloquence  nor  his  arguments,  but 
to  the  treasure  of  his  father,  which  won  over  the  infidels.  After 
being  crowned  in  the  Cathedral  of  Vladimir,  he  swore  to  live  in 
harmony  with  his  t\vo  brothers,  and  exacted  from  them  the  same 
oath.  While  pushing  his  submission  to  the  Khan  to  the  verge 
of  baseness,  he  domineered  over  the  Russian  princes  with  a 
haughtiness  that  gained  for  him  the  surname  of  "  the  Proud." 
He  forced  Novgorod  to  pay  him  a  contribution,  and,  in  his 
capacity  of  supreme  head  of  Russia,  confirmed  the  liberties  of 
the  republic.  He  was  the  first  who  assumed  the  title  of  "  Grand 
Prince  of  all  the  Russias,"  which  was  little  justified  by  the 
facts,  as  in  i34TTJlgerd  of  Lithuania  besieged  the  town  of  Mo- 
jaisk, Simeon's  own  appanage.  The  friendship  of  St.  Alexis, 
third  Metropolitan  of  Moscow,  gave  him  great  moral  aid.  In 
his  reign  Boris,  a  Russian  artist,  cast  bells  for  the  cathedrals  of 
Moscow  and  Novgorod  ;  three  churches  of  the  Kremlin  were 
adorned  with  new  paintings  —  that  of  the  Assumption,  by  Greek 
artists  ;  that  of  St.  Michael,  by  the  Court  painters  ;  that  of  the 
Transfiguration,  by  a  foreigner  named  Goiten.  Paper  replaced 
parchment  :  and  it  was  on  paper  that  Simeon's  will  was  written. 
Russia  then  still  maintained  her  old  relations  with  Byzantium, 
and  entered  into  new  ones  with  Europe.  Simeon  died  of  the 
famous  "black  death"  or  "black  pestilence,"  which  at  this 
time  desolated  the  West. 

Ivan  II.,  brother  and  successor  of  "  the  Proud,"  deserves, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'47 


on  the  contrary,  the  surname  of  "  the  Det>onnaire."  He  was  of 
a  different  type  from  the  sinister  princes  of  Souzdal,  and  was 
pacific  and  gentle.  The  anarchy  into  which  Russia  fell  during 
the  six  years  of  his  reign,  shows  how  little  his  virtues  were  those 
of  his  century.  Without  attempting  to  avenge  himself,  Ivan 
permitted  Oleg  of  Riazan  to  insult  his  territory,  burn  his  villages 
of  the  Lopasnia,  and  ill-treat  his  lieutenant.  He  allowed  the 
Novgorodians  to  despise  his  authority  and  obey  Constantine  of 
Souzdal ;  he  let  the  Grand  Duke  Olgerd  occupy  Rjef,  and  An- 
drew of  Lithuania  menace  Pskof.  He  interfered  neither  in  the 
civil  wars  of  the  princes  of  Riazan,  nor  in  those  of  the  princi- 
pality of  Tver,  nor  in  the  troubles  excited  at  Novgorod  by  the 
rivalry  of  the  Slavonian  quarters  and  that  of  St.  Sophia,  nor  in 
the  storm  raised  in  the  Church  by  the  Patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, who  dared  to  consecrate  metropolitan  a  rival  of  St. 
Alexis.  The  murder  of  one  of  his  officers,  Alexis,  military  gov- 
ernor of  Moscow,  remained  unpunished.  In  this  weakness  of 
the  prince,  the  churchmen  naturally  came  to  the  front,  and  took 
up  the  part  abandoned  by  him.  Moses,  Archbishop  of  Nov- 
gorod, quelled  a  revolt  in  the  republic  ;  St.  Alexis  reconciled 
the  princes  of  Tver,  and  acquired,  by  a  miraculous  cure,  great 
power  in  the  Horde,  by  which  he  profited  to  protect  his  people 
and  his  prince.  At  the  death  of  Ivan  II.,  the  title  of  Grand 
Prince,  which  his  three  predecessors  had  made  such  efforts  to 
perpetuate  in  the  house  of  Moscow,  passed  to  that  of  Souzdal. 
Dmitri  of  Souzdal  (1359-1362),  furnished  \viththe  iarlikh,  made 
his  solemn  entry  into  Vladimir.  It  was  again  St.  Alexis  who 
saved  the  supremacy  of  Moscow.  After  having  blessed  the 
Grand  Prince  in  Vladimir,  he  returned  to  his  care  of  the  young 
children  of  Ivan  II.,  and  to  Moscow,  which  had  for  a  moment 
ceased  to  be  the  capital.  It  was  by  his  counsel  that  Dmitri 
Ivanovitch,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  dared  to  declare  himself  the 
rival  of  Dmitri  of  Souzdal,  and  determined  to  appeal  to  the  tri- 
bunal of  the  Khan.  The  Golden  Horde  was  then  a  prey  to 
civil  wars;  the  ferocious  Mamai'  harassed  Mourout,  but  as  the 
latter  reigned  at  Sarai',  and  seemed  the  legitimate  successor  of 
Bati,  it  war,  to  him  that  the  Souzdalian  and  Muscovite  boyards 
addressed  themselves.  Mourout  adjudged  the  Grand  Principal- 
ity to  the  grandson  of  Kalita,  whom  a  Muscovite  army  led  to  be 
consecrated  in  Vladimir. 

DMITRI    DONSKOI    (1363-1389) — THE    BATTLE    OF   KOULIKOVO. 

Dmitri  Ivanovitch  (1363-1389)  is  distinguished  from  nearly 
all  the  Souzdal  princes  by  a  warlike  and  chivalrous  character 


!  48  H1STOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

worthy  of  the  West.  He  proves  that  the  Russian  soul  had  been 
only  repressed,  not  rendered  depraved  and  servile  by  the  Tatar 
yoke,  and  that  Slav  chivalry  only  awaited  an  opportunity  to 
raise  the  cry  of  war,  and  make  their  swords  flash  like  the  prcux 
chevaliers  of  Louis  IX.  or  of  John  the  Good.  Dmitri  had  at 
once  to  sustain  a  series  of  wars  against  the  neighboring  princes  ; 
notably  against  Dmitri  of  Souzdal,  Michael  of  Tver,  and  Oleg 
of  Riazan.  As  changes  took  place  at  the  Horde,  Dmitri  of 
Souzdal  obtained  from  the  Khan  Mourout  a  reversal  of  his  first 
decision,  and  returned  to  Vladimir.  The  Prince  of  Moscow, 
who  feared  this  feeble  Khan  no  longer,  did  not  hesitate  to  take 
up  arms,  and  to  expel  his  rival  from  Vladimir.  A  treaty  was 
agreed  on  between  them.  The  Souzdalian  appanage  of  Nijni- 
Novgorod  having  become  vacant,  Dmitri  supported  his  ancient 
enemy  against  his  competitor  Boris.  Like  his  grandfather 
Kalita,  who  had  caused  Novgorod  to  be  excommunicated, 
Dmitri  Ivanovitch  entreated  St.  Sergius,  the  founder  of  the 
Troitsa  Monastery,  to  lay  Nijni-Novgorod  under  an  interdict. 
Then  Boris  yielded,  and  Dmitri  of  Souzdal,  now  Prince  of  Nijni- 
Novgorod,  gave  the  Prince  of  Moscow  his  daughter  Eudoxia  in 
marriage,  and  henceforward  remained  his  friend.  Dmitri  Ivan- 
ovitch deprived  the  rebel  princes  of  Starodoub  and  Galitch  of 
their  appanages,  and  forced  Constantine  Borissovitch  to  recog- 
nize his  supremacy.  He  made,  under  the  guarantee  of  St. 
Alexis,  a  treaty  with  his  cousin,  Vladimir  AndrieVitch,  by  which 
he  undertook  to  hand  over  to  him  the  appanage  that  Kalita  had 
secured  to  his  father,  and  by  which  Vladimir  engaged  to  ac- 
knowledge him  as  his  father  and  his  Grand  Prince.  Vladimir 
kept  his  word,  and  was  always  the  bravest  lieutenant  and  the 
right  arm  of  Dmitri. 

The  struggle  now  recommenced  with  the  house  of  Tver. 
Michael  Alexandrovitch,  whose  father  had  been  killed  at  the 
Horde,  disputed  the  throne  with  one  of  his  uncles.  The  Grand 
Prince  and  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow  took  the  part  of  the 
latter.  Michael  paid  no  attention  to  this  decision,  took  Tver 
with  a  Lithuanian  army,  besieged  his  uncle  in  Kachine,  and 
obliged  him  to  renounce  his  claims.  He  then  took  the  title  of 
Grand  Prince  of  Tver.  It  was  chiefly  the  alliance  with  Olgerd, 
the  husband  of  his  sister  Juliana,  that  rendered  him  formid- 
able. Thrice — in  1368,  in  1371,  and  in  1372 — Olgerd  conducted 
his  brother-in-law,  burning  and  pillaging  on  his  way,  up  to  the 
walls  of  the  Kremlin  on  Moscow.  Neither  the  Lithuanian  nor 
the  Muscovite  army  on  any  of  these  occasions  fought  a  decisive 
battle.  The  boyards  of  Dmitri  felt  that  a  lost  battle  would  be 
the  ruin  of  Russia;  while  Olgerd  was  too  old  and  experienced  to 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


149 


stake  all  on  a  hazard.  At  last,  in  1375,  after  the  death  of  his 
brother-in-law,  Michael  found  himself  besieged  in  Tver  by  the 
united  forces  of  all  the  vassals  and  allies  of  Dmitri  and  of  the 
Novgorodians  who  had  the  sack  of  Torjok  and  the  devastation 
of  their  territory  to  avenge.  Reduced  to  extremities,  and  aban- 
doned by  Lithuania,  he  was  constrained  to  sign  a  treaty  by 
which  he  engaged  to  regard  Dmitri  as  his  "  elder  brother,"  to 
renounce  all  claim  to  Novgorod  and  Vladimir,  not  to  disquiet  the 
allies  of  Moscow,  and  to  imitate  Dmitri's  conduct  towards  the 
Tatars,  whether  he  continued  to  pay  tribute  or  he  declared  war. 

Another  enemy,  not  less  dangerous,  was  Oleg  of  Riazan,  who 
had  formerly  braved  Ivan  the  Debonnaire.  In  1371,  the  Mus- 
covites defeated  Oleg,  and  installed  a  prince  of  Pronsk  in  his 
capital,  who  was  not,  however,  strong  enough  to  maintain  his 
position.  If  Tver  was  sometimes  supported  by  Lithuania, 
Riazan  had  often  the  Horde  as  an  ally. 

The  empire  of  Kiptchak  was  gradually  falling  to  pieces.  Many 
competitors  disputed  the  throne  of  Sarai.  The  Tatars  acted 
after  their  kind,  and  invaded  the  Russian  territory  in  disor- 
derly style.  It  is  true  it  was  no  longer  a  point  of  honor  with 
the  Christian  princes  to  submit  to  them.  Oleg  of  Riazan  him- 
self united  with  the  princes  of  Pronsk  and  Kozelsk,  and  defied 
the  mourza  Tagai,  who  had  burnt  Riazan.  Dmitri  of  Souzdal, 
prince  of  Nijni-Novgorod,  had  defeated  Boulat-Temir,  who  on 
his  return  to  the  Horde  had  been  disavowed  and  put  to  death. 
Finally,  Dmitri  of  Moscow  had  many  times  disobeyed  the  terri- 
ble Mama'i.  He  had,  however,  the  courage  to  answer  to  the 
summons  of  the  Khan,  and  the  good  fortune  or  the  cleverness 
to  return  to  Moscow  safe  and  well  (1371).  In  1376  Dmitri 
sent  a  great  expedition  against  Kazan  by  the  Volga,  and  forced 
two  Tatar  princes  to  pay  tribute.  Conflicts  multiplied  between 
the  Christians  and  the  infidels.  In  this  manner  the  princes  of 
Souzdal  exterminated  a  band  of  Mordvians,  and  delivered  up 
their  chiefs  to  be  torn  in  pieces  by  the  dogs  of  Novgorod  ;  in 
return,  Mama'i  ordered  the  town  to  be  burnt.  In  1378,  Dmitri 
of  Moscow  gained  a  brilliant  victory  over  the  lieutenant  of 
Mamaii  on  the  banks  of  the  Voja  in  Riazan.  In  the  first  intox- 
ication of  victory,  he  cried,  "  Their  time  is  past,  and  God  is 
with  us  !  "  The  Khan,  in  his  blind  fury,  caused  his  anger  to 
fall  on  Oleg  of  Riazan,  the  rival  of  Dmitri  Ivanovitch,  who  fled, 
abandoning  his  lands  to  the  ravages  of  the  enemy. 

It  took  Maina'i  two  years  to  mature  his  plans  of  vengeance, 
and  he  assembled  in  silence  an  immense  host  of  Tatars,  Turks, 
Polovtsi,  Tcherkesses,  lasses,  and  Bourtanians  or  Caucasian 
Jews.  Even  the  Genoese  of  Kaffa,  settled  in  the  Crimea  and 


HISTOXY  OF  RUSSIA. 

on  the  territory  of  the  Khan,  furnished  a  contingent.  In  thes« 
critical  circumstances  for  Russia,  Oleg  of  Riazan,  forgetting  his 
grievances  against  the  Tatars,  and  only  remembering  his  mistrust 
and  jealousy  of  Moscow,  betrayed  the  common  cause.  While 
keeping  on  good  terms  with  Dmitri,  even  while  warning  him  of 
what  was  preparing,  he  secretly  negotiated  an  alliance  between 
the  two  most  formidable  enemies  of  Russia — Jagellon  of  Lithu- 
ania and  Mamai.  The  Grand  Prince's  army  would  probably  be 
crushed  between  them  ;  but  Dmitri  did  not  lose  heart.  The 
desire  of  vengeance  awakened  in  the  Russians  with  the  force  of 
religious  enthusiasm.  At  the  call  of  the  Grand  Prince,  the 
princes  of  Rostof,  Bie'lozersk,  laroslavl,  Starodoub,  and  Kachine, 
with  their  dronjinas  ;  the  boyards  of  Vladimir,  Nijni-Novgorod, 
Souzdal,  Pere'iaslavl-Zaliesski,  Kostroma,  Mourom,  Dmitrof, 
Mojaisk,  Zvenigorod,  Ouglitch,  and  Serpoukhof,  at  the  head  of 
their  contingents,  successively  made  their  entrance  into  the 
Kremlin,  amid  the  acclamations  of  the  Muscovites.  At  Kostroma 
Dmitri  was  to  be  joined  by  two  Lithuanian  princes — Andrew 
and  Dmitri — who  brought  him  troops  from  Pskof  and  Briansk. 
The  grand  Prince,  with  his  cousin  Vladimir,  went  to  the  hermit- 
age of  Troitsa  to  ask  the  benediction  of  Saint  Sergius.  The 
htter  predicted  that  he  would  gain  the  victory,  but  that  it  would 
be  a  bloody  fight.  He  sent  two  of  his  monks,  Alexander  Peres- 
vet  and  Osliaba,  formerly  a  brave  boyard  of  Briansk,  to  accom- 
pany Dmitri.  On  their  cowls  he  made  the  sign  of  the  cross. 
"  Behold,"  he  cried,  "  a  weapon  which  faileth  never."  The 
Prince  of  Tver  had  taken  good  care  not  to  send  his  contingent, 
and  the  treason  of  the  Prince  of  Riazan  now  became  known. 
The  hearts  of  the  Russians  beat  with  joy  and  enthusiasm  at  the 
throught  of  revenge.  In  spite  of  private  jealousies,  the  princes 
were  animated  by  the  same  ardor  as  the  Spanish  kings  when 
they  marched  against  the  Moors,  or  the  companions  of  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon  on  the  road  for  the  Holy  Land.  Never  had  such 
an  army  been  seen.  Dmitri  is  said  to  have  had  150,000  men. 

They  crossed  the  country  of  Riazan,  then  under  a  craven 
prince,  and  reached  the  banks  of  the  Don.  The  princes  de- 
bated as  to  whether  it  was  necessary  to  cross  the  river  immedi- 
ately; but  it  was  urgent  to  dispose  of  the  Mongols  before  having 
on  their  hands  Jagellon,  who  had  already  arrived  at  Odoef, 
f.freen  leagues  off.  A  letter  which  Dmitri  received  from  Saint 
Sergius,  recommending  him  to  "  go  forwards,"  decided  ihe 
matter.  The  Don  was  crossed,  and  they  found  themselves  on 
the  plain  of  Koulikovo  (the  /'»/</  of  Woodcocks),  watered  by  the 
Nepriadva.  The  centre  was  occupied  by  the  princes  of  Lithu- 
ania and  Smolensk,  with  the  droujina  of  Dmitri  ;  the  right  was 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  15 1 

commanded  by  the  princes  of  Rostof  and  Starodoub,  the  left 
by  those  of  laroslavl  and  Vologda  ;  the  reserve  by  Prince 
Vladimir,  the  brave  Dmitri  of  Volhynia,  and  the  princes  of 
Briansk  and  Kachine.  The  Mongols  soon  came  up,  and  the 
battle  began.  It  was  bloody  and  dubious.  The  enemy  had 
already  cut  to  pieces  the  droujina  of  the  Grand  Prince,  when 
Vladimir  and  Dmitri  of  Volhynia,  who  had  lain  in  ambush,  sud- 
denly attacked  the  Tatars.  Mamai',  from  the  top  of  a  kourgan, 
contemplated  the  flight  of  his  army.  His  camp,  his  chariots, 
and  his  camels  were  all  captured.  The  Mongols  were  pursued 
to  the  Me'tcha,  in  which  many  drowned  themselves.  If  the 
barbarians  lost,  as  they  are  said  to  have  done,  100,000  men,  the 
Russian  loss  was  also  very  severe.  They  counted  among  the 
dead  the  two  monks  of  Saint  Sergius  ;  one  of  them,  Peresvet 
was  discovered  in  the  arms  of  a  Patzinak  giant,  who  had  fought, 
with  him  hand  to  hand,  and  perished  along  with  him.  For  a 
long  while  Dmitri  could  not  be  found;  at  last  he  was  seen  in 
a  swoon,  his  armor  bloody  and  broken.  This  memorable  battle 
of  Koulikovo  has  been  related  in  more  than  one  way  by  the 
Russian  historians.  With  the  annalists,  properly  so  called,  the 
official  historiographers  of  the  Grand  Prince,  Dmitri  is  the 
hero.  In  the  poetical  recitals  which  were  inspired  by  the  ac- 
count of  the  pope  Sophronius,  it  is  Saint  Sergius  who  at  each 
moment  supports  the  courage  of  Dmitri,  whom  they  represent 
with  rather  too  much  humility  for  a  general-in-chief.  The  battle 
of  the  Don,  which  gained  for  Dmitri  the  surname  of  Donskoi, 
and  for  Vladimir  that  of  the  Brave,  is  as  celebrated  in  Russia 
as  that  of  Las  Navas  de  Tolosa  in  Spain.  It  showed  the  Rus- 
sians that  they  could  vanquish  the  invincible ;  and  the  Mongol 
yoke,  even  after  they  again  fell  under  it,  did  not  seem  in- 
evitable. Dmitri  had  heroically  broken  the  tradition  of  slavery  ; 
he  had  proclaimed  the  future  freedom  (1380). 

Unhappily  the  event  showed  the  advantages  of  the  policy 
of  resignation  over  the  policy  of  chivalry — of  the  patience  of  the 
hero  of  the  Neva  over  the  bravery  of  the  hero  of  the  Don.  A 
man  appeared  at  this  moment  at  the  head  of  the  Mongols,  who 
was  as  formidable  as  Genghis  Khan — Tamerlane,  the  conqueror 
of  the  two  Bokharas,  of  Hindostan,  of  Iran,  and  of  Asia  Minor. 
Tokhtamych,  one  of  his  generals,  caused  Mamai'  to  be  put 
to  death,  and  announced  to  Dmitri  that  he  had  triumphed 
over  their  common  enemy ;  then  he  summoned  the  Russian 
princes  to  present  themselves  at  the  Horde.  Dmitri  refused. 
Was  it  in  vain  that  the  blood  of  the  Christians  had  flowed  at 
Koulikovo  ?  The  Khan  assembled  an  immense  army.  Dmitri 
found  no  longer  the  same  wisdom  or  energy  among  his  coun- 


1 5  2  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

cillors.  Not  knowing  what  to  do,  he  left  Moscow  and  went  to 
assemble  an  army  at  Kostroma.  Tokhtamych  marched  straight 
on  the  capital,  and  during  three  days  tried  to  carry  the  walls  of 
the  Kremlin  by  assault.  Then  he  had  recourse  to  a  ruse,  and 
affected  to  enter  in  a  negotiation.  At  last  the  Tatars  surprised 
the  gates,  and  delivered  up  Moscow  to  fire  and  sword.  A 
tolerably  exact  calculation  proves  that  24,000  men  perished, 
beside  the  precious  documents  and  earliest  archives  of  the  prin- 
cipality. 

Vladimir,  Mojaisk,  lourief,  and  other  towns  of  Souzdal  suf- 
fered the  same  fate.  When  Tokhtamych  had  retired,  Dmitri  came 
and  wept  over  the  ruins  of  his  capital.  "Our  fathers,"  he  cried, 
"  who  never  triumphed  over  the  Tatars,  were  less  unhappy  than 
we."  Bitter  morrow  of  victory !  However,  although  Russia 
had  to  resign  herself  to  her  Tatar  collectors,  she  felt  that  the 
Horde  would  never  recover  its  former  power. 

Dmitri  longed  at  least  to  revenge  himself  on  the  perfidious 
Oleg.  The  latter  escaped  him,  but  Riazan,  which  was  regarded 
as  a  harbor  for  traitors,  was  sacked.  Michaelof  Tver  merited 
the  same  chastisement ;  he  had  refused  to  fight  Mama'i,  and  was 
one  of  the  first  to  fly  to  the  Horde  of  Tokhtamych.  The  war 
continued  with  Oleg  of  Riazan,  who  ravaged  the  territory  of 
Kolomna.  Saint  Sergius  again  intervened,  entreated  and  threat- 
ened Oleg,  and  finally  induced  him  to  conclude  a  "  perpetual 
peace  "  with  Dmitri,  and  to  cement  it  by  the  marriage  of  his 
son  Feodor  with  Sophia,  daughter  of  Dmitri. 

The  Novgorod  adventurers,  the  "  Good  Companions,"  had 
about  this  time  committed  many  ravages  on  the  territories  of 
the  Grand  Principalities.  They  insulted  laroslavl  and  Kos- 
troma in  1371,  and  Kostroma  and  Nijni-Novgorod  in  1375,  pil- 
laging as  far  as  Saral  and  Astrakhan,  sparing  neither  infidels 
nor  Christians.  Novgorod  continued  to  furnish  appanages  to 
the  Lithuanian  princes,  to  despise  the  political  authority  of  the 
Grand  Prince,  and  the  religious  supremacy  of  the  Metropolitan. 
Dmitri  marched  against  the  republic  with  the  contingents  of 
twenty-five  provinces.  Novgorod  had  to  pay  an  indemnity  for 
the  glorious  deeds  of  the  Good  Companions,  and  to  engage  to 
furnish  a  yearly  tribute. 

When  Dmitri  died,  the  principality  of  Moscow  was  by  far  the 
most  considerable  of  the  States  of  the  North-east,  since  it  ex- 
tended on  the  south  to  Kalouga  and  Kasimof,  and  included  on 
the  north-east  Bie'lozersk  and  Galitch.  As  to  Vladimir,  Dmitri, 
in  his  will,  calls  it  his  patrimony.  He  has  been  reproached  for 
having  limited  himself  to  the  sack  of  Tver  and  Riazan,  without 
hastening  their  final  annexation.  If  Dmitri  gave  appanages  to 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


«53 


his  five  younger  sons,  he  at  least  established  the  principle  of  in- 
heritance in  a  direct  line  instead  of  the  ancient  principle  of  col- 
lateral succession.  He  had  signed  a  treaty  with  his  cousin 
Vladimir,  by  which  the  latter  renounced  his  rights  as  "  eldest  of 
the  family,"  engaging  to  consider  Vassili,  eldest  son  of  Dmitri, 
as  his  "  elder  brother."  In  the  reign  of  Donskoi  the  monk 
Stephen  founded  the  first  church  in  the  country  of  the  Permians, 
confuted  their  priests  and  sorcerers,  overthrew  the  idols  of 
Vol'ssel  and  the  Old  Golden  Woman  who  held  two  infants  in  her 
arms,  put  a  stop  to  the  sacrifice  of  reindeer,  built  schools,  and 
died  Bishop  of  Permia.  A  certain  Andrew,  probably  a  Genoese 
by  birth,  settled  on  the  Petchora.  Russia  entered  into  relations 
with  the  West  by  means  of  the  Genoese  of  Kaffa  and  Azof  ;  coins 
of  silver  and  copper,  with  the  image  of  a  knight,  replaced  the 
kounes,  or  marten-skins.  About  1389  the  first  cannons  appeared 
in  the  Russian  army.  Moscow  continued  to  adorn  herself,  and 
the  monasteries  of  the  Miracle,  of  Andronii,  and  of  Simeon  were 
built. 


VASSILI    DMITRI EVITCH   AND  VASSILI   THE   BLIND   (1389-1465). 

YassiHJDrnitrievitch  (1389-1425),  the  contemporary  of  Charles 
VI.  of  France,  succeeded  his  father  without  opposition  as 
Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  and  Vladimir.  The  preponderance 
of  the  first  of  these  towns  over  the  second  became  more  and 
more  marked.  The  situation  of  both  was  equally  advantageous  ; 
the  one  on  the  Moskowa,  the  other  on  the  Kliazma,  affluents 
of  the  Oka.  Vladimir,  like  Moscow,  had  its  kremlin  on  a  high 
hill,  commanding  a  vast  extent  of  country.  Both  cities  were  in 
communication  with  the  great  Russian  artery,  the  Volga  ;  but 
were  far  enough  from  it  to  escape  the  piracies  of  the  Good  Com- 
panions. Vladimir  had  been  in  other  respects  as  favored  as 
Moscow.  Andrew  Boglioubski  had  ornamented  the  former,  as 
Ivan  Kalita  had  embellished  the  second.  Vladimir,  to  which 
the  title  of  Grand  Principality  was  attached,  seemed  even 
better  fitted  than  Moscow  to  be  the  capital  of  Russia.  It  was 
almost  an  historical  accident  that  decided  in  favor  of  the  latter. 
At  the  present  day  Vladimir  is  merely  a  simple  seat  of  govern- 
ment with  a  population  of  14,000,  while  Moscow  is  a  metropolis 
with  600,000  souls. 

With  regard  to  Novgorod,  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  be- 
gan to  look  upon  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  sovereign,  and 
called  the  city  "  his  patrimony."  The  Novgoroclians  on  their  side 
appealed  to  the  charter  of  laroslaf  the  Great,  which  formally  con- 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA . 

ceded  them  the  right  to  choose  their  princes.  In  the  last  reigns 
they  had  been  accustomed  to  have  recourse  to  a  bargain.  The 
republicans  recognized  the  sovereign  of  Moscow  as  their  prince, 
if  the  latter  would  consent  to  certain  conditions, — the  final  hom- 
age rendered  to  the  ancient  Slav  freedom.  After  the  fall  of 
Alexander  of  Tver  (1328),  no  Russian  prince  could  compete  with 
the  house  of  Moscow  for  the  throne  of  Novgorod.  The  only 
possible  rivals  were  the  Grand  Princes  of  Lithuania.  Now  with 
Lithuania  it  was  not  only  a  competition  of  candidates,  but  it  was 
a  great  national  and  religious  question.  Moscow  would  prefer 
to  ruin  Novgorod  rather  than  allow  her  to  pass  into  the  hands 
of  the  most  dangerous  enemy  of  Russian  orthodoxy.  We  may 
say  that  after  1328  Novgorod  had  no  longer  a  special  prince, 
but  only  aboyardof  Moscow,  who  represented  the  Grand  Prince. 
The  power  of  the  latter  was  sometimes  exerted  with  vigor.  In 
1393  Novgorod  having  revolted  against  Moscow,  Vassili  sent  in 
his  troops,  and  seventy  inhabitants  of  Torjok,  accused  of  having 
put  to  death  one  of  his  men,  were  cut  to  pieces. 

Vassili  Dmitrie'vitch  then,  on  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
found  his  power  considerably  strengthened,  as  Vladimir  on  the 
Kliazma  and  Novgorod  the  Great,  the  objects  of  so  many  bloody 
contests  with  the  Russian  princes,  had  in  some  ways  already 
become  integral  parts  of  his  dominions.  If  he  went  to  the  Horde 
in  1392,  it  was  less  to  obtain  the  confirmation  of  this  triple  crown 
than  to  acquire  new  territories.  From  the  Khan  Tokhtamych  he 
bought  a  iarlikh,  which  put  him  in  possession  of  the  three  appan- 
ages of  Mourom,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  Souzdal.  The  boyards 
of  Moscow  and  the  ambassador  of  the  Khan  betook  themselves 
to  Nijni.  Boris,  the  last  titular  prince  of  the  two  latter  appa- 
nages, was  betrayed  by  his  men,  who  persuaded  him  to  open  the 
gates,  and  delivered  him  up  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Grand  Prince. 
Then,  with  the  ringing  of  all  the  bells  in  the  town,  Vassili  of 
Moscow  was  proclaimed  Prince  of  Nijni  and  Souzdal. 

This  prince,  who  lived  on  such  good  terms  with  the  Horde, 
was  witness,  however,  of  two  Tatar  invasions  of  Russia.  Tamer- 
lane, conqueror  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  at  Anticyra,  attacked  his 
old  favorite  Tokhtamych,  and  pillaged  the  Golden  Horde.  lie 
continued  to  move  towards  the  West,  putting  the  Russian  ter- 
ritory to  fire  and  sword.  Moscow  was  threatened  with  an  inva- 
sion as  terrible  as  that  of  Bati.  The  famous  Virgin  of  Vladimir, 
brought  by  Andrew  Bogolioubski  from  Vychegorod,  was  taken 
solemnly  to  Moscow.  The  Tatars  reached  Eletz  on  the  1'  . 
and  made  its  princes  prisoners.  There  i!icy  stopped,  and 
denly  retreated.  Accustomed  t^  the  rich  booty  of  Bokhara  and 
Hindostan,  and  dreaming  of  Constantinople  and  Egypt,  they 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'55 


found,  no  doubt,  that  the  desert  steppes  and  deep  forests  only 
offered  a  very  meagre  prey.  They  indemnified  themselves  by 
the  pillage  of  Azof,  where  Egyptian,  Venetian,  Genoese,  Catalan 
and  Biscayan  merchants  had  accumulated  great  wealth,  and 
by  the  destruction  of  Astrakhan  and  Sara'i  (1395.) 

The  irruption  of  Tamerlane  resulted  in  the  more  rapid  dis- 
solution of  the  Golden  Horde.  We  have  seen  that  Vitovt  took 
advantage  of  it  to  organize  against  the  Mongols  his  great  crusade 
of  the  Vorskla  (1399).  Vassili  Dmitrievitch  had  taken  good  care 
not  to  interfere  in  the  war  between  Lithuania  and  the  Kiptchaks. 
His  Western  neighbors  appeared  to  him  more  dangerous  than 
those  of  the  East ;  with  the  latter  the  payment  of  the  tribute 
still  sufficed,  with  the  former  the  stake  was  the  existence  of 
Russia.  Vassili  profited  by  the  defeat  of  the  one  and  the  dis- 
organization of  the  other,  and  was  careful  to  irritate  neither  party. 
As  the  Horde  was  then  disputed  by  many  competitors,  he  for- 
bore to  pay  the  tribute,  affecting  not  to  know  which  was  the  legi- 
timate Khan.  Ediger,  the  vanquisher  of  Vitovt,  resolved  to 
reduce  the  Russian  vassals  to  obedience.  He  lulled  the  pru- 
dence of  the  Muscovites  to  rest  by  spreading  the  rumor  that  he 
was  assembling  troops  for  a  war  against  Lithuania.  Suddenly 
they  heard  that  he  had  entered  the  Grand  Principality.  Vassili 
imitated  the  conduct  of  his  father  in  similar  circumstances.  He 
retired  to  Kostroma  to  assemble  an  army,  and  confided  the 
defence  of  Moscow  to  Vladimir  the  Brave.  Defended  by  artil- 
lery, the  Kremlin  could  withstand  the  attack  of  a  large  force, 
but  the  dense  population  caused  fears  of  famine.  Ediger  burnt 
the  towns  in  the  flat  country  while  blockading  Moscow.  Ivan, 
prince  of  Tver,  showed  on  this  occasion  more  greatness  of  soul 
and  political  wisdom  than  his  father  Michael.  He  abstained 
from  coming  to  the  help  of  the  Tatars  against  his  formidable 
suzerain.  In  these  circumstances  Ediger  learnt  that  his  master 
Boulat  himself  feared  an  attack  at  the  Horde  by  his  Oriental 
enemies.  To  cover  his  forced  retreat  he  addressed  a  haughty 
letter  to  the  Grand  Prince,  summoning  him  to  pay  tribute  ;  he 
obtained  three  thousand  roubles  from  the  Muscovite  boyards  as 
a  war  indemnity  (1408). 

Vitovt  of  Lithuania,  whose  daughter  Sophia  Vassili  had  mar- 
ried, was  a  still  more  dangerous  enemy.  Great  caution  was 
necessary  in  all  dealings  with  him.  Vassili  saw  the  hand  of  his 
father-in-law,  in  the  troubles  cf  Novgorod,  everywhere ;  at  Pskcf, 
where  Vitovt  had  taken  the  title  of  Grand  Prince  ;  at  Smolensk, 
which  he  had  united  to  Lithuania  ;  at  Tver,  where  he  supported 
Michael  against  the  Grand  Prince.  Like  Olgerd,  Vitovt  marched 
hrice  against  Moscow.  Each  of  the  two  rivals  had  too  many 


!  56  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

other  enemies  to  dispose  of,  to  risk  in  one  battle  the  fortunes  of 
Moscow  or  Lithuania.  In  1408  they  signed  a  treaty  by  which 
the  Ougra  was  fixed  on  as  the  limit  of  the  two  Grand  Princi- 
palities, leaving  Smolensk  to  Vitovt,  and  restoring  Kozelsk  to 
Russia.  Besides  Mourom  and  Souzdal,  Vassili  had  united  to 
his  domains  many  appanages  of  the  country  of  Tchernigof,  such 
as  Toroussa,  Novossil,  Kozelsk,  and  Peremysl.  In  the  quarrels 
with  Novgorod,  generally  occasioned  by  the  exploits  of  the  Good 
Companions  or  by  commercial  rivalry,  he  had  appropriated  vast 
\  territories  on  the  Dwina  ;  among  others,  Vologda.  In  an  exped- 
ition against  the  republic  of  Viatka  he  had  reduced  it  to  sub- 
mission, and  made  one  of  his  brothers  its  prince.  He  had 
imposed  a  treaty  on  Feodor  Olgivitch,  prince  of  Riazan,  by 
which  the  latter  undertook  to  look  on  him  as  a  father,  and  to 
make  no  alliance  to  his  hurt.  Vassili  on  his  side  ceded  to  him 
Toula  and  the  title  of  Grand  Prince.  The  Oka  formed  the 
boundary  of  the  two  States.  He  made,  no  doubt,  a  similar 
treaty  with  Ivan,  prince  of  Tver.  One  of  his  daughters  had 
married  the  Emperor  John  Palaeologus. 

The  reign  of  Vassili  the  Blind  (1425-1462),  contemporary 
with  Charles  VII.  of  France,  marks  a  pause  in  the  development 
of  the  Grand  Principality.  A  civil  war  of  twenty  years  broke 
out  in  the  bosom  of  the  family  of  Donskoi.  One  of  his  sons, 
George,  or  louri,  whom  he  had  made  Prince  of  Roussa  and 
Zvenigorod,  attempted  to  revert  to  the  ancient  national  law,  and 
invoked  his  right  as  "  eldest  "  against  his  nephew,  Vassili  Vas- 
silidvitch.  Vassili's  other  uncles  declared  in  favor  of  the  young 
prince.  In  1431  it  was  necessary  to  carry  the  dispute  to  the 
Horde.  Each  of  the  two  parties  set  forth  his  right  to  the  Khan 
Oulou-Makhmet.  Vsevolojski,  a  boyard  of  the  Prince  of  Mos- 
cow, found  the  best  of  arguments  for  his  master.  "  My  Lord 
Tzar,"  he  said  to  Makhmet,  "  let  me  speak — me,  the  slave  of 
the  Grand  Prince.  My  master  the  Grand  Prince  prays  for  the 
throne  of  the  Grand  Principality,  which  is  thy  property,  having 
no  other  title  but  thy  protection,  thy  investiture,  and  thy  iarlikh. 
Thou  art  master,  and  can  dispose  of  it  according  to  thy  good 
pleasure.  My  lord  the  Prince  louri  Dmitrie'vitch,  his  uncle, 
claims  the  Grand  Principality  by  the  act  and  the  will  of  his 
father,  but  not  as  a  favor  from  the  All-powerful."  In  this  con- 
test of  baseness  the  prize  was  adjudged  to  the  Prince  of  Moscow. 
The  Khan  ordered  louri  to  lead  his  nephew's  horse  by  the 
bridle.  A  Tatar  baskak  was  present  at  the  coronation  of  the 
Grand  Prince,  which  took  place,  for  the  first  time,  not  at  Vladi- 
mir, but  at  the  Assumption  in  Moscow.  From  this  time  Vladi- 
mir lost  her  privileges  as  the  capital,  although,  in  the  enumeration 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


JS7 


of  their  titles,  the  Grand  Princes  continued  to  inscribe  the  name 
of  Vladimir  before  that  of  Moscow. 

Vassili  owed  his  throne  to  the  clever  boyard,  Vsevolojski. 
He  had  promised  to  marry  his  daughter,  but  his  own  mother, 
Sophia,  the  proud  Lithuanian,  daughter  of  the  great  Vitovt, 
made  him  contract  an  alliance  with  the  Princess  Maria,  grand- 
daughter of  Vladimir  the  Brave.  The  irritated  boyard  left  Vas- 
sili's  service,  and  retired  to  his  enemy,  louri,  whose  resentment 
against  his  nephew  he  fanned.  Another  circumstance  exasper- 
ated louri ;  his  two  sons,  Vassili  the  Squinting,  and  Chemiaka, 
assisted  at  the  marriage  of  the  Grand  Prince.  The  Princess 
Sophia  recognized  round  the  waist  of  Vassili  the  Squinting  a 
belt  of  gold  which  had  belonged  to  Dmitri  Donsko'i.  She  had 
the  imprudence,  publicly  and  with  open  scandal,  to  take  it  from 
the  son  of  louri.  On  this  affront,  the  two  princes  at  once  left 
the  banqueting-hall,  and  retired  to  their  father.  The  latter  in- 
stantly took  up  arms,  and  departed  for  Pere'iaslavl.  The  Prince 
of  Moscow  could  hardly  assemble  any  troops,  and  fell  into  the 
hands  of  his  uncle  at  Kostroma,  (1433).  Vassili  tried  in  vain  to 
soften  him  by  his  tears.  The  Squinter  and  Chemiaka  wished 
their  prisoner  to  be  put  to  death,  but  by  the  seK  Interested  counsel 
of  the  boyard  Morozof,  louri  allowed  his  nephew  to  live,  and 
gave  him  the  appanage  of  Kostroma,  while  he  took  for  himself 
the  Grand  Principality.  The  affection  of  the  Muscovites  for 
their  prince  was  so  great,  that  they  abandoned  their  city  en  masse, 
and  crowded  into  Kostroma.  louri  saw  that  his  nephew  was 
still  powerful,  reproached  Morozof  for  his  perfidious  advice,  and 
had  him  stabbed  by  his  two  sons.  "  Thou  hast  ruined  our 
father,"  they  said.  The  usurper  was  indeed  unable  to  remain  in 
Moscow,  and  sent  to  tell  his  nephew  he  might  come  and  take 
possession  of  it.  The  boyards  pressed  around  Vassili  on  his 
return  to  his  capital,  "as  bees  press  around  their  queen."  The 
war,  however,  continued  :  thanks  to  the  cowardice  of  Vassili, 
louri  again  took  the  Kremlin,  and  made  prisoners  the  wife  and 
mother  of  the  Grand  Prince,  while  the  Squinter  and  Chemiaka 
occupied  Vladimir,  and  marched  on  Nijni-Novgorod. 

louri  had  hardly  been  recognized  as  Grand  Prince  of  Nov- 
gorod, when  he  died  suddenly.  His  sons  then  made  peace  with 
Vassili,  but  immediately  took  up  arms  again.  In  one  of  the 
many  reverses  of  this  civil  war,  Vassili  the  Squinting  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Grand  Prince,  who  had  his  eyes  put  out  in  an 
excess  of  fury  (1436).  Then,  by  one  of  those  changes  com- 
mon to  violent  and  impulsive  natures,  he  passed  from  anger  to 
dismay;  and  to  atone  for  his  crime  against  his  cousin,  set  free 
Chemiaka,  whom  he  had  made  prisoner  at  the  same  time. 


!t;8  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Chemiaka  promised  to  serve  him,  but  served  him  very  badly. 
In  a  battle  with  the  Tatars,  his  desertion  caused  the  rout  of  the 
Russian  army  (siege  of  Bie'lef,  in  Lithuania).  In  1441  the  wat 
began  again  between  the  Grand  Prince  and  Chemiaka.  The 
latter, with  some  thousands  of  Free-lances  and  Good  Companions, 
suddenly  undertook  the  siege  of  Moscow.  Zenobius,  superior 
of  the  Troitsa  monastery,  succeeded  once  more  in  reconciling 
them.  Chemiaka  displayed  his  ordinary  duplicity  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  military  incursion  of  the  Tatars  of  Kazan.  The  Grand 
,'rince  waited  in  vain  for  the  succors  that  had  been  pronmc  ! 
him,  and  it  was  with  only  1500  men  that  he  finally  took  ihe  field, 
so  much  had  the  discords  between  the  descendants  of  Dmitri 
Donskoi  weakened  the  Grand  Principality,  loosened  the  ties  of 
obedience  among  the  vassals,  and  degraded  that  Russia  which 
had  armed  150,000  men  against  Mama'i.  Vassili,  covered  with 
fifteen  wounds,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  barbarians,  and  was 
led  prisoner  to  Kazan. 

Moscow  was  in  despair.  The  Prince  of  Tver  insulted  her 
territory ;  Chemiaka  intrigued  at  the  Horde  to  get  himself  nom- 
inated Grand  Prince.  All  at  once  the  Tzar  of  Kazan  took  it 
into  his  head  to  liberate  his  prisoners  for  a  small  ransom. 
Vassili  re-entered  his  capital  amid  the  acclamations  of  his 
people.  Chemiaka  had  done  enough  to  fear  the  vengeance  of 
the  Grand  Prince  :  in  the  interests  of  his  own  safety,  Vassili 
must  be  overthrown.  Following  the  example  of  his  father  and 
grandfather,  Vassili  went  to  the  Troitsa  monastery  to  return 
thanks  to  Saint  Sergius  for  his  deliverance.  He  had  few  com- 
panions and  Chemiaka  and  his  associates  surprised  the  Kremlin 
in  his  absence,  and  captured  his  wife,  his  mother,  and  his  treas- 
ures. Then  he  flew  to  Troitsa,  where  his  accomplice,  Ivan  of 
Mojaisk,  discovered  the  Grand  Prince,  who  was  hidden  in  the 
principal  church  near  the  tomb  of  Saint  Sergius.  He  was 
brought  back  to  Moscow,  and  ten  years  after  the  blinding  of 
Vassili  the  Squinting,  Chemiaka  avenged  his  brother  by  putting 
;t  the  eyes  of  the  Grand  Prince  (1446). 

During  his  short  reign  at  Moscow,  Chemiaka  had  made  him- 
self hated  by  the  people  and  the  boyards,  who  were  faithful  at 
bottom  to  their  unhappy  prince.  In  the  popular  language,  a 
"judgment  of  Chemiaka  "  became  the  synonym  for  a  crying 
wrong.  Presently  Vassili's  partisans  assembled  troops  i'i 
Lithuania,  joined  those  of  the  two  Tatar  fziirc'-ilc/ies,  and 
marched  against  the  usurper.  At  this  period,  Russia  was  in- 
fested by  armed  bands,  the  relics  of  the  great  Tatar  and 
Lithuanian  wars,  Lithuanian  adventurers,  tzarcriichcs  banished 
from  the  Horde,  Novgorodian  Good  Companions,  Free-lances 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


159 


of  all  races.  They  ravaged  the  flat  country,  attacked  the 
strongest  towns,  and  their  chiefs  sometimes  created  ephemeral 
principalities  for  themselves.  As  the  Asiatic  element  predom- 
inated in  them,  they  might  be  termed  Great  Mongol  Companies, 
analogous  to  the  Great  English  or  the  French  Companies  that, 
about  the  year  1444,  Charles  VII.  sent  to  Alsace  and  Switzer- 
land. Serving  Chemialrn.  or  the  Grand  Prince  indifferently,  they 
did  their  best  to  perpetuate  the  quarrel.  Chemiaka  wished  to 
march  against  his  enemies.  Hardly  had  he  left  Moscow  when 
the  city  broke  into  revolt,  and  Vassili  entered  in  triumph. 
Chemiaka  fled,  and  accepted  a  reconciliation  with  his  victim 
(1447).  Incapable  of  repose,  he  again  took  up  arms,  was  com- 
plete'.v  defeated  near  Galitch  by  the  Muscovites  and  Tatars 
(1450),  and  fled  to  Novgorod,  where  he  is  said  to  have  died 
three  years  after,  by  poison.  All  his  appanages  were  reunited 
to  the  royal  domain. 

Disembarrassed  of  this  dangerous  enemy,  Vassili  the  Blind 
hastened  to  take  up  the  work  of  his  predecessors.  Novgorod 
had  not  ceased  to  give  asylum  to  his  enemies,  to  despise  the 
authority  of  his  lieutenants,  to  contest  his  right  of  final  appeal 
and  the  supremacy  of  the  Metropolitan.  A  Muscovite  army  re- 
duced her  to  reason  ;  she  was  forced  to  annul  all  the  acts  of  the 
Tetchy  which  tended  to  limit  the  authority  of  the  Grand  Prince, 
to  pay  him  a  heavy  indemnity,  and  to  promise  to  set  no  seal  but 
that  of  Vassili  on  her  deeds.  Pskof  received  one  of  his  sons  as 
her  prince.  The  republic  of  Viatka  had  to  pay  tribute,  and  to 
furnish  a  military  contingent.  The  Prince  of  Riazan  having  just 
died,  Vassili  took  his  young  heir  to  Moscow,  under  pretence  of 
bringing  him  up,  and  sent  his  lieutenant  to  govern  the  appan- 
age. Vassili  of  Borovsk,  grandson  of  Vladimir  the  Brave,  had 
rendered  him  important  services,  but  none  the  less  was  he  im- 
prisoned, and  his  possessions  swallowed  up  in  the  Grand  Prin- 
cipality. The  authority  of  the  Grand  Prince  began  to  be  ex- 
ercised on  his  subordinates  with  new  rigor  ;  and  the  rebels,  real 
or  supposed,  were  subjected  to  the  knout,  tortures,  mutilations, 
and  refined  cruelties.  Vassili,  who  had  suffered  so  much  from 
the  appanaged  princes  louri  and  Chemiaka — who  was  so  ener- 
getic in  destroying  the  appanages  around  him — could  not  free 
himself  from  the  yoke  of  custom,  and  began  to  dismember  the 
principality  which  he  had  aggrandized,  in  favor  of  his  four 
younger  sons.  However,  to  avoid  all  contests  about  the  title  of 
Grand  Prince,  and  to  ensure  the  succession  of  the  direct  line, 
he  had,  since  the  year  1449.  associated  with  himself  his  eldest 
son,  Ivan. 

Memorable  events  had   agitated  the  orthodox  world  during 


! 60  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

his  reign.  In  1439,  P°Pe  Eugenius  IV.  assembled  the  Council 
of  Florence  to  discuss  the  union  of  the  two  Churches.  The 
Greek  Emperor,  John  Palaeologus,  who  hoped  to  obtain  the  help 
of  the  Pope  against  the  Ottomans,  had  sent  the  bishops  of 
his  communion  ;  Isidore,  Metropolitan  of  Moscow,  was  also 
present.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople, 
three  vicars  of  the  Patriarchs  of  the  East,  seventeen  met- 
ropolitans, and  a  multitude  of  bishops  signed  the  act  of 
union.  The  Greek  world  listened  to  the  energetic  protest  of 
Mark,  the  old  bishop  of  Ephesus,  and  rejected  the  union  with 
Rome.  Isidore  announced  at  Kief  and  Moscow  that  he  had 
signed  the  act  of  reconciliation ;  the  appearance  of  the  Latin 
cross  at  the  Assumption  in  the  Kremlin,  the  name  of  Pope 
Eugenius  in  the  public  prayers,  and  the  reading  of  the  formal 
document,  astonished  the  Russians.  Vassili,  who  piqued  him- 
self on  his  theology,  also  raised  his  voice,  began  a  polemic 
against  Isidore,  and  so  overwhelmed  him  with  insults,  that  the 
"  false  shepherd  "  thought  it  prudent  to  fly  to  Rome.  This 
check  to  the  union  heralded  the  fall  of  the  Greek  empire.  In 
1453,  Mahomet  II.  entered  Constantinople.  There  was  no 
longer  a  Christian  Tzar  ;  Moscow  became  the  great  metropolis 
of  orthodoxy.  She  was  heir  of  Constantinople.  Soon  the 
monks,  the  artists,  the  literary  men  of  Constantinople  were  to 
bring  to  her,  as  to  the  rest  of  Europe,  the  Renaissance. 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  x  6  r 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

IVAN    THE     GREAT,    THE    UNITER    OF    THE     RUSSIAN    LAND 
(1462-1505). 

Submission  of  Novgorod — Annexation  of  Tver,  Rostof,  and  laroslavl — Wars 
with  the  Great  Horde  and  Kazan — End  of  the  Tatar  yoke — Wars  with 
Lithuania — Western  Russia  as  far  as  the  Soja  reconquered — Marriage  with 
Sophia  Palaeologus — Greeks  and  Italians  at  the  Court  of  Moscow. 


SUBMISSION  OF  NOVGOROD — ANNEXATION  OF   THE   PRINCIPALITIES 
OF   TVER,    ROSTOF,    AND    IAROSLAVL. 

AT  the  death  of  Vassili  the  Blind,  Russia  was  all  but  stifled 
between  the  great  Lithuanian  empire  and  the  vast  possessions 
of  the  Mongols.  To  the  north,  she  had  two  restless  neighbors, 
the  Livonian  Order  and  Sweden.  In  spite  of  the  labors  of  eight 
Muscovite  princes,  the  little  Russian  State  could  not  yet  make 
its  unity  a  fact ;  Riazan  and  Tver,  though  weakened,  still  ex- 
isted.  Novgorod  and  Pskof  hesitated  between  the  Grand 
Princes  of  Moscow  and  Lithuania.  The  heirs  of  Kalita,  by 
creating  new  appanages,  incessantly  destroyed  the  unity  after 
which  they  toiled,  by  means  of  a  pitiless  policy.  Muscovy, 
which  touches  on  no  sea,  had*  only  intermittent  relations  with 
the  centres  of  European  civilization.  It  was,  however,  the  time 
when  the  nations  of  the  West  began  to  be  organized.  Charles 
VII.  and  Louis  XI.  in  France,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  Spain, 
the  Tudors  in  England,  Frederic  III.  and  Maximilian  in  Austria, 
labored  to  build  up  powerful  States  from  the  ruins  of  feudal 
anarchy.  European  civilization  made  unheard-of  strides  ;  the 
Renaissance  began,  printing  spread,  Christopher  Columbus  and 
Vasco  da  Gama  discovered  new  worlds.  Was  not  Russia  also 
going  to  achieve  her  unity,  to  take  part  in  the  great  European 
movement  ?  The  man  who  was  to  restore  her  to  herself,  to  free 
her  from  the  Mongol  yoke,  to  put  her  into  relations  with  the 
West, — this  man  was  expected.  It  had  all  been  predicted. 
When  a  son  named  Ivan  was  born  in  1440  to  Vassili  the  Blind, 
an  old  monk  had  a  revelation  about  it  in  Novgorod  the  Great. 


l£2  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

He  came  and  said  to  his  archbishop  :  "  Truly  it  is  to-day  that 
the  Grand  Prince  triumphs  ;  God  has  given  him  an  heir  ;  I  be- 
hold this  child  making  himself  illustrious  by  glorious  deeds. 
He  will  subdue  princes  and  peoples.  But  woe  to  Novgorod  ! 
Novgorod  will  fall  at  his  feet,  and  never  rise  up  again." 

Ivan  III.,  whose  reign  of  forty-three  years  was  to  permit  him 
to  realize  the  expectations  of  Russia,  was  a  cold,  imperious,  cal- 
culating prince,  the  very  type  of  the  Souzdalian  and  Muscovite 
princes.  Disliking  war,  he  allowed  doubts  to  be  thrown  upon 
his  courage.  He  was  victorious  in  Lithuania,  in  Livonia  and 
Siberia,  almost  without  leaving  the  Kiemlin.  His  father  had 
taken  long  journeys,  which  led  him  into  many  sad  adventures, 
hut  Stephen  of  Moldavia  said  of  Ivan  :  "  Ivan  is  a  strange  man  ; 
he  stays  quietly  at  home  and  triumphs  over  his  enemies,  while 
I,  though  always  on  horseback,  cannot  defend  my  country." 
It  was  the  verdict  of  Edward  III.  on  Charles  V.  Ivan  ex- 
hausted his  enemies  by  negotiations  and  delay,  and  never  em- 
ployed force  till  it  was  absolutely  necessary.  His  devotion  was 
mixed  with  hypocrisy.  He  wept  for  his  relatives  whom  he  put 
to  death,  as  Louis  XL  bewailed  the  Due  de  Guienne.  Born  a 
despot,  "  he  had,"  says  Karamsin,  "penetrated  the  secret  of  au- 
tocracy, and  became  a  formidable  deity  in  the  eyes  of  the  Rus- 
sians." His  glance  caused  women  to  faint.  When  he  slept 
after  his  meals,  it  was  wonderful  to  see  the  frightened  respect  of 
the  boyards  for  the  sleep  of  the  master.  He  inflicted  cruel  pun- 
ishments and  tortures  on  all  rebels,  even  on  those  of  the  highest 
rank  ;  he  mutilated  the  counsellors  of  his  son,  whipped  Prince 
Oukhtomski  and  the  archimandrite  of  a  powerful  monastery, 
and  burned  alive  two  Poles  in  an  iron  cage  on  the  Moskowa,  for 
having  conspired  against  him.  He  had  already  won  the  sur- 
name of  "Terrible,"  which  his  grtandson  was  to  bear  even  more 
justly. 

Ivan's  first  effort  was  directed  against  Novgorod  the  Great. 
The  republic  of  the  I  linen  was  dying  in  the  anarchy  of  the  aris- 
tocracy, the  dissensions  of  the  people,  the  Church,  and  especially 
of  the  boyards.  It  is  of  this  epoch  that  M.  Bidlaef  has  said, 
that  "parties  in  Novgorod  had  become  so  complicated,  that 
often  it  is  difficult  to  perceive  from  what  motive  this  or  that  fac- 
tion excited  troubles  and  revolts."  They  thought  themselves 
able  to  despise  the  authority  of  a  new  prince,  and  had  the  im- 
prudence to  neglect  the  complaints  and  suggestions  made  in  a 
tolerably  moderate  tone  by  Ivan  III.  He  then  signified  to  the 
Pskovians  that  they  would  have  to  second  him  in  an  expedition 
against  the  rebels.  This  the  Pskovians  did  not  wish  to  do,  fore- 
seeing that  the  fall  of  Novgorod  would  drag  them  down  alsc» 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  !  63 

They  offered  their  mediation  to  their  "elder  sister" — it  was 
rejected,  and  they  \vere  obliged  to  proceed.  Ivan  III.  often 
received,  however,  the  Archbishop  of  Novgorod,  Theophilus,  in 
his  palace  at  Moscow,  and  continued  to  negotiate.  He  had  a 
large  party  in  Novgorod,  but  the  opposing  faction  was  the  bolder. 
MjTrfa,  the  widow  of  the  possadnik  Boretski,  mother  of  two 
grown-up  sons,  put  herself  at  the  head  of  the  anti-Muscovite 
party.  Ready  and  eloquent  speech,  immense  wealth,  an  auda- 
city equal  to  everything,  had  given  her  a  great  influence  with 
the  people  and  the  boyards.  This  intrepid  woman  was  the  last 
incarnation  of  Novgorod ian  liberty.  To  save  the  republic,  Marfa 
wished  to  throw  it  into  the  arms  of  the  King  of  Poland,  Casimir 
IV.  She  contended  also  that  the  Archbishop  of  Novgorod 
should  be  nominated  by  the  Metropolitan  of  Kief,  not  by  the 
Metropolitan  of  Moscow.  In  her  devotion  to  Novgorod,  she 
thus  betrayed  the  cause  of  Russia  and  orthodoxy.  The  sittings 
of  the  vetche,  amid  the  opposition  of  the  two  parties,  degenerated 
into  violent  tumults.  Some  cried,  "The  king;"  others,  "Long 
live  orthodox  Moscow!  long  live  the  Grand  Prince  Ivan  and 
our  father  the  Metropolitan  Philip!"  The  friends  of  Marfa 
finally  won  the  day.  Novgorod  handed  herself  over  to  the  King 
of  Poland  by  a  formal  act  in  which  she  stipulated  for  the  same 
rights  as  she  had  enjoyed  under  her  ancient  princes.  Ivan  III. 
tried  once  more  to  recall  the  citizens  to  obedience,  and  he  sent 
them  an  ambassador,  but  the  party  of  Marfa  was  always  the 
more  numerous  or  the  more  noisy.  At  last  Ivan  decided  to 
begin  the  war.  His  voi'evodes  made  the  conquest  of  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Dwina ;  the  Muscovites,  supported  by  the  Tatar  cav- 
alry, cruelly  ravaged  the  territory  of  the  "  perfidious  "  Novgoro- 
dians ;  after  the  battle  of  Korostyne.  they  cut  off  the  noses  and 
lips  of  the  prisoners.  The  republicans  had  fallen  from  their  an- 
cient valor ;  Marfa  had  hastily  enrolled  ill-disciplined  artisans. 
At  the  battjejolLllie.  .Qhelona,  5000  Muscovites  defeated  30,000 
Novgorodians.  At  Roussa  the  Grand  Prince  caused  many  boy- 
ards to  be  beheaded,  one  of  whom  was  a  son  of  Marfa,  and  sent 
others  as  prisoners  into  Muscovy.  Ivan  III.  always  advanced, 
fighting  and  negotiating.  Novgorod  submitted,  paid  a  war  in- 
demnity, and,  if  she  still  remained  a  republic,  she  was  a  republic 
dependent  on  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Prince  (1470). 

From  that  time  Ivan  labored  entirely  to  reduce  the  town, 
and  his  party  in  Novgorod  increased.  If  the  people  complained 
of  the  injustice  of  his  lieutenants,  he  blamed  the  insufficiency  of 
the  ancient  laws  of  the  city.  He  tried  to  excite  the  animosity 
of  the  lower  classes  against  the  boyards.  It  was  by  the  invita 
tion  of  the  former  that  he  came  in  1475  to  hold  a  solemn  court 


1 6  4  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  X  USSIA . 

in  Novgorod.  Great  and  small  immediately  crowded  to  his  tri- 
bunal, to  beg  for  justice  one  against  the  other.  Ivan  saw  how 
much  his  own  cause  was  strengthened  by  these  divisions.  An 
act  of  authority  that  he  tried,  succeeded  completely.  Marfa's 
second  son,  the  possadnik,  and  many  boyards  were  loaded 
with  chains,  and  sent  to  Moscow.  No  one  dared  to  protest. 
On  his  return  to  his  capital,  a  multitude  of  complainants 
hastened  after  him ;  he  forced  them  all  to  appear  before  him. 
Since  Rurik,  say  the  annalists,  such  a  violation  of  Novgorod's 
liberty  had  never  been  known.  Profiting  by  a  documentary 
error  made  by  the  envoys  of  the  town,  he  declared  himself  sov- 
ereign (go9oudar)  of  Novgorod,  instead  of  lord  (gospodine). 
Now  if  this  interpretation  were  accepted,  the  subjection  of  the 
republic,  which  was  only  a  matter  of  fact,  would  become  a  matter 
of  law.  The  party  of  Marfa  made  a  last  effort  to  reject  this  sov- 
ereignty;  the  friends  of  the  Grand  Prince  were  massacred.  Ivan 
declared  that  the  Novgorodians,  after  having  accorded  him  the 
title  of  gofoudar,  had  the  effrontery  to  deny  it.  Then  the  Met- 
ropolitan, the  bishops,  the  boyards,  all  Moscow,  advised  him  to 
make  war.  Accordingly  it  was  preached  as  a  Holy  War  against 
the  allies  of  the  Pope  and  Lithuania.  All  the  forces  of  Russia 
were  put  in  motion,  and  many  boyards  of  Novgorod  appeared  at 
the  camp  of  the  Grand  Prince.  The  city  was  blockaded,  and 
starved  out.  In  vain  the  partisans  of  Marfa  shouted  the  old 
war-cry :  "  Let  us  die  for  liberty  and  Saint  Sophia !  "  They 
were  forced  to  capitulate.  Ivan  guaranteed  to  them  their  per- 
sons and  possessions,  their  ancient  jurisdiction,  and  exemption 
from  the  Muscovite  service ;  but  the  vetcht  and  the  possadnik 
were  abolished  forever.  The  belfry  was  reduced  to  silence. 
TJieJRerjubJic :  of  Novgorod  had_ceased_tp  exist  (1478)^ 

Marfa  and  the  principal  oligarchs  were  transported  to  Moscow, 
and  their  goods  confiscated.  Many  times  afterwards,  there  were 
party  agitations,  which  were  quelled  by  Ivan  III.  and  his  suc- 
cessor, by  numerous  transportations.  In  1481  some  boyards 
were  tortured  and  put  to' death.  Eight  thousand  Novgorodians 
were  transplanted  to  the  towns  of  Souzdal.  Ivan  III.  struck 
another  terrible  blow  at  the  prosperity  of  the  city  when,  in  1495, 
after  a  quarrel  with  the  people  of  Revel,  he  caused  the  merchants 
of  forty-nine  Hanseatic  towns  to  be  arrested  at  Novgorod, 
pillaged  the  "  German  market,"  and  removed  wares  to  the  value 
°f  .£40,000  to  Moscow.  The  covetous  Grand  Prince  doubtless 
did  not  see  he  was  killing  the  hen  with  the  golden  eggs.  A  long 
while  elapsed  before  the  merchants  of  the  West  again  made 
their  appearance  in  Novgorod.  Pskof,  more  docile,  had  preserved 
her  vetctie  and  her  ancient  institutions. 


HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA.  ^5 

Whilst  he  was  destroying  the  liberty  of  Novgorod,  Ivan  de- 
prived her  of  her  colonies,  and  undertook  on  his  own  account  the 
conquest  of  Northern  Russia.  By  this  time  Muscovy  extended 
as  far  as  Finland,  the  White  Sea  and  the  Icy  Ocean,  and  had 
already  obtained  a  footing  in  Asia.  Ivan  had  conquered  PejTnia 
m~L472i  by  which  means  he  became  master  of  the  "silver  beyond 
thelCarna,"  which  the  Novgorodians  had  hitherto  got  in  the 
course  of  trade.  In  1489,  Viatka,  which  had  fallen  for  a  short 
time  into  the  power  of  the  Tatars  of  Kazan,  was  reconquered, 
and  lost  her  republican  organization.  In  1499  the  voi'evodes  of 
Oustiougue,  of  the  Dwina  and  of  Viatka,  advanced  as  far  as  the 
Petchora,  and  built  a  fortress  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  In  the 
depth  of  winter,  in  sledges  drawn  by  dogs,  they  passed  the  defiles 
of  the  Ourals,  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind  and  snow,  slew  50  of  the 
Samoyedes,  and  captured  200  reindeer ;  invaded  the  territory  of 
the  Vogouls  and  Ougrians,  the  Finnish  brethren  of  the  Magyars  ; 
took  40  enclosures  of  palisades,  made  50  princes  prisoners,  and 
returned  to  Moscow,  after  having  reduced  this  unknown  country, 
supposed  by  the  geographers  of  antiquity  to  be  the  home  of  so 
many  wonders  and  monsters.  Russia,  like  the  maritime  nr.fions 
of  the  West,  had  discovered  a  new  world. 

The  cultivated  provinces  of  Central  Russia  were  more  im- 
portant than  the  deserts  of  the  North.  Here  there  were  no  im- 
mense territories  to  be  conquered,  but  only  the  territories  of  the 
smaller  appanaged  princes  to  be  grafted  on  to  the  already  united 
mass.  Ivan  III.  might  have  dethroned  the  young  Prince  of 
Riazan,  whom  his  father  had  brought  to  Moscow,  but  he  preferred 
to  give  him  the  hand  of  his  sister,  Anne  Vassilievna,  and  send 
him  back  to  his  territories  (1464).  The  absorption  of  the  prin- 
cipalities of  Riazan  and  Novgorod-Severski  was  reserved  for  his 
successor.  He  showed  the  same  moderation  about  Tver,  but  in 
1482  Prince  Michael,  who  had  only  maintained  his  position  on 
sufferance,  had  the  imprudence  to  ally  himself  with  Lithuania. 
Ivan  hailed  this  pretext  with  joy,  and  marched  in  person  against 
Tver,  accompanied  by  the  celebrated  Aristotele  Fioraventi  of 
Bologna,  grand  master  of  his  artillery.  "Michael  took  to  flight; 
and  Ivan  began  to  organize  his  new  subjects.  A  principality 
which  could  furnish  40.000  soldiers  was  united  to  Moscow  without 
a  blow.  In  like  manner  he  obtained  possession  of  Vereia  and 
cf  Bidlozersk,  and  deprived  the  princes  of  Rostof  and  laroslavl 
of  their  ancient  rights  of  sovereignty. 

His  father,  by  giving  appanages  to  his  brothers,  had  prepared 
for  him  a  new  and  ungrateful  task,  but  Ivan  undertook  it  without 
Scruple,  When  his  brother  louri  died,  he  wept  much  for  him, 
but  at  once  laid  hands  on  his  towns  of  Dmitrof,  Moja'isk,  and 


x66  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Serpoukhof,  thereby  causing  his  other  brothers,  who  hoped  to 
share  the  spoil,  great  discontent  (1468).  Andrew  was  accused 
of  an  understanding  with  Lithuania,  and  thrown  into  prison, 
where  he  died  (1493).  The  Grand  Prince  convoked  the  Metro- 
politan and  bishops  to  his  palace,  appeared  before  them  with 
downcast  eyes,  his  face  sorrowful  and  bathed  in  tears,  humbly 
accused  himself  of  having  been  too  cruel  to  his  unhappy  brother, 
and  submitted  to  their  pastoral  admonitions;  but  he  confiscated 
Andrew's  appanage  notwithstanding,  and  that  of  his  brother  Boris, 
who  died  a  short  time  after,  thus  reuniting  all  the  domains  of  his 
father.  He  acquired  the  surname  of  "  Binder  of  the  Russian 
Land,"  a  name  which  his  eight  predecessors  equally  merited.  It 
was  owing  to  their  earlier  labors  that  Ivan  was  able  to  become 
the  greatest  and  most  powerful  of  these  "  Binders."  He  avoided 
their  errors,  and  if  later  he  gave  appanages  to  his  own  children, 
it  was  only  on  condition  that  they  should  remain  subjects  of  their 
eldest  brother,  and  that  they  should  neither  have  the  right  to 
coin  money  nor  to  exercise  a  separate  diplomacy. 


tfARS  WITH    THE  GREAT  HORDE    AND  KAZAN END   OF  THE    TATAR 

YOKE. 

The  empire  of  the  Horde  was  at  last  dissolved.  The  principal 
States  which  had  risen  from  its  dttris  were  the  Tazarate  of  Kazan, 
that  of  Sara'i  or  Astrakhan,  the  Horde  of  the  Noga'is,  and  the 
Khanate  of  the  Crimea.  Kazan  and  the  Crimea  particularly 
presented  strange  ethnographical  amalgamations.  The  Tzarate 
of  Kazan  had  been  founded  in  the  reign  of  Vassili  the  Blind  on 
the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Bulgaria  on  the  Volga,  formerly  so 
flourishing  and  civilized,  by  a  banished  prince  of  the  Horde.  It 
was  the  same  Makhmet  who  had  tried  to  establish  himself  at 
Belef,  and  had  defeated  Chemiaka.  The  Mongols  had  mixed 
with  the  ancient  Bulgars,  and  reconstituted  an  important  centre 
of  commerce  and  civilization.  The  rule  of  the  Tzarate  extended 
over  the  Finnish  tribes  of  the  Mordvians,  the  Tchouvaches,  and 
the  Tcheremisses,  as  well  as  the  Bachkirs  and  Metcheraks.  The 
Khanate  of  the  Crimea  had  been  founded  almost  at  the  same 
date,  by  a  descendant  of  Genghis  Khan,  named  Azi.  A  peasant 
named  Ghirei  having  saved  him  from  death,  Azi  added  his  bene- 
factor's name  to  his  own,  and  henceforward  the  title  belonged  to 
all  the  khans  of  the  Crimea.  The  Mongols,  on  arriving  at  the 
peninsula,  found  it  occupied  by  the  remains  of  the  ancient  Tauric, 
Hellenic,  and  Gothic  races  ;  by  Armenians.  Jews,  and  Jewish 
Xhara'ites,  who  pretended  to  have  settled  B.C.  500  on  the  rocks 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  l $j 

and  in  the  Troglodyte  cities  of  Tchoufout-Kald  and  Mangoup- 
Kale,  and  finally  by  the  Genoese  of  KaiTii.  The  Jews  and 
Italians  excepted,  a  large  part  of  the  ancient  population  was 
absorbed  by  the  Asiatic  invaders.  Thus  while  the  Tatars  of  the 
steppes  of  the  Northern  Crimea  are  pure  Mongols,  those  of 
the  mountains  of  the  south  seem  to  be  chiefly  Taurians,  Goths, 
and  Islamized  Greeks.  As  to  the  great  Horde  of  Sara'i,  that 
was  almost  entirely  composed  of  nomads,  such  as  the  Nogais 
and  other  Turco-Tatar  races. 

Anarchy  and  rivalry  reigned  in  the  heart  of  each  of  these 
States.  The  princes  of  Kazan,  Saraii,  and  the  Crimea  came  to 
seek  an  asylum  from  the  Grand  Prince,  who  made  use  of  them  to 
perpetuate  these  divisions.  In  1473  Ivan  constituted  the  town 
of  Novgorod  of  Riazan  into  a  fief  for  one  Mustafa ;  others  served 
in  the  armies,  and  aided  Ivan  against  Novgorod  and  Lithuania. 
Towards  the  khans  and  the  tzars,  especially  those  of  the  Great 
Horde  or  Saraii,  the  sovereign  of  Moscow  held  himself  on  the 
defensive,  repelling  the  attacks  of  adventurers,  but  taking  care 
not  to  provoke  them  ;  avoiding  the  payment  of  the  tribute,  but 
disposed  to  send  them  presents.  At  the  same  time  he  schemed 
for  alliances  against  the  Khan  of  Sara'i,  and  despatched  to  the 
Turkoman  Oussoum-Hassan,  master  of  Persia  and  enemy  of  the 
Mongols,  his  Italian  ambassador,  Marco  Ruffo  (1477).  A  more 
solid  friendship  united  him  with  Mengli-Ghirei,  Khan  of  the 
Crimea,  and  lasted  all  their  lives.  Mengli  was  as  serviceable  to 
him  against  Lithuania  as  against  the  Horde. 

In  1478,  having  carefully  taken  all  his  measures,  he  openly 
rebelled.  When  the  Khan  Akhmet  sent  his  ambassadors  with 
his  image  to  receive  the  tribute,  Ivan  III.  trampled  the  image 
of  the  Khan  under  his  feet,  and  put  all  the  envoys  to  death,  ex- 
cepting one,  who  conveyed  the  news  to  the  Horde.  This  act, 
so  very  little  in  accordance  with  the  well-known  prudence  of 
Ivan,  is  not  to  be  found  in  all  the  chronicles.  When  Akhmet 
took  the  field,  Ivan  occupied  a  strong  position  on  the  Oka,  with 
a  more  numerous  and  better-organized  army  than  that  cf  Dmitri 
Donskoi.  His  150,000  men  and  powerful  artillery  did  not,  how- 
ever, prevent  him  from  reflecting  much  on  the  hazard  of  battler. 
He  even  returned  to  reflect  at  Moscow,  and  it  needed  all  the 
clamors  of  the  people  to  induce  him  to  leave  it.  "What  !  "  ex- 
claimed the  Muscovites,  "  he  has  overtaxed  us,  and  refused  to 
pay  tribute  to  the  Horde,  and  now  that  he  has  irritated  the 
Khan,  he  declines  to  fight !  "  Ivan  wished  to  consult  his  mother, 
his  boyards,  and  his  bishops.  "  March  bravely  against  the 
enemy,"  was  the  unanimous  reply.  "  Is  it  the  part  of  mortals 
to  fear  death  ? "  said  old  Archbishop  Vassian.  "  We  cannot 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

escape  destiny."  Ivan  desired,  at  least,  to  send  his  young  sou 
Ivan  back  to  Moscow,  but  the  prince  heroically  disobeyed. 
The  Grand  Prince  finally  decided  to  return  to  the  army,  blessed 
by  his  mother  and  the  Metropolitan,  who  promised  him  the 
victory  as  to  a  David  or  to  a  Constantine,  reminding  him  that 
"a  gcod  shepherd  will  lay  down  his  life  for  his  sheep,"  Ivan, 
who  did  not  feel  himself  made  of  the  stuff  of  a  Constantine,  kept 
his  army  immovable  on  the  Oka  and  the  Ougra  ;  the  two  forces 
contenting  themselves  with  sending  arrows  and  insults  across 
the  river.  Ivan  closed  his  ears  to  the  warlike  counsel  of  his 
boyards,  and  rather  listened  to  the  prudent  advice  of  his  two 
favorites — "  fat  and  powerful  lords,"  says  the  chronicle.  How- 
ever, he  refused  the  proposition  of  the  Khan,  who  offered  to 
pardon  him  if  he  would  either  come  himself  or  send  one  of  his 
men  to  kiss  his  stirrup.  At  last  monks  and  white-haired  bishops 
lost  all  patience.  Vassian  addressed  a  bellicose  letter  to  the 
Grand  Prince,  invoking  the  memories  of  Igor,  Sviatoslaf,  of 
Vladimir  Monomachus,  and  Dmitri  Donskol.  Ivan  assured  him 
that  this  letter  "  filled  his  heart  with  joy,  courage,  and  strength  ; 
but  another  fortnight  passed  in  inaction.  On  the  fifteenth  day 
the  rivers  were  covered  with  ice  ;  the  Grand  Prince  gave  the 
order  to  retreat.  An  inexplicable  panic  seized  the  two  armies 
— Russians  and  Tatars  both  fled,  when  no  man  pursued.  The 
Khan  never  stopped  till  he  reached  the  Horde  (1480).  Such 
was  the  last  invasion  of  the  horsemen  of  the  Kiptchak.  It  was 
in  this  unheroic  way  that  Russia  broke  at  last  the  Mongol  yoke 
under  which  she  had  groaned  for  three  centuries.  Like  Louis 
XL,  Ivan  III.  had  his  battle  of  MontlheVy ;  but  if  he  fought  less, 
he  gained  far  more.  The  Horde,  attacked  by  the  Khans  of  the 
Crimea,  survived  its  decay  but  a  short  time.  Akhmet  was  put 
to  death  by  one  of  his  own  men. 

Hostility  increased  between  Kazan  and  Moscow.  In  1467 
and  1469  Ivan  III.  had  organized  two  expeditions  against  Bul- 
garia. In  1487,  seven  years  after  having  shaken  off  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Great  Horde,  the  Muscovite  voi'evodes  marched 
against  the  same  Kazan,  where  the  father  of  their  Grand  Prince 
had  been  held  a  captive.  After  a  siege  of  seven  weeks  the  city 
was  taken,  and  the  sovereign  Alegam  made  prisoner.  A  tzar  of 
Kazan  was  then  seen  a  prisoner  in  Moscow  !  Ivan  III.  added 
the  title  of  Prince  of  Bulgaria  to  those  he  already  bore  ;  but 
feeling  that  the  Mussulman  city  was  not  yet  ripe  for  annexation, 
he  gave  the  crown  to  a  nephew  of  his  friend  the  Khan  of  the 
Crimea.  The  people  were  forced  to  take  the  oaih  of  fidelity  to 
him.  The  conquest  of  the  land  of  Arsk,  in  Bulgaria  itself,  and 
the  establishment  of  a  Russian  garrison  in  the  fortress,  allowed 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  !  69 

him  to  watch  from  close  by  all  that  passed  in  Kazan.  The  Khan 
of  the  Crimea  did  not  care  to  protest  against  the  captivity  of 
the  Tzar  Alegam,  his  nephew's  enemy,  but  the  princes  of  the 
Chiban  and  the  Noga'is,  who  were  related  to  him,  and  who  be- 
held Islamism  humiliated  in  his  person,  despatched  an  embassy 
to  the  Grand  Prince.  The  latter  refused  to  release  his  prisoner, 
but  replied  so  graciously  that  the  envoys  could  hardly  be  angry. 
He  sent  to  those  zealous  kinsmen  clothes  of  Flanders,  fishes' 
teeth,  and  gerfalcons,  and  did  not  forget  the  wives  of  the  mour- 
zas,  whom  he  called  his  sisters.  At  the  same  time,  wishing  to 
make  these  Asiatics  feel  that  times  had  changed,  he  took  care 
never  personally  to  compromise  himself  with  the  Nogai'  envoys, 
and  only  to  communicate  with  them  by  means  of  treasurers, 
secretaries,  and  other  officers  of  the  second  rank. 

WARS   WITH    LITHUANIA — WESTERN    RUSSIA   UP   TO   THE   SOJA    RE- 
CONQUERED. 

Lithuania  and  Poland  united  remained,  after  all,  Ivan's 
great  enemy.  This  composite  State  plays  the  same  part  in 
Russian  history  as  the  Burgundy  of  Philip  the  Good  and  Charles 
the  Bold  in  that  of  France.  Made  up  in  a  great  degree  of  Rus- 
sian as  well  as  of  Polish  and  Lithuanian  elements,  it  was  many 
times  on  the  point  of  annihilating  Russia,  in  the  same  way  as 
Burgundy,  composed  of  French,  Batavian,  and  German  prov- 
inces, had  been  on  the  point  of  annihilating  the  French  nation. 
Lithuania  was  incorporated  with  Poland  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  States  of  Burgundy,  unfortunately  for  France,  were  incor- 
porated with  Austria. 

At  the  beginning  of  Ivan's  reign  the  King  Casimir  IV.  was 
sovereign  of  the  two  united  States,  and  neglected  no  means  of 
disquieting  the  Grand  Prince.  The  latter,  on  his  part,  incited 
his  ally  Mengli  to  invade  the  Lithuanian  possessions  ;  and  the 
Crimean  Tatars  pillaged  Kief  and  the  Monastery  of  the  Cata- 
combs (1482).  When,  ten  years  after,  Casimir  died  (1492), 
leaving  Poland  to  his  eldest  son  Albert,  and  Lithuania  to  Alex- 
ander, the  second  son,  Ivan  III.  resolved  to  turn  the  division 
to  account.  He  had  obtained  the  friendship  of  the  Turkish 
Sultan  Bajazet  II.,  of  Matthias  Corvinus,  king  of  Hungary,  of 
the  active  Stephen  of  Moldavia,  the  determined  enemy  of  the 
Lithuanians  ;  but,  above  all,  he  counted  on  Mengli.  Mengli  had 
held  Lithuania  in  check  while  Ivan  had  got  rid  of  the  Mongols  ; 
now  he  was  to  play  the  same  part  with  the  Horde,  while  the 
Grand  Prince  settled  old  scores  with  Alexander,  but  without  in- 
terfering with  the  Tatar  incursions  in  the  Ukraine.  The  dis- 


1 7  o  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

covery  at  Moscow  of  a  Polish  plot  against  the  life  of  the  Grr.nd 
Prince  spread  rumors  of  war.  In  the  same  way  that  he  had 
been  able  to  utilize  the  Mongol  refugees  against  the  Horde,  he 
found  the  Lithuanian  princes  and  other  great  personages  enter- 
ing into  relations  with  him.  It  was  then  that  Belski,  afterwards 
so  famous,  obtained  a  footing  in  Russia,  that  the  Prince  of  Ma- 
zovia  sent  an  embassy  to  Ivan  III.,  and  the  princes  of  Viazma, 
Vorotinsk,  Belef,  and  Mezetsk  did  him  homage. 

The  war  was  popular  in  Moscow,  for  its  object  was  to  break 
the  yoke  imposed  by  the  Polish  Catholics  on  the  orthodox  Rus- 
sian people.  In  White  Russia  the  Muscovites  were  to  awake 
old  national  and  religious  sympathies.  "  Lithuania,"  said  the 
ambassadors  of  Ivan  III.  to  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Alexander, 
"Lithuania  has  profited  by  the  misfortunes  of  Russia  to  take 
our  territory,  but  to-day  things  have  changed."  Peace  was  made 
after  a  short  war  (1494).  The  frontier  of  Muscovy  was  carried 
to  the  Desna,  and  comprehended  the  appanages  of  the  princes 
who  had  taken  service  with  Ivan,  with  Mstislavl,  Obolensk, 
Kozelsk,  Vorotinsk,  Peremysl,  &c. 

The  peace  seemed  to  be  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  Alex- 
ander with  Helena,  daughter  of  Ivan  III. ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
this  union  proved  the  germ  of  a  new  war.  The  sovereign  of 
Moscow  had  stipulated  that  his  daughter  was  under  no  circum- 
stances to  change  her  religion,  that  she  was  to  have  a  Greek 
chapel  in  the  palace,  and  an  orthodox  almoner.  Ivan  himself 
gave  his  daughter  the  most  pressing  injunctions  never  to  appear 
in  the  Catholic  church,  and  gave  her  minute  directions  as  to  her 
toilet,  her  table,  her  mode  of  travelling,  and  her  way  of  con- 
ducting herself  towards  her  new  subjects.  At  her  departure  he 
bestowed  on  her  a  collection  of  various  pious  books.  His  policy 
agreed  with  his  conviction  ;  it  was  necessary  lhat  in  Lithuania 
orthodoxy  should  raise  her  lowered  head,  and  reign  with  his 
daughter.  Soon  afterwards,  he  complained  that  Helena  v  as 
forced  to  offend  her  conscience,  that  she  v.  as  made  to  wear  the 
Polish  costume,  that  her  domestics  and  orthodox  almoners  were 
dismissed,  and  their  places  filled  with  Catholics — that  the  Greek 
religion  was  persecuted,  that  the  assassination  of  the  Metropoli- 
tan of  Kief  had  remained  unpunished,  and  that  he  was  to  be 
succeeded  by  a  man  devoted  to  the  Pope.  Lithuania,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  was  further  enfeebled  by  new  defections. 
The  princes  of  Bielsk,  of  Mossalsk,  of  Khotatof,  the  boyards 
of  Mtsensk  and  of  Serpe'isk,  and  finally  the  princes  of  Tcherni- 
gof  and  Starodoub,  of  Rylsk  and  Novgorocl-Severski,  declared 
for  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow.  All  the  country  between  the 
Desna  and  the  Soja  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Russians,  to- 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  i 7 1 

gether  with  Briansk,  Poutivle,  and  Dorogbouge.  They  had  only 
to  show  themselves  to  .conquer.  Alexander  could  not  abandon 
the  conquests  of  Olgerd,  Vitovt,  and  Gedimin  without  striking  a 
blow,  but  his  army  was  cut  to  pieces  at  the  battle  pj^V^dj^dh.a. 
Constantine  Ostrojski,  his  voievode,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Muscovites,  who  tried  to  gain  him  over  to  their  cause.  The 
Lithuanians,  however,  kept  the  strongholds  of  Vitepsk,  Polotsk, 
Orcha  and  Smolensk. 

This  prolonged  struggle  between  Alexander  and  Ivan  III. 
had  set  all  Eastern  Europe  in  a  blaze.  Alexander  had  made 
an  alliance  with  the  Livonian  Order  and  the  Great  Horde. 
The  Khan  of  the  Crimea  pitilessly  devastated  Gallicia  and 
Volhynia.  The  Russian  troops  again  defeated  the  Lithuanians 
near  Mstislavl,  but  were  forced  to  raise  the  siege  of  Smo- 
lensk. In  the  north,  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  had 
stopped  the  Germans  of  Livonia  from  building  the  fortress  of 
Ivangorod  opposite  Narva,  and  had  seized  the  Hanseatic  wares 
at  Novgorod.  The  Grand  Master,  Hermann  of  Plettenberg,  re- 
sponded with  joy  to  the  appeal  of  the  Lithuanians  ;  and  at  the 
battle  of  Siritsa,  near  Izborsk,  his  formidable  German  artillery 
crushed  an  army  of  40,000  Russians  (1501).  The  latter  took 
their  revenge  the  following  year  on  the  iron  men  near  Pskof. 
Schig-Akhmet,  Kahn  of  the  Great  Horde,  wished  to  make  a 
diversion,  but  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  attacked  him  with  fun-, 
and  in  1502  so  completely  extinguished  his  rule,  that  the  ruins 
of  Sarai,  the  capital  of  Bati,  where  the  Russian  princes  had 
grovelled  before  the  khans,  were  henceforward  a  home  of 
serpents. 

Alexander  had  just  been  elected  King  of  Poland,  and  wished 
to  finish  this  ruinous  war.  The  celebrated  Pope,  Alexander 
VI.,  and  the  King  of  Hungary  tried  to  mediate  between  the  bel- 
ligerent powers.  As,  however,  neither  of  the  two  parties  would 
abate  any  of  their  pretensions,  a  truce  of  six  years  only  could 
be  agreed  on,  during  which  time  the  Soja  was  to  be  the  boun- 
dary, and  the  territories  and  towns  of  the  princes  who  had  gone 
over  to  Russia  were  to  be  abandoned  to  her  (1503).  What 
shows  the  good  faith  of  Ivan  III.  is  that,  after  the  truce  was 
signed,  he  obtained  the  promise  from  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea 
to  continue  his  attacks  against  Lithuania. 

MARRIAGE    WITH    SOPHIA    PAUEOLOGUS    (1472) THE   GREEKS 

AND    ITALIANS    AT    THE    COURT   OF    MOSCOW. 

The  acquisition  of  the  Novgorodian  possessions  and  the  ap- 
panages, the  capture  of  Kazan,  the  fall  of  the  Horde,  and  the 


172 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


conquest  of  Lithuania  up  to  the  Soja,  had  doubled  the  extent  of 
the  Grand  Principality,  even  without  reckoning  the  immense 
territory  it  had  gained  on  the  north.  An  event  not  less  impor- 
tant in  its  consequences  was  the  marriage  of  Ivan  III.  with  a 
Byzantine  princess.  Thomas  Palaeologus,  a  brother  of  the  last 
Emperor,  had  taken  refuge  at  the  court  of  Rome.  There  he 
died,  leaving  a  daughter  named  Sophia.  The  Pope  wished  to 
find  her  a  husband,  and  the  Cardinal  Bessarion,  who  belonged 
to  the  Eastern  Rite,  advised  Paul  II.  to  offer  her  hand  to  the 
Grand  Prince  of  Russia.  A  Greek  named  louri,  and  the  two 
Friazini,  relations  of  Friazine,  minter  of  Ivan  III.,  were  sent 
on  an  embassy  to  Moscow.  Ivan  and  his  boyards  accepted  the 
proposal  with  enthusiasm  ;  it  was  God,  no  doubt,  who  had  given 
him  so  illustrious  a  wife  ;  "  a  branch  of  the  imperial  tree  which 
formerly  overshadowed  all  orthodox  Christianity."  Sophia  — 
dowered  by  the  Pope,  whose  heart  was  always  occupied  with 
two  things,  the  crusade  against  the  Turks,  and  the  re-union  of 
the  two  Churches  —  went  from  Rome  to  Liibeck,  from  Lu'beck 
by  sea  to  Revel,  and  was  received  in  triumph  at  Pskof,  Novgo- 
rod, and  the  other  towns  subject  to  Moscow.  This  daughter  of 
emperors  was  destined  to  have  an  enormous  influence  on  Ivan. 
It  was  she,  no  doubt,  who  taught  him  to  "  penetrate  the  secret 
of  autocracy."  She  bore  the  Mongol  yoke  with  Jess  patience 
than  the  Russians,  who  were  accustomed  to  servitude.  She 
incited  Ivan  to  shake  it  off.  "  How  long  am  I  to  be  the  slave 
of  the  Tatars  ?  "  she  would  often  ask.  Wich  Sophia  a  multitude 
of  Greek  emigrants  came  to  Moscow,  not  only  from  Rome,  but 
from  Constantinople  and  Greece  ;  among  them  were  Demetno* 
Ralo,  Theodore  Lascaris,  Demetrios  Trakhaniotes.  They  gav* 
to  Russia  statesmen,  diplomatists,  engineers,  artists  and  theolo- 
gians. They  brought  her  Greek  books,  the  priceless  inherit 
ance  of  ancient  civilization.  These  manuscripts  were  first  be 
ginnings  of  the  present  "  Library  of  the  Patriarchs." 

Ivan  III,  was  the  heir  of  the  Kmperors  of  Byzantium  and 
the_Rpman  Caesars.  He  took  for  the  new  arms  of  Russia  i  he 
two-headed  eagle  which  in  its  archaic  form  is  still  to  be  found 
in  the  "  Palais  k  facettes"  of  the  Kremlin.  MQS.CQW  s 


to  Byzantium  as  ]]yxantium  had  succeeded  to  Rnm^,  Having 
become  tlie~only  metropolis  of  orthodoxy,  it  was  incumbent  on 
her  to  protect  the  Greek  Christians  of  the  entire  East,  and  to 
prepare  the  revenge  against  Islamism  for  the  work  of  1453. 
With  the  Greeks  came  Italians  :  Aristotele  Fioraventi  of  Bologna, 
who  was  Ivan  III.'s  architect,  military  engineer,  and  master  of 
artillery  ;  Marco  Ruffo,  his  ambassador  in  Persia  ;  Pietro 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


173 


Antonio,  who  built  his  imperial  palace  ;  the  metal-founder,  Paul 
Bossio,  besides  architects  and  arquebusiers. 

Ivan  entered  into  relations  with  Venice  when  Trevisani,  en- 
voy of  the  republic,  on  his  way  to  the  Horde,  tried  to  traverse 
incognito  the  States  of  the  Grand  Prince,  and  was  arrested  and 
condemned  to  death.  The  Senate  interfered,  and  the  imprudent 
diplomatist  was  set  at  liberty.  Ivan  sent  in  his  turn  a  Russian 
ambassador,  Simeon  Tolbouzine,  charged  to  bind  the  two  coun. 
tries  in  friendly  ties,  and  to  bring  back  some  skilful  architect 
from  Italy.  He  was  followed  in  1499  by  Demetrius  Ralo  and 
Golokhvastof.  Contarini,  the  Venetian  ambassador,  returned 
from  Persia  with  a  French  ecclesiastic  named  Louis,  who  called 
himself  envoy  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  the  Patriarch  of 
Antioch.  He  stopped  at  Moscow,  and  was  kindly  received  by 
Ivan.  He  himself  was  much  struck  by  the  Grand  Prince.  "  When, 
in  speaking,  I  respectfully  stepped  back,"  relates  Contarini, 
"  the  Grand  Prince  always  drew  near,  and  gave  particular  at- 
tention to  my  remarks."  Ivan  III. — whether  to  secure  himself 
allies  against  Poland,  or  to  obtain  from  Germany  artists  and 
handicraftsmen  —  exchanged  more  than  one  embassy  with 
Frederic  III.  and  Maximilian  of  Austria,  Matthias  of  Hungary, 
and  the  Pope.  When  attacked  by  Sweden,  he  negotiated  an 
alliance  with  Denmark.  Plehtcheef  was  the  first  Russian  am- 
bassador at  Constantinople  under  Bajazet  II.  From  the  East 
came  envoys  of  Georgia  and  even  of  Djagatai  (Turkestan  and 
Tatar  Siberia). 

The  prince  who,  born  vassal  of  a  nomad  race,  founded  the 
greatness  of  Russia,  may  be  compared  with  one  of  the  greatest 
of  French  kings,  Louis  XI.  What  the  latter  accomplished  in 
the  case  of  appanaged  feudalism,  Ivan  succeeded  in  doing  in 
that  of  appanaged  principalities.  He  was  pitiless  towards  the 
smaller  Russian  dynasties,  as  the  King  of  France  was  to  Armagnac 
or  Saint  Pol.  He  detached  a  slice  from  Lithuania,  as  his  Western 
contemporary  managed  to  dismerriber  Burgundy.  He  put  an 
end  to  the  Mongol  invasions,  as  Louis  did  to  the  English  wars. 
He  repulsed,  without  striking  a  blow,  the  last  incursion  of  the 
khans,  as  Louis  XL  sweetly  dismissed  the  last  embarkation  of 
the  English  under  Edward  IV.  Both  had  the  same  taste  for 
foreigners,  especially  industrious  Italians,  and  for  useful  arts. 
Both  explored  the  metallic  riches  of  their  States.  They  each 
created  a  diplomacy ;  the  one  by  means  of  Comynes,  the  other 
by  means  of  Greeks,  and  Russians  as  supple  as  Greeks.  They 
strengthened  the  national  army,  and  gave  it  a  permanent  char- 
acter ;  they  both  owed  the  success  against  the  minor  princes  to 


T74 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


their  artillery.  Ivan  III.  had  his  brothers  Bureau  in  Aristotele 
Fioraventi. 

Louis  XL,  who  wished  to  put  an  end  to  the  anarchy  of  the 
law  and  to  the  thefts  of  chicanery,  meditated  a  real  code,  or 
grand  costumier,  which  would  put  the  old  laws  in  harmony  with 
the  new  order  of  things.  This  is  precisely  what  Ivan  did  in  his 
Oulogenia  (1497).  In  comparing  it  with  the  Ronsskaia  Fravda 
of  laroslaf,  we  are  able  to  gauge  the  amount  of  change  caused 
in  the  national  laws  by  the  influence  of  Byzantium,  the  example 
of  the  Tatars,  and  the  progress  of  autocracy.  Corporal  penalties 
have  notably  increased  :  for  homicide,  death  ;  for  theft,  whipping 
in  a  public  place.  Torture  was  making  its  way  in  the  procedure. 
The  judicial  duel  was  still  admitted,  only  now  it  could  hardly 
become  mortal ;  each  of  the  combatants  had  a  cuirass,  and  was 
armed  only  with  a  short  club.  Women,  minors,  and  ecclesiastics 
were  represented  by  a  champion.  In  the  same  way  as  the  end 
and  aim  of  the  policy  of  Ivan  was  the  suppression  of  appanages, 
that  of  his  code  was  to  efface  the  privileges,  the  legal  and  judi- 
cial peculiarities  of  the  different  provinces. 

For  three  generations  the  throne  had  been  inherited  in  the 
direct  line.  When,  however,  Ivan,  eldest  son  of  Ivan  III.,  died, 
the  latter  hesitated  long  between  his  grandson  Dmitri  Ivanovitch, 
and  his  second  son  Vassili.  His  wife  supported  Vassili ;  his 
daughter-in-law  Helena,  Ivan's  widow,  her  own  son.  The  court 
was  divided,  and  both  parties  were  absorbed  in  their  intrigues. 
Ivan  III.  at  first  proclaimed  Dmitri,  threw  Vassili  in  prison, 
and  disgraced  his  wife.  Then  he  changed  his  mind,  imprisoned 
his  daughter-in-law  and  his  grandson  in  their  turn,  and  pro- 
claimed Vassili  his  heir.  The  hereditary  right  of  the  West  was 
not  established  in  P-ussia  without  many  struggles. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  175 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
VASSILI  IVANOVITCH  (1505-1533). 

Reunion  of  Pskof,  Riazan,  and  Novgorod-Severski — Wars  with  Lithuania 
— Acquisition  of  Smolensk — Wars  with  the  Tatars — Diplomatic  relations 
with  Europe. 


REUNION     OF    PSKOF,     RIAZAN,    AND     NOVGOROD-SEVERSKI — WARS 
WITH  LITHUANIA — ACQUISITION  OF  SMOLENSK. 

THE  reign  of  Vassili  Ivanovitch  may  seem  somewhat  pale 
between  those  of  the  two  Ivans — the  two  "  Terribles" — his 
father  and  son.  It  was  likewise  of  shorter  duration,  lasting  only 
twenty-eight  years  (1505-1533),  but  was  the  continuation  of  the 
one,  and  the  preparation  for  the  other :  the  movement  which 
was  bearing  Russia  towards  unity  and  autocracy  was  not  re- 
tarded under  Vassili  Ivanovitch. 

There  were  still  three  States  which  had  preserved  a  certain 
independence — the  Republic  of  Pskof,  and  the  Principalities  of 
Riazan  and  Novgorod-Severski.  The  quarrels  still  continued  at 
Pskof  between  the  citizens  and  the  peasants,  the  aristocracy  and 
the  lower  classes.  The  whole  of  Pskof  was  in  conflict  with  her 
nameistnik,  or  the  royal  lieutenant.  Vassili  came  to  hold  his 
court  at  Novgorod,  and  summoned  the  magistrates  of  Pskof  to 
appear  before  him.  When  they  arrived,  he  arrested  them.  A 
merchant  of  Pskof,  who  was  on  his  way  to  Novgorod,  returned 
with  the  news  to  his  compatriots.  Instantly  the  bell  of  the 
vetche  began  to  ring,  and  the  cry  was  heard,  "  Let  us  raise  the 
shield  against  the  Grand  Prince.  Let  us  shut  the  gates  of  the 
town."  The  more  prudent  tried  to  restrain  the  people.  "  What 
can  we  do  ?  Our  brothers,  our  magistrates,  our  boyards,  and  all 
our  chief  men  are  in  the  hands  of  the  Prince."  The  imprisoned 
Pskovians  sent  a  messenger  to  implore  their  fellow-citizens  not 
to  attempt  a  useless  resistance,  and  to  avoid  the  shedding  ot 
blood.  The  latter  then  despatched  one  of  their  number  to  the 
Grand  Prince,  and  charged  him  to  say,  "  My  lord,  we  are  not 
your  enemies.  After  God,  it  is  you  that  have  power  over  alJ 


!  y 6  HISTOR  y  Of  XVSMA. 

your  subjects."  Vassili  Ivanovitch  sent  them  one  of  his  diaks, 
or  secretaries,  who  was  admitted  into  the  assembly  of  the  citi- 
zens, saluted  them  in  the  name  of  the  Grand  Prince,  and  informed 
them  that  his  master  imposed  on  them  two  conditions  :  the  first 
was  that  the  towns  subject  to  Pskof  should  receive  his  maniest- 
niks  ;  the  second  was  the  suppression  of  the  vetch/  and  its  bell. 
For  a  long  while  they  could  give  him  no  answer — their  sobs  and 
tears  choked  them.  At  last  they  demanded  twenty-four  hours 
to  deliberate.  The  day  and  night  passed  in  lamentations. 
"  The  infants  at  the  breast,"  says  the  annalist,  "  alone  could  re- 
frain from  tears."  Next  day  the  people  met  for  the  last  time, 
and  the  first  magistrate  of  the  city  thus  spoke  to  Dalmatof,  diak 
of  the  Grand  Prince  :  "  It  is  written  in  our  Chronicles  that  our 
ancestors  took  oaths  to  the  Grand  Prince.  The  Pskovians  swore 
never  to  rebel  against  our  lord  who  is  at  Moscow,  never  to  ally 
themselves  with  Lithuania,  with  Poland,  nor  with  the  Germans, 
otherwise  the  wrath  of  God  would  be  upon  them,  bringing  with 
it  famine,  fires,  floods,  and  the  invasion  of  the  infidels.  If  the 
Grand  Prince,  on  his  part,  did  not  observe  his  vow,  he  dared  the 
same  consequences.  Now  our  town  and  our  bell  are  in  the 
power  of  God  and  the  prince.  As  for  us,  we  have  kept  our 
oath."  Dalmatof  had  the  great  bell,  symbol  of  the  independence 
of  the  republic,  taken  down,  and  carried  to  Novgorod,  amid  the 
general  despair.  Then  Vassili  Ivanovitch  came  to  visit  his  "  pat- 
rimony of  Pskof."  He  installed  his  men  and  boyards  in  the 
npper  town,  transplanted  300  families  of  the  aristocracy  into  the 
cities  of  the  interior,  and  established  300  Muscovite  families  in 
their  place.  When  he  went  away,  he  left  a  garrison  of  5000 
dietiboyarskit,  and  500  Novgorod  artillerymen  (1510).  "  Alas  !  " 
cries  the  annalist,  "  glorious  city  of  Pskof  the  Great,  wherefore 
this  lamentation  and  tears  ? "  And  the  noble  city  of  Pskof 
replies  :  "  How  can  I  but  weep  and  lament  ?  An  eagle,  a  many- 
winged  eagle,  with  claws  like  a  lion,  has  swooped  clown  upon 
me.  He  has  taken  captive  the  three  cedars  of  Lebanon — my 
beauty,  my  riches,  my  children  !  -Our  land  is  a  desert,  our  city 
ruined,  our  commerce  destroyed.  Our  brothers  have  been  car- 
ried away  to  a  place  where  our  fathers  never  dwelt,  nor  our 
grandfathers,  nor  our  great-grandfathers." 

Ivan,  prince  of  Riazan,  was  accused  about  1521  of  having 
made  an  alliance  with  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea.  He  was  sum- 
moned to  Moscow,  and  imprisoned.  He  managed  to  escape  into 
Lithuania,  where  he  died  in  obscurity.  This  fertile  country, 
whose  rich  harvests  "looked  like  waving  forests,"  was  united  to 
the  Grand  Principality.  A  certain  number  of  Riazanese  were 
transported  to  Muscovite  soil.  Vassili  Chemiakine  reigned  at 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


177 


Novgorod-Severski ;  he  was  the  grandson  of  the  Chemiaka  who 
had  put  out  the  eyes  of  Vassili  VassilieVitch.  About  1523  he 
was  thrown  into  prison,  on  the  accusation  of  an  understanding 
with  Poland,  where  he  died.  There  was  now  only  one  Russia. 
A  jester  of  the  Grand  Prince  had  predicted  the  fall  of  the  last 
appanaged  prince.  He  had  gone  through  the  streets  of  Moscow 
armed  with  a  broom,  crying  "that  it  was  time  to  clean  the  em- 
pire of  what  remained  of  this  ordure."  Vassili,  like  the  most  of 
his  predecessors,  had  little  tenderness  for  his  family.  His 
nephew  Dmitri,  whom  his  grandfather  had  for  a  moment  des- 
tined to  occupy  the  throne,  and  who  by  Western  laws  was  the 
rightful  heir,  died  in  prison.  One  of  Vassili's  brothers,  feeling 
the  yoke  press  too  heavily  on  him,  tried  to  escape,  but  was 
brought  back. 

The  son  of  Ivan  the  Great  continued  the  struggle  with 
Lithuania.  He  had  attempted,  at  the  death  of  Alexander,  to 
get  himself  nominated  Grand  Prince  of  Wilna,  and  the  recon- 
ciliation of  Muscovite  and  Lithuanian  Russia  would  have 
changed  the  destinies  of  the  North.  Sigismond  I.  reunited  the 
two  crowns  of  Wilna  and  Poland.  An  unimportant  war  ended 
in  1506  by  a  "  perpetual  peace/'  and  Vassili  renounced  all 
claims  on  Kief  and  Smolensk.  The  perpetual  peace  lasted  three 
years,  which  were  filled  by  the  recriminations  of  the  two  parties. 
Vassili  accused  Sigismond  of  never  having  sent  back  all  the 
prisoners,  of  pillaging  the  Muscovite  merchants,  of  maltreating 
the  widow  of  Alexander,  daughter  of  Ivan  III. ;  of  tempting 
Simeon,  Vassili's  brother,  to  fly  to  Poland  ;  and  of  inciting  the 
Crimean  Tatars  to  ravage  Russia.  He  declared  that  "  as  long 
as  his  horse  was  in  marching  condition,  and  his  sword  cut  sharp, 
there  should  be  neither  peace,  nor  truce  with  Lithuania." 
Smolensk  was  instantly  attacked  ;  part  of  her  inhabitants  were 
on  the  side  of  Russia,  and  offered  to  submit  to  the  Grand  Prince. 
A  volley  of  artillery  knocked  down  the  ramparts  of  her  Kremlin, 
which  towers  over  the  Dnieper.  The  Polish  voi'evode  was  com- 
pelled by  the  people  to  capitulate.  "  Spare  your  patrimony," 
said  they  to  the  Grand  Prince.  The  Bishop  of  Smolensk  blessed 
Vassili,  and  the  inhabitants  took  the  oaths  of  fidelity  to  him 
(1514).  "The  taking  of  Smolensk,"  says  a  Russian  chronicler, 
"  was  like  a  brilliant  fete-day  for  Russia  ;  for  the  capture  of  the 
property  of  another  can  only  flatter  an  ambitious  prince,  but  to 
gain  possession  of  what  is  one's  own  is  ever  a  cause  of  joy." 
Many  of  the  Lithuanians,  however,  remained  undecided  ;  the 
name  of  Russia  and  of  orthodoxy  brought  them  into  communion 
with  Moscow,  but  the  Muscovites  appeared  very  barbarous  by 
the  side  of  the  Poles,  and  their  turbulent  nobility  were  better 


,73  HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA. 

suited  to  Polish  anarchy  than  to  Russian  autocracy.  A  Glinsk^ 
one  of  a  Podolian  family,  who  went  over  to  Vassili  at  this  time, 
played  the  traitor.  Constantine  Ostrojski,  whom  Vassili  had 
tried  to  gain  over  to  the  cause  of  orthodoxy,  fled  from  Moscow : 
and  it  was  he  who,  in  1514,  inflicted  on  the  Russian  voievodes 
the  bloody  defeat  of  Orcha.  "  The  next  day,"  says  Karamsin, 
"he  celebrated  the  victory  that  he  had  won  over  a  people  of 
the  same  religion  as  himself,  and  it  was  in  the  Russian  tongue 
that  he  gave  thanks  to  God  for  having  destroyed  the  Russians." 
Even  the  contemporaries  felt  vaguely  that  a  struggle  between 
Lithuanian  Russia  and  Moscow  was  a  kind  of  civil  war.  Had 
not  Vassili  tried  to  unite  the  two  principalities  ? 

As  in  the  time  of  Ivan  III.,  the  duel  of  the  two  States  made 
itself  felt  throughout  Europe,  and  occasioned  a  great  diplo- 
matic movement.  Now,  Sigismond  had  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea 
on  his  side  ;  Vassili  opposed  them  with  the  Tatars  of  Astra- 
khan. Sigismond  reckoned  on  Sweden.  Vassili  negotiated  with 
Denmark.  The  King  had  gained  over  to  his  cause  the  Dnieper 
Cossacks,  whose  name  already  began  to  be  heard  in  history,  and 
who  had  been  powerfully  organized  by  Dachkovitch.  But  Vassili 
secured  the  friendship  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  who  even  con- 
sented to  invade  Polish  Prussia  ;  of  Maximilian  of  Austria,  who 
signed  a  treaty  of  partition  of  the  Polish  territory;  of  the  Hos- 
podar  of  Wallachia;  and  finally  of  the  Sultan  Selim,  to  whom  he 
sent  embassy  afier  embassy.  Negotiations  were  set  on  foot  in 
consequence  of  the  defeat  of  Constantine  Ostrojski  before 
Smolensk,  in  the  battle  of  Opotchka.  Maximilian  of  Austria 
undertook  the  office  of  mediator  ;  his  ambassador,  Herberstein, 
the  same  who  has  left  us  the  curious  book  entitled  '  Rerum 
Moscovitarum  Commentarii,'  promised  that  Vassili  should  cede 
Smolensk,  and  quoted  to  him  the  disinterestedness  of  King 
Pyrrhus  and  other  great  men  of  antiquity.  Pope  Leo  X.  inter- 
vened without  greater  success,  though  he  counselled  Vassili  to 
leave  Lithuania  alone,  and  to  turn  his  thoughts  to  Constantinople, 
the  inheritance  of  his  mother,  Sophia  Pakeologus.  At  last  in 
1522,  the  negotiations  opened  and  terminated  in  the  truce  of 
1526.  Vassili  pronounced  a  discourse  on  the  subject,  in  which 
he  expressed  his  friendship  for  his  noble  mediators,  the  Pope, 
the  Emperor,  and  the  Archduke  of  Austria  (Clement  VII.,  Charles 
V.,  and  Ferdinand),  but  Russia  kept  Smolensk. 

WARS    WITH    THE   TATARS — DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS    WITH  EUROPE. 

The  Tatars  were  still  dangerous.  Mengli-Ghirei,  the  ancient 
ally  of  Ivan  HI.,  had  declared  for  Lithuania  against  Vassili. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


179 


Perhaps  the  old  Khan  might  have  lost  the  authority  (  necessary 
to  restrain  his  sons  and  mourzas,  who  only  wished  to  pillage  the 
Russian  territory.  Under  his  successor,  Makhmet  Ghirei,  the 
Crimea  became  a  deadly  enemy  of  Russia.  Kazan,  on  expelling 
the  protege  of  Ivan  III.,  had  elected  a  prince  hostile  to  Moscow. 
Two  expeditions  directed  against  the  rebel  city  failed  completely. 
At  the  death  of  the  Tzar  of  Kazan,  the  principality  became  the 
apple  of  discord  between  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  and  the 
Grand  Prince.  The  Russians,  however,  had  succeeded,  and 
installed  their  client,  Schig-Alei,  a  Mussulman  brutalized  by  idle- 
ness and  pleasures,  whose  enormous  stomach  gave  him  a  gro- 
tesque appearance  ;  but  he  was  overthrown  by  the  intrigues  of  the 
Khan  of  the  Crimea,  and  a  kinsman  of  the  Ghirei  was  placed  on 
the  throne.  In  support  of  their  candidate,  the  Taurians  pre- 
pared, in  1521,  a  great  invasion  of  Russia.  They  crushed  the 
Russian  vo'ievodes  on  the  banks  of  the  Oka,  ravaged  the  Grand 
Principality,  looked  on  Moscow  from  the  Hill  of  Sparrows,  and 
made  themselves  drunk  with  hydromel  found  in  the  cellars  of 
the  Grand  Prince.  At  the  Kremlin  there  was  a  formidable  array 
of  artillery,  but  no  powder.  Herberstein  assures  us  that  the 
powerful  son  of  Ivan  III.  humiliated  himself,  as  in  the  time  of 
Ivan  Kalita,  to  save  his  capital,  sent  presents  to  the  Khan,  and 
signed  a  treaty  by  which  he  professed  himself  his  tributary  ;  but 
that  in  his  retreat,  Makhmet  Ghirei  was  received  with  cannon- 
balls  by  the  voiievode  of  Riazan,  who  took  from  him  the  humiliat- 
ing treat}'.  Though  the  Russian  honor  was  saved  by  the  can- 
nonade of  Riazan,  this  invasion  cost  Russia  dear.  All  the  flat 
country  was  a  prey  to  the  flames.  A  multitude  of  people,  es- 
pecially women  and  children,  had  been  carried  off  by  the  bar- 
barians. Many  perished  on  the  journey  ;  the  rest  were  sold  in 
whole  troops  in  the  markets  of  Kaffa  and  Astrakhan.  The 
following  year  Vassili  assembled  on  the  Oka  a  formidable  army, 
with  an  imposing  artillery,  and  sent  a  challenge  to  the  Khan  of  the 
Crimea  summoning  him  to  accept  an  honorable  fight  in  the  open 
country.  The  Tatar  answered  that  he  knew  the  way  to  Russia, 
and  never  consulted  his  enemies  as  to  when  he  was  to  fight.  A 
short  time  after,  Makhmet  conquered  the  Tzarate  of  Astrakhan, 
but  was  assassinated  by  Mama'i,  Prince  of  the  NogaSs. 

The  Tatars  of  the  Crimea  were,  thanks  to  the  vast  southern 
steppes,  nearly  beyond  Russian  enterprises ;  but  it  was  still 
possible  to  attain  Kazan.  In  order  to  profit  by  the  dissensions 
of  the  Hordes  of  the  South,  two  new  expeditions  were  fitted  out 
in  1523  and  1524  against  this  town,  but  both  were  unsuccessful. 
Vassili  discovered  a  more  certain  way  of  ruining  his  enemies — he 
established  a  fair  at  Makarief  on  the  Volga,  and  by  this  means 


,g0  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

destroyed  that  of  Kazan.  It  was  this  fair  of  Makarief  that  was 
afterwards  transported  to  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  draws  more  than 
100,000  strangers  from  Europe  and  Asia. 

Day  by  day  Russia  took  a  more  important  place  in  Europe. 
Vassili  exchanged  embassies  with  all  the  sovereigns  of  the  West, 
except  those  of  France  and  England.  He  was  the  correspon- 
dent of  Leo  X.  and  Clement  VII.;  of  Maximilian  and  Charles 
V. ;  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  founder  of  a  new  dynasty ;  of  Sultan  Selim, 
conqueror  of  Egypt ;  and  of  Suleiman  the  Magnificent.  In  the 
East,  the  Great  Mogul  of  India,  Baber,  descendant  of  Tamerlane, 
sought  his'  friendship.  Autocracy  daily  became  stronger. 
Vassili  governed  without  consulting  his  council  of  boyards. 
"  Moltchi  stnerd!"  (Be  silent,  rustic  !)  he  said  one  day  to  a 
great  lord,  who  dared  to  raise  an  objection.  Prince  Vassili 
Kholmaski,  who  was  married  to  one  of  his  sisters,  was  thrown 
into  prison  for  indocility.  The  boyard  Beklemychef  having 
complained  that  "  the  Grand  Prince  decided  all  the  questions 
alone,  shut  up,  with  two  others,  in  his  bed-chamber,"  had  his 
head  cut  off.  The  Metropolitan  Varlaam  was  deposed  and  ban- 
ished to  a  monastery.  Herberstein  asserts  already,  that  no 
European  sovereign  is  obeyed  like  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow. 
This  growing  power  was  manifested  externally  by  the  splendor 
of  the  court,  which  naturally  did  not  preclude  the  worst  barbaric 
taste.  In  the  reception  of  his  ambassadors,  Vassili  displayed 
unheard-of  luxury  ;  many  hundreds  of  horsemen  accompanied 
him  when  he  hunted.  The  throne  of  the  Prince  was  guarded 
by  young  nobles,  the  ryndis,  with  their  head-dresses  of  high  caps 
of  white  fur,  dressed  in  long  caftans  of  white  satin,  armed  with 
silver  hatchets.  The  lists  of  his  masters  of  the  horse,  his  cup- 
bearers, chamberlains,  &c.,  are  already  very  long.  Strangers 
continued,  though  in  small  numbers,  to  come  to  Moscow.  The 
most  illustrious  of  them  was  Maximus^  surnamed  the  Greek,  a 
monk  of  Mount  Athos,  and  a  native  of  Arta,  in  Albania.  In  his 
youth  he  had  studied  at  Venice  and  at  Florence,  and  been  the 
friend  of  Lascaris  and  Aldus  Manutius.  He  had  remained  the 
sincere  admirer  of  Savonarola.  Vassili  had  sent  for  him  with 
other  Greeks  to  translate  the  Greek  books  into  Slavonic,  and 
put  his  library  in  order.  Maximus  is  said  to  have  been  astonished 
to  find  in  the  Kremlin  such  a  large  number  of  ancient  manu- 
scripts ;  he  vowed  that  neither  Italy  nor  in  Greece  was  to  be 
found  such  a  rich  collection.  After  having  finished  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Psalter,  he  wished  to  return  to  Mount  Athos. 
Vassili  retained  him,  made  him  his  favorite,  and  often  granted 
him  the  lives  of  condemned  boyards.  His  works,  his  science, 
as  well  as  his  favor,  gained  him  the  hatred  of  ignorant  and  fan- 


R  USSIA.  j  8 1 

atical  monks.  The  Metropolitan  Daniel  declared  against  him. 
When  Vassili  repudiated  against  her  will  his  wife  Solomonia, 
because  of  her  sterility,  the  philosopher,  it  seems,  ventured  to 
blame  the  prince,  who  then  abandoned  him  to  his  enemies. 
Denounced  before  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal,  accused  of  heresy 
and  of  false  interpretation  of  the  sacred  books,  he  was  banished 
to  a  monastery  at  Tver.  Later  he  obtained  leave  to  retire  to  that 
of  Troitsa,  where  there  is  still  shown  the  tomb  of  the  man  who 
was,  in  Russia,  one  of  the  apostles  of  the  Renaissance. 


JJISTORY  OF  RUSSSA. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE  (1533-1584.) 

Minority  of  Ivan  IV. — He  takes  the  title  of  Tzar  (1547) — Conquest  of  Kazan 
(1552),  and  of  Astrakhan  (1554) — Contests  with  the  Livoman  Order,  Po- 
land, the  Tatars,  Sweden,  and  the  Russian  aristocracy — The  English  in 
Russia — Conquest  of  Siberia. 


MINORITY  OF   IVAN  IV. — HE  TAKES  THE  TITLE  OF  TZAR  (1547). 

THE  rdlc  and  the  character  of  Ivan  IV.  have  been  and  still  are 
very  differently  estimated  by  Russian  historians.  Karamsin,  who 
has  not  subjected  to  a  criticism  sufficiently  severe  the  narratives 
and  documents  from  which  he  has  drawn  his  information,  has 
seen  in  him  a  prince  who  was  born  cruel  and  vicious,  but  was 
miraculously  brought  back  into  the  paths  of  virtue.  Under  the 
guidance  of  two  excellent  ministers  he  gave  some  years  of 
repose  to  Russia ;  then  abandoning  himself  to  his  passions — 
astounded  Europe  and  the  empire  with  what  the  historian  calls 
the  "  seven  periods  of  massacres."  M.  Kostomarof  supports  the 
verdict  of  Karamsin.  Another  school  represented  byM.  Solovief 
and  M.  Zabie'line,  has  shown  more  mistrust  of  the  partial  accounts 
«i  Kourbski,  leader  of  the  oligarchic  party,  of  Guagnini,  courtier 
of  the  King  of  Poland,  of  Taube  and  Kruse,  traitors  to  the  sov- 
ereign whom  they  served.  Above  all,  they  have  taken  into  con- 
sideration the  time  and  the  environment  of  Ivan  the  Terrible. 
This  party  concerns  itself  less  with  his  morality  as  an  individual, 
than  with  the  part  he  played  as  the  agent  of  the  historical  devel- 
opment of  Russia.  Did  not  the  French  historians  for  a  while 
refuse  to  recognize  the  immense  services  rendered  by  Louis  XI. 
in  the  great  work  of  consolidating  the  unity  of  France,  and  the 
creation  of  a  modern  State  ?  He  has  been  justified  at  last  by 
an  attentive  examination  of  documents  and  facts. 

At  the  time  that  Ivan  IV.  succeeded  his  father,  the  struggle 
of  the  central  power  with  the  forces  of  the  past  had  changed  its 
character.  The  old  Russian  States  which  had  for  so  long  held 
in  check  the  new  power  of  Moscow — the  principalities  of  Tver. 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  !  83 

Riazan,  Souzdal  and  Novgorod-Severski — and  the  republics  of 
Novgorod,  Pskof,  and  Viatka,  had  lost  their  independence; 
their  possessions  had  gone  to  swell  those  of  Moscow.  All  North 
and  East  Russia  is  now  united  under  the  sceptre  of  the  Grand 
Prince.  To  the  perpetual  contests  with  Tver,  Riazan,  and  Nov- 
gorod succeed  the  great  foreign  wars ;  the  crusades  against 
Lithuania,  the  Tatars,  the  Swedes,  the  Livonian  knights. 

Precisely  because  the  work  of  Great  Russian  unity  was 
accomplished,  the  internal  resistance  to  the  authority  of  the 
Prittce  became  stronger.  The  descendants  of  the  princely 
families  which  had  been  dispossessed  by  money  or  force  of  arms, 
and  the  retainers  of  these  ancient  reigning  houses,  enlisted  in 
the  service  of  the  master  of  Moscow.  The  Court  of  the  latter 
was  full  of  uncrowned  nobles,  Belskis,  Choui'skis,  Kourbskis, 
Vorotinskis,  descendants  of  the  appanaged  princes,  proud  of  the 
blood  of  Rurik  which  ran  in  their  veins.  Others  sprang  from 
Gedtmin,  the  Lithuanian,  or  "from  baptized  Tatar  mourzas.  All 
these,  as  well  as  the  powerful  boyards  of  Tver,  Riazan,  and 
Novgorod,  became  the  boyards  of'  the  Grand  Prince.  There 
was  oniy  one  Court  for  all  to  serve — that  of  Moscow.  When 
Russia  was  divided  into  sovereign  States,  discontented  boyards 
were  free  to  change  their  master,  to  pass  from  the  service  of 
Tchernigof  to  that  of  Kief,  or  from  the  service  of  Souzdal  to  that 
of  Novgorod.  Now,  where  could  they  go  ?  Outside  of  Moscow 
there  was  nothing  but  foreign  sovereigns,  the  enemies  of  Russia. 
To  make  use  of  the  ancient  right  of  changing  your  master,  was  to 
pass  over  to  the  enemy  to  be  a  traitor.  To  change  and  betray 
became  synonyms.  From  the  Russian  word  izmt^ni (change)  is 
derived  the  word  izmie'nik  (to  betray).  The  Russian  boyard  could 
go  neither  to  the  Germans,  to  the  Swedes,  nor  to  the  Tatars  ;  he 
could  only  go  to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Lithuania,  but  that  was  ex- 
actly the  worst  sort  of  change  the  blackest  of  treasons.  The 
Prince  of  Moscow  knew  well  that  the  war  with  Lithuania — that 
State  which  was  Polish  in  the  west,  and  exercised,  by  means  of 
its  Russian  provinces  in  the  east,  a  dangerous  fascination  on  the 
subjects  of  Moscow — was  a  struggle  for  existence.  Lithuania, 
was  an  internal  as  well  as  an  external  enemy,  with  links  and  sym- 
pathies with  the  heart  of  the  Russian  State,  even  in  the  palace 
of  the  Tzar  himself,  and  her  formidable  hand  is  found  in  all  in- 
trigues and  conspiracies.  The  external  struggle  with  Lithuania, 
and  the  internal  struggle  with  the  Russian  oligarchy,  are  different 
phases  of  the  same  contest,  the  heaviest  and  most  perilous  of 
all  sustained  by  the  Grand  Princes  of  Moscow.  The  dispos- 
sessed princes,  the  boyards  of  the  ancier.  independent  States, 
had  renounced  the  strife  with  him  on  the  battle-field,  but  they 


, 84  IIISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

+ 

continued  to  combat  his  authority  in  his  own  Court.  There  are 
no  more  wars  of  States  against  State  ;  henceforth  the  war  is 
intestine,  that  of  oligarchy  against  autocracy.  Resigned  to 
being  sovereign  princes  no  longer,  the  boyard  princes  of 
Moscow  were  not  yet  content  to  be  only  subjects.  The  nar- 
rower area  intensified  the  violence  of  the  contest.  The  Court 
of  Moscow  was  a  fenced-in  field,  from  which  none  could  go 
out  without  changing  the  Muscovite  for  the  Lithuanian  master 
— without  betraying.  Hence  the  passionate  character  of  the 
struggle  between  the  two  principles  under  Ivan  IV.  Besides, 
the  sovereigns  of  Moscow  who  had  destroyed,  after  so  many 
efforts,  the  Russian  States  that  held  Moscow  in  check,  com- 
mitted the  same  fault  as  the  Capetians  or  the  early  Valois.  In 
constituting  appanages  for  the  younger  branches,  they  built  up 
with  one  hand  what  they  pulled  down  with  the  other  ;  to  the  sov- 
ereign princes  of  the  nth  century  succeeded  the  princes  of  the 
blood  the  appanaged  princes  of  the  i5th  and  i6th  centuries. 
These  also  had  their  domain,  &c.,  their  boyards,  their  dieti  boy- 
arskie  (men-at-arms.)  They  were  the  brothers,  uncles,  cousins  of 
the  Grand  Prince,  who  became  the  chiefs  of  the  vanquished 
oligarchy  and  organized  the  coalition  of  the  forces  of  the  past 
against  him.  They  stood  to  him  as  the  Capetians  of  Burgundy, 
Berri,  Bourbon,  and  Orleans,  stood  to  the  Capetian  kings, 
Charles  VII.,  Louis  XL,  and  Charles  VIII. 

Vassili  Ivanovitch  left  two  sons,  Ivan  and  louri,  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  second  wife,  Helena  Glinski.  She  had  come 
into  Russia  with  a  family  of  Podolian  nobles,  proscribed  by  Sig- 
ismond,  and  accused  of  having  plotted  against  his  life.  Helena 
Glinski  had  subdued  her  old  husband  Vassili,  not  only  by  her 
beauty,  but  by  her  free  and  attractive  manners,  an  independence 
of  spirit  and  character,  and  a  variety  of  accomplishments  not  to 
be  found  among  the  Russian  women  of  that  day,  condemned  as 
they  were  to  seclusion.  She  was  almost  a  Western.  Vassili 
was  able  to  leave  her,  on  his  death-bed,  with  the  guardianship 
of  her  sons,  and  the  care  of  strengthening  his  work  and  that  of 
his  ancestors.  This  energetic  woman  knew  how  to  put  down  all 
attempts  of  princely  and  oligarchic  reaction  against  the  autoc- 
racy of  the  Grand  Prince.  One  of  her  husband's  brothers, 
louri  Ivanovitch,  convicted  of  rebellion,  was  thrown  into  prison, 
where  he  died.  Helena's  own  uncle,  Michael  Glinski,  an  am- 
bitious and  turbulent  Podolian,  after  having  enjoyed  her  confi- 
dence for  some  time,  was  likewise  arrested  and  died  in  confine- 
ment. Andrew  Ivanovitch,  another  brother  of  the  late  Tzar, 
tried  to  escape  into  Poland  to  obtain  the  support  of  Sigismond ; 
he  was  stopped  on  the  way,  and  imprisoned.  Lithuania  at- 


fflSTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  ! 8S 

tempted  to  come  to  his  aid,  by  taking  up  arms  for  the  rebels  of 
the  interior.  This  unimportant  war  was  ended  in  1537  by  a 
truce.  The  Tatars  of  Kazan  and  the  Crimea  suffered  many  de- 
feats ;  and  to  place  Moscow  beyond  the  possibility  of  being 
seized  by  a  coup  de  main,  Helena  enclosed  with  ramparts  the 
quarter  known  by  the  name  of  Katai-gorod.  As  she  could  not 
entirely  rely  either  on  the  boyards  or  on  the  princes,  nor  even 
on  her  own  relations,  she  gave  all  her  confidence  to  the  master 
of  the  horse,  Telepnef,  whom  the  public  voice  charged  with 
being  her  lover.  A  government  as  energetic  against  its  internal 
as  against  its  foreign  enemies,  gave  little  satisfaction  to  the  oli- 
garchic party.  In  1538  Helena  died,  the  victim  of  poison. 

The  boyards  then  took  possession  of  the  government,  after 
having  put  to  death  the  master  of  the  horse,  and  imprisoned  his 
sister  Agrafena,  Ivan's  nurse.  The  chief  power  wras  disputed 
specially  by  two  families — the  Chou'iskis  and  the  Belskis. 
Russia  became  a  prey  to  anarchy,  the  governments  and  the 
voievodies  were  given  by  turns  to  the  creatures  of  these  two 
families,  and  the  people  were  cruelly  oppressed ;  the  two 
factions  even  elevated  and  deposed  at  will  the  Metropolitan  of 
Moscow.  At  last,  Andrew  Chouiiski  overthrew  the  government 
of  the  Belskis,  and  finally  deposed  the  Metropolitan. 

Whilst  the  nobles  were  thus  intriguing  for  the  supreme 
power,  Vassili's  two  sons  were  left  by  themselves.  louri,  the 
younger,  was  feeble  in  intellect,  but  Ivan,  like  Peter  the  Great, 
whom  in  many  points  he  resembled,  was  a  highly-gifted  boy. 
He  suffered  keenly  from  the  contempt  in  which  his  turbulent 
subjects  held  him.  "  We  and  our  brother  louri,"  he  afterwards 
writes,  "  were  treated  like  foreigners,  like  the  children  of  beg- 
gars. We  were  ill-clothed,  we  were  cold  and  hungry."  They 
saw  the  boyards  pillage  the  treasures  and  luxurious  furniture  of 
the  palace  ;  Chou'iski  even  threw  himself  in  Ivan's  presence  on 
the  bed  of  the  late  Tzar.  The  empire  was  plundered  as  well  as 
the  palace.  "They  wandered  everywhere,"  continues  Ivan  IV., 
"in  the  towns  and  villages,  cruelly  tormenting  the  people,  in- 
flicting all  kinds  of  evils  on  them,  exacting  fines  without  mercy 
from  the  inhabitants.  Of  our  subjects  they  have  made  their 
slaves;  of  their  slaves,  the  nobles  of  the  State."  He  had  seen 
all  whom  he  loved  torn  from  him — his  nurse  Agrafena  ;  the 
master  of  the  horse,  Telepnef,  who  had  been  put  to  death  ;  and 
his  favorite  Voronzof,  who  was  roughly  handled  and  nearly 
killed  by  the  boyards.  It  was  enough  for  a  courtier  to  take 
pains  to  please  him,  for  him  instantly  to  become  an  object  of 
mistrust  to  the  oligarchs.  Ivan,  like  a  neglected  child,  badly 
educated,  never  disciplined,  had  to  be  his  own  master.  He  read 


,  g$  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  VSSIA. 

much,  without  method — the  Bible,  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  the 
Byzantine  Chroniclers  translated  into  Slavonic — whatever  came 
in  his  way.  Above  all,  he  thought.  He  had  imbibed  from  his 
reading  a  high  idea  of  what  it  was  to  be  a  king,  and  knew  well 
that  he  was  the  rightful  master.  These  very  boyards,  so  inso- 
lent towards  him  in  private — did  he  not  see  them  in  public  cer- 
emonials, at  receptions  of  ambassadors,  rival  each  other  in  af- 
fected respect  and  servility  ?  It  was  he  who,  seated  on  his 
throne,  received  the  compliments  of  the  foreign  envoys ;  his 
signature  was  necessary  to  give  the  force  of  law  to  actions  the 
most  contrary  to  his  will.  These  were  no  vain  forms,  but  in- 
volved real  power.  Ivan,  however,  dissembled.  After  the 
Christmas  f(hes  of  1543,  he  suddenly  summoned  his  boyards  be- 
fore him,  addressed  them  in  a  menacing  tone,  and  reproached 
them  sternly  for  their  manner  of  governing.  "  There  were 
among  them,"  he  added,  "  many  guilty  ones ;  but  this  time  he 
would  content  himself  with  making  one  example."  He  then 
ordered  his  guards  to  seize  Andrew  Chouiski,  the  chief  of  the 
government,  and  there  and  then  had  him  torn  to  pieces  by 
hounds.  Some  of  the  most  turbulent  and  the  most  compro- 
mised were  banished  to  distant  towns.  The  author  of  this  coup 
d'ttat  was  thirteen  years  old. 

According  to  the  invariable  custom  of  Muscovite  sovereigns, 
Ivan  surrounded  himself  by  his  maternal  relations,  those  on  his 
father's  side  being  naturally  objects  of  suspicion.  Then  began 
what  was  called  a  vremia  ;  that  is  a  season  of  favor."  The  rela- 
tives of  the  Prince,  the  men  of  the  season  (yremenchtchiki},  the 
Glinskis,  were  charged  to  provide  for  the  administration  of  the 
empire.  In  January  1547,  Ivan  ordered  the  Metropolitan 
Macarius  to  proceed  with  his  coronation.  He  assumed  at  the 
ceremony  not  only  the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  but  that  of  Tzar. 
The  first  title  no  longer  answered  to  the  new  power  of  the  sover- 
eign of  Moscow,  who  counted  among  his  domestics,  princes  and 
even  Grand  Princes.  The  name  of  Tzar  is  that  which  the  books 
in  the  Slavonic  language,  ordinarily  read  by  Ivan,  give  to  the 
kings  of  Judaea,  Assyria,  Egypt,  Babylon  and  to  the  emperors  of 
Rome  and  Constantinople.  Now,  was  not  Ivan  in  some  sort 
the  heir  of  the  Tzar  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  Tzar  Pharaoh,  the 
Tzar  Ahasuerus,  and  the  Tzar  David,  since  Russia  was  the  sixth 
empire  spoken  of  in  the  Apocalypse  ?  Through  his  grandmother 
Sophia  Pabeotagus,  he  was  connected  with  the  family  of  the 
Tzar  of  Pnvamium  ;  through  his  ancestor  Vladimir  Monoma- 
chus,  he  belonged  to  the  Porphyrogeniti  ;  and  through  Con- 
stantine  the  Great,  to  Caesar.  If  Constantinople  had  been  the 
second,  Moscow  was  the  third  Rome — living  heir  of  the  Eternal 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  187 

City.  We  may  imagine  what  prestige  was  added  to  the  dignity 
of  the  Russian  sovereign  by  this  dazzling  title,  borrowed  from 
Biblical  antiquity,  from  Roman  majesty,  from  the  orthodox  sover- 
eigns >f  Byzantium.  It  recalled  at  the  same  time  the  recently, 
acquired  freedom  of  Russia  ;  the  Slavonic  authors  likewise 
bestowed  this  august  title  on  the  Mongol  khans,  suzerains  of  the 
Muscovite  princes.  Now  that  fortune  smiled  upon  Russia,  it 
well  became  her  prince  to  call  himself  "  Tzar."  Shortly  after, 
Ivan,  whose  deserted  youth  had  been  soiled  by  debauchery, 
confirmed  his  return  to  virtue  by  his  marriage  with  Anastasia,  of 
that  family  of  Romanof  whose  future  destiny  was  to  be  so  bril- 
liant. His  Court  was  increased  by  vremencktchiki  chosen  from 
the  relatives  of  the  Tzarina. 

The  vanquished  party  naturally  would  not  consent  to  be  set 
aside  without  a  struggle  for  revenge.  Fortune  soon  gave  them 
an  opportunity.  For  four  years  Ivan  had  governed  absolutely, 
supported  by  his  connections,  the  Glinskis  and  the  Romanofs, 
and  it  was  many  years  since  Russia  had  been  so  tranquil.  Sud- 
denly, in  1547,  a  terrible  fire  broke  out  and  destroyed  a  great 
part  of  Moscow,  and  1700  people  perished.  The  Tzar  took 
refuge  at  Vorobief,  and  thence  contemplated  with  terror  the 
destruction  of  his  capital.  An  inquiry  was  made,  ar.d  the  boy- 
ards  took  advantage  of  it  to  insinuate  to  the  people  that  it  was 
the  Glinskis  who  had  burnt  Moscow.  "  It  is  the  Princess  Anne 
Glinski,"  repeated  voices  among  the  crowd,  "  who,  with  her  two 
sons,  has  made  enchantments  ;  she  has  taken  human  hearts, 
and  plunged  them  in  water,  and  with  this  water  has  sprinkled 
the  houses.  This  is  the  cause  of  the  destruction  of  Moscow." 
The  enraged  multitude  burst  into  the  palace  of  the  Glinskis. 
One  of  them,  louri,  was  stabbed  in  the  porch  of  the  Assump- 
tion. Then  the  rioters  proceeded  to  Vorobief,  and  demanded 
Ivan's  uncle,  the  old  Glinski.  The  sovereign's  own  life  was  in 
danger  ;  it  was  necessary  to  use  force  to  disperse  the  rebels. 

The  events  which  followed  are  unintelligible  from  the  dram- 
atized recital  of  Karamsin,  but  very  clear  if  we  keep  to  the 
logic  of  facts.  Ivan  could  hardly  be  ignorant  who  had  raised 
this  revolt,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  give  himself  up  to  his 
ancient  guardians.  But  his  nervous,  impressionable  nature 
had  been  greatly  struck  by  the  spectacle  under  his  eyes.  Under 
the  influence  of  this  terror  he  examined  his  conscience,  and 
resolved  to  amend  his  life.  He  took  the  priest  Silvester,  who 
had  dwelt  in  his  palace  for  nine  years,  and  had  a  great  reputa- 
tion for  virtue,  as  his  spiritual  director  ;  he  gave  him  at  the 
same  time  the  administration  of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  Alexis 
Adachef,  one  of  the  smaller  nobility,  was  charged  with  receiving 


,  gg  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

petitions,  and  the  supervision  of  the  interior  and  of  the  war.  As 
long  as  the  two  new  favorites  confined  themselves  to  their 
offices,  the  Court  was  tranquil.  It  was  the  happiest  period  of 
the  reign  of  Ivan  IV.  The  municipal  administration  was  re- 
organized in  the  interior  (1551).  A  new  code  (Soudcbniti)  was 
prepared,  and  a  council  assembled,  whose  hundred  articles 
\Stoglaf)  were  occupied  with  Church  reforms.  In  foreign  affairs 
Russia  conquered  her  ancient  masters. 


CONQUEST  OF  KAZAN  (1552),  AND  OF  ASTRAKHAN    (1554). 

The  kingdom  of  Kazan  continued  to  be  distracted  by  two 
opposing  influences — that  of  Russia  and  that  of  the  Khan  of  the 
Crimea.  The  latter  seemed  the  stronger,  and  Safa-Ghirei,  can- 
d.date  for  the  Crimea,  distinguished  his  accession  by  ravaging 
the  Russian  territory  ;  the  Khan  supported  him  in  these  incur- 
sions by  advancing  with  the  whole  Crimean  horde  as  far  as  the 
ka.  When  Safa  died,  leaving  a  son  who  was  a  minor,  the 
Muscovite  party  took  the  upper  hand  in  Kazan  and  bestowed 
the  crown  on  Schig-Alei.  He  made  himself  detested  by  his  new 
subjects,  and  things  came  to  such  a  pass  that  the  Kazanese 
appeared  to  prefer  the  direct  rule  of  Moscow  to  this  disguised 
subordination.  At  the  request  of  the  inhabitants  Ivan  recalled 
ochig-Alei,  and  sent  them  a  viceroy,  Mikoulinski.  Suddenly  a 
rumor  was  spread  in  Kazan  that  Mikoulinski  was  approaching 
with  Russian  troops  with  the  object  of  exterminating  the  popu- 
lation. A  rebellion  broke  out.  The  gates  of  Moscow  were  shut 
on  the  Muscovites,  and  men  demanded  a  prince  of  the  Nogai 
Tatars.  Ediger-Makhment  was  proclaimed  Tzar  of  Kazan. 

Ivan  determined  to  make  an  end  of  this  Mussulman  city. 
In  June  1552,  the  same  year  that  Henry  II.  obtained  possession 
of  the  three  bishoprics,  the  Tzar  took  the  field.  He  was  at 
once  checked  by  the  news  that  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  wishing 
to  save  Kazan  by  a  diversion,  had  invaded  Moscow.  Ivan  ad- 
vanced against  him  as  far  as  the  Oka ;  there  he  learnt  that  the 
barbarians,  not  being  able  to  take  Toula,  had  hastily  retired. 
Upon  this,  Ivan's  infantry,  with  150,000  men  and  150  pieces  of 
cannon,  descended  the  Volga  in  boats,  while  the  cavalry  followed 
along  the  banks,  and  directed  their  course  to  Kazan.  The 
creation  of  advanced  posts  had  diminished  the  distance  that 
separated  Kazan  from  Nijni-Novgorod.  His  father  had  founded 
Makarief  and  Vassilsoursk  on  the  Volga  ;  and  he  himself  had 
established  in  1551  the  warlike  colony  of  Sviajsk  on  the  Sviaga. 
Later  he  founded  those  of  Kosmodemiansk  and  Tcheboksarv. 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  185 

At  the  beginning  of  September  Ivan  encamped  under  Kazan 
and  surrounded  it  by  a  line  of  circumvallation,  which  cut  off  all 
communication  between  the  town  and  the  cavalry  of  the  Mourza 
lapantcha,  which  had  taken r  the  field.  The  garrison  of  Kazan, 
numbering  30,000  Tatars  and  2500  Nogai's,  defended  themselves 
energetically  and  incessantly,  and  managed  by  their  sorties  to 
hinder  the  work  of  the  assailants.  The  Tzar  repeatedly  offered 
them  honorable  terms  ;  he  even  hung  up  his  prisoners  on  gibbets 
to  frighten  the  Kazanese  into  surrendering,  but  the  besieged 
only  shot  arrows  against  these  unhappy  wretches,  crying  that 
"  it  was  better  for  them  to  receive  death  from  the  clean  hands 
of  their  countrymen  than  to  perish  by  the  impure  hands  of 
Christians."  The  Russian  army  had  to  struggle  with  the  un- 
chained elements  as  well  as  with  their  enemies.  The  fleet, 
which  bore  their  provisions  and  powder,  was  destroyed  by  a 
tempest.  The  vo'ievodes  wished  to  raise  the  siege,  but  Ivan  re- 
animated their  failing  courage.  Prolonged  rains  flooded  the 
Muscovite  camp,  caused,  it  was  said,  by  the  sorcerers  of  Kazan, 
who  stood  on  the  walls,  their  robes  girt  up,  insulting  the  be- 
siegers by  their  words  and  gestures.  Ivan  sent  to  Moscow  for 
a  miraculous  cross,  which  dispersed  the  enchantments. 

Ivan  had  secured  the  services  of  a  German  engineer,  who  laid 
mines  under  the  very  walls  of  the  town.  The  ramparts  of  wood 
and  bricks  at  many  points  fell  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  Rus- 
sian army  entered  the  town  by  the  breaches.  A  fierce  hand  to- 
hand  fight  took  place  in  the  streets  and  around  the  palace.  The 
bravest  of  the  Kazanese,  after  having  tried  to  defend  their 
prince,  cut  their  way  through,  but,  pursued  by  the  light  cavalry, 
few  escaped.  In  the  town  numbers  were  massacred  :  those  only 
were  spared  who  could  be  sold  to  slave-merchants.  When  the 
Tzar  made  his  triumphal  entry  into  the  middle  of  these  bloody 
ruins,  he  was  moved,  like  Scipio  at  Carthage,  by  a  feeling  of 
pity  for  this  great  disaster.  "  They  are  not  Christians,"  said 
he,  weeping,  "  but  yet  they  are  men."  The  town  was  re-peopled 
by  Russians,  and  even  at  the  present  day  the  Tatar  population 
is  confined  to  the  faubourgs.  In  the  Kremlin  Ivan  annihilated 
all  the  monuments  of  the  Mongol  past,  and  replaced  them  by 
churches  and  monasteries  which  attested  his  gratitude  towards 
God  and  the  triumph  of  the  Cross  over  Islam. 

The  date  of  these  events  is  already  far  distant,  but  they  still 
live  in  the  memory  of  the  Russian  people.  Many  epics  are  con- 
secrated to  this  great  victory.  It  is  not  only,  as  Karamsin  says, 
because  Kazan  was  the  first  fortress  taken  by  the  Russians  after 
a  siege  according  to  the  rules  of  war  ;  it  is  because  the  capture 
of  Kazan  marks  the  culminating  point  in  the  history  of  the  long 


,9o  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

struggle  of  the  Slavs  against  the  Tatars — a  struggle  which  to 
gan  by  the  total  subjugation  of  Russia  by  the  Mongols,  but 
which  has  continued  to  our  own  day,  and  probably  will  only  end 
with  the  conquest  of  the  Tatar  races  by  the  Russian  Empire. 
The  victory  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  is  the  first  great  revenge  of  the 
vanquished  over  the  vanquishers,  the  first  triumph  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  conquerors,  the  first  stage  reached  by  European 
civilization  in  taking  the  offensive  towards  Asia.  In  the  Rus- 
sian annals  the  expedition  of  Kazan  occupies  the  same  glorious 
place  as  the  defeat  of  Abderahman  in  the  history  of  the  Franks, 
or  Las  Navas  da  Tolosa  in  the  chronicles  of  Spain.  It  was 
more  than  a  conquest — it  was  a  crusade.  During  the  assault 
Ivan  did  not  cease  to  display  the  standard  of  the  holy  faith. 
It  was  remarked  that  the  day  the  ramparts  fell  the  Tzar  was  at 
church,  and  the  deacon  read  the  following  verse  from  the  Gospel 
for  the  day  :  "There  shall  be  one  flock,  one  shepherd."  It  was 
with  the  cry  of  "  God  with  us  !  "  that  the  Russians  precipitated 
themselves  into  the  town.  The  triumph  of  Moscow  mingled 
with  that  of  Christianity  and  orthodoxy. 

The  political  consequences  of  the  taking  of  Kazan  were  con- 
siderable. The  five  Finnish  or  Mongol  tribes  who  had  been 
subject  to  this  royal  city — the  Tcheremisses,  the  Mordvians,  the 
Tchouvaches,  whom  M.  Radlow  considers  the  descendants  of 
the  Bulgars  of  Bolgary,  the  Votiaks  and  the  Bachkirs — after  a 
resistance  of  some  years,  were  obliged  to  do  homage  to  Moscow. 
Ivan  sent  them  missionaries  at  the  same  time  as  his  vo'ievodes. 

The  fall  of  the  kingdom  of  Astrakhan  soon  followed  that  ot 
Kazan.  This  great  city  was  also  divided  between  two  parties. 
In  1554  Prince  louri  Pronski  descended  the  Volga  with  30,000 
men,  and  established  Derbych,  the  prottgt  of  Russia,  on  the 
throne.  Derbych,  after  a  short  time,  was  accused  of  having  an 
understanding  with  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea;  and  Astrakhan 
was  conquered  a  second  time,  and  finally  united  to  Russia.  The 
Nogais,  who  wandered  over  the  neighboring  steppes,  were 
forced  to  accept  the  Muscovite  protection.  Thus  the  Volga — 
that  famous  river  whose  banks  sustain  so  many  ruined  cities, 
I  til  capital  of  the  Khazars,  Bolgary  capital  of  the  Bulgars,  Sara! 
capital  of  the  Golden  Horde — that  keep  the  memory  of  the 
ancient  races  who  have  vanished  from  history  ;  the  Volga — that 
grand  artery  of  Eastern  commerce — now  flowed  in  the  whole  of 
its  course  from  its  source  to  its  mouth  through  the  land  of  the 
Tzars. 

Persian  Asia  was  thrown  open  to  Russian  influence  by  means 
of  the  Caspian  ;  and  already  the  petty  princes  of  the  Caucasus, 
always  fighting  either  among  themselves  or  with  the  Tatars  ot 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


191 


the  Crimea,  sought  the  alliance  of  the  successors  of  the  Greek 
Caesars.  In  order  to  keep  a  firmer  hold  on  the  Horde  of  the 
Taurid,  Ivan  took  under  his  protection  one  of  the  two  warlike 
republics  which  had  been  formed  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Crimea:  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don  declared  themselves  subjects 
of  Moscow,  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper  remained  Poles. 


WARS  WITH  THE  LIVONIAN  ORDER,  POLAND,  TATARS,  SWEDEN,  AND 
ARISTOCRATIC  RUSSIA. 

Russia,  which  felt  the  growth  of  her  forces,  felt  equally  the 
need  of  throwing  open  the  Baltic  at  the  same  time  as  the  Black 
Sea.  The  Baltic  was  even  the  more  necessary  to  the  Russians, 
as  by  it  only  could  they  communicate  with  Western  Europe,  and 
receive  vessels,  artillery,  and  engineers.  Thence  Muscovy 
awaited  the  increase  of  power  that  civilization  could  alone  give 
her.  Between  Muscovy  and  the  Baltic  lay  more  than  one  enemy  : 
Sweden,  the  Livonian  knights,  Lithuania,  and  Poland.  In  1554 
a  war  broke  out  about  the  rectification  of  the  frontiers  between 
Ivan  the  Terrible  and  the  great  Gustavus  Vasa ;  but  as  the 
founder  of  the  Swedish  dynasty -was  not  supported  by  his  neigh- 
bors, the  war  was  a  short  one.  It  terminated  by  a  commercial 
treaty  which  opened  India  and  China  to  the  Swedish  merchants 
by  way  of  Russia  ;  and  to  those  of  Russia,  Flanders,  England, 
and  France,  by  way  of  Sweden.  Moscow  could  not  yet  commu- 
nicate with  the  West  except  through  a  jealous  intermedi- 
anr. 

Ivan  the  Terrible,  inspired  by  the  same  political  and  civiliz- 
ing ideas  as  Peter  the  Great,  wished  to  "  open  a  window  "  into 
Europe.  For  this  purpose  he  coveted  the  ports  of  the  Narva. 
Revel  and  Riga,  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Livonian  Order, 
against  which  Ivan  had  some  grievances.  About  1547  Ivan  had 
sent  the  Saxon  Schlitte  into  Germany  to  engage  for  him  a  cer- 
tain nun  ber  of  engineers  and  artizans,  and  Schlitte  had  managed 
to  collect  about  a  hundred  people.  The  jealousy  of  the  Germans 
then  awoke  ;  they  feared  that,  as  she  became  civilized,  Russia 
would  also  become  strong.  The  Livonian  Order  demanded  of 
the  Emperor  Charles  VI.  the  right  to  stop  these  strangers  on 
their  road.  None  ever  reached  Moscow.  Ivan,  then  occupied 
with  Kazan,  was  unable  to  avenge  himself;  but  when  in  1554 
the  envoys  of  the  Order  came  to  Moscow  to  solicit  a  renewal  of 
the  truce,  he  summoned  them  to  pay  tribute  for  lourief,  the 
ancient  patrimony  of  the  Russian  princes.  Such  a  demand 
meant  war.  In  1558  the  Russian  army  took  Narva,  Neuhausen, 


,  92  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Dorpat,  and  seventeen  other  places.  The  Grand  Master  Kettlet 
asked  help  of  his  neighbors.  Poland  alone  responded  to  his 
appeal,  and  Sigismond  Augustus  II.  concluded  an  offensive  and 
defensive  alliance  with  the  Livonian  Order. 

At  this  juncture  an  important  revolution  took  place  in  the 
palace  of  the  Tzar.  Ivan's  relations  with  his  two  counsellors 
Silvester  and  Adachef  had  singularly  altered.  They  had  dis- 
agreed with  respect  to  the  war  with  Livonia ;  they  had  desired 
that  after  the  capture  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan  Ivan  should  turn 
in  preference  to  the  third  Mussulman  State,  the  Khanate  of  the 
Crimea.  M.  Kostomarof  gives  excellent  reasons  for  this  pre- 
ference, but  the  reasons  in  favor  of  the  opposite  opinion  are 
not  less  good.  By  conquering  the  Crimea  the  safety  of  the  em- 
pire would  be  secured,  and  the  conversion  to  Islamism,  the  com- 
plete Tatarization  of  the  ancient  Taurian  tribes  still  professing 
Christianity,  would  be  prevented  ;  but  by  conquering  Livonia 
an  ancient  patrimony  of  the  Russian  princes  would  be  recovered 
and  it  would  become  possible  to  enter  into  direct  relations  with 
civilized  Europe.  The  chances  of  success  were  equal.  The 
Horde  was  then  decimated  by  an  epidemic,  but  the  Livonian 
Order  was  in  the  act  of  dissolution  by  the  result  of  the  contest 
between  Catholicism  and  Protestantism.  The  difficulties  were 
equal.  In  attacking  Livonia,  Russia  would  come  in  contact  with 
Sweden,  Denmark,  Poland,  and  Germany ;  but  behind  the  Crimea 
were  the  Turks,  then  at  the  height  of  their  power,  and  much  ir- 
ritated by  the  conquest  of 'Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  Peter  the 
Great  did  not  conquer  Livonia  till  after  twenty  years  hard  fight- 
ing with  the  Powers  of  the  North  ;  but  how  many  Russian  expe- 
ditions against  the  Crimea  have  not  been  stopped  by  the  dis- 
tance, the  difficulty  of  communication,  the  sandy  deserts,  and 
the  extreme  temperatures  ?  Catherine  the  Great  only  conquered 
the  Taurid  in  the  decadence  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  after 
many  campaigns,  when  she  not  only  brought  into  play  her  armies 
of  the  Danube,  but  sent  a  fleet  to  the  Archipelago.  In  reality 
both  enterprises  were  premature  ;  Russia  had  not  yet  strength 
to  carry  them  through.  Neither  the  Tzar  nor  his  counsellors 
were  completely  in  the  right,  but  the  obstinacy  of  the  latter  had 
a  fatal  result.  To  content  everybody  two  wars  were  declared 
— which  was  to  run  the  certain  risk  of  a  double  check. 

The  misunderstanding  between  the  Tzar  and  his  two  minis- 
ters dated  from  further  back  Silvester  abused  his  spiritual  in- 
fluence with  the  Tzar  to  multiply  jobs  of  his  own.  He  had 
ended  by  leaving  him  no  liberty ;  and  when  Ivan's  favorite 
son  died,  he  told  him  brutally  that  it  was  a  chastisement  from 
Heaven  for  his  indocility.  He  had  entered  into  relations  with 


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HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  193 

boyards  whom  Ivan  justly  suspected  ;  he  took  their  part  against 
the  Tzaiina  Anastasia,  whom  he  represented  as  a  second  Em- 
press Eudoxia,  the  persecutor  of  Chrysostom  ;  against  the  Glin- 
skis,  and  against  the  Romanofs.  Adachef  followed  the  same 
path.  Like  Haroun-al-Raschid's  favorites,  the  Barmecides, 
these  two  ministers  had  ended  by  appropriating  all  the  power  of 
their  master.  Ivan  had  patience  with  them,  believing  them  to 
be  faithful  ;  but  in  1553  he  fell  dangerously  ill,  and  was  thought 
to  be  at  the  point  of  death.  Then  the  boyards  resumed  their 
old  arrogance ;  they  obstinately  refused  to  swear  allegiance  to 
the  son  of  the  Tzar,  the  young  Dmitri,  declaring  that  they  would 
not  obey  his  maternal  relations,  the  Romanofs.  The  noisy  dis- 
cussions reached  the  bed  of  the  sick  man,  and  his  entreaties 
were  despised.  The  boyards  approached  Vladimir,  cousin  of 
Ivan  IV.,  who  had  also  refused  to  take  the  oaths,  and  it  was 
known  that  the  mother  of  this  ambitious  prince  was  distributing 
largesses  to  the  army.  Silvester  took  the  part  of  Prince  Vladi- 
mir against  those  boyards  who  remained  faithful,  and  the  family 
of  Adachef  joined  with  the  mutineers.  The  faithful  boyards 
even  feared  for  the  life  of  the  Tzar ;  Ivan  could  not  be  under 
any  delusions  as  to  the  fate  awaiting  his  wife  and  his  son  in  case 
of  his  death. 

"  When  God  shall  have  worked  His  will  on  me,"  said  Ivan 
to  the  few  boyards  gathered  round  him,  "  do  not,  I  pray  you, 
forget  that  you  have  sworn  an  oath  to  my  son  and  to  me  ;  do 
not  let  him  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  boyards ;  fly  with  him  to 
some  strange  land,  whithersoever  God  will  conduct  you.  And 
you,"  he  continued,  addressing  the  Romanofs,  "  wherefore  these 
terrors  ?  Do  you  think  that  the  boyards  will  spare  you  ?  You 
will  fall  the  first :  die  then  rather — since  die  you  must — for  my 
son  and  for  his  mother ;  do  not  abandon  my  wife  to  the  fury  of 
the  boyards."  Ivan  IV.  recovered,  but  he  preserved  a  lasting 
impression  of  these  days  of  anguish.  When  we  see  him,  later 
in  his  reign,  give  himself  up  to  revenge,  and  to  apparently  inex- 
plicable fury,  we  must  think  of  the  terrible  vigils  of  1553,  of  the 
scenes  of  rebellion  and  violence  that  troubled  the  peace  of  his 
sick  chamber,  of  the  obstinate  refusals  to  take  the  desired  vow 
of  the  delcarations  of  hatred  against  the  Tzarina  and  her  rela- 
tions, and  of  the  intrigues  woven  round  Vladimir  against  the 
Tzarevitch  Dmitri. 

He  had  no  more  confidence  in  his  favorites ;  both  were  ban- 
ished from  the  Court.  Silvester  retired  to  the  monastery  of 
Saint  Cyril,  and  was  afterwards  exiled  to  Solovetski.  Adachef 
was  appointed  voi'evode  at  Fellin  in  Livonia,  and  later  was 
forced  to  live  at  Dorpat.  But  they  left  behind  them  a  complete 


,94  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  JtUSSfA. 

administration,  a  perfect  army  of  clients.  They  had  peopled 
the  Court,  the  governments,  and  the  volevodies  with  their  creat- 
ures. Their  partisans  were  certain  to  agitate  and  plot  for  the 
return  of  their  chiefs.  Who  knew  how  far  these  plots  might 
go  ?  A  short  time  after  Adachef's  disgrace,  that  Anastasia 
whom  he  detested  died  suddenly.  Ivan  alleged  that  she  was 
poisoned.  Since  the  publication  <  f  M.  Zabie'line's  careful 
studies  on  the  '  Private  Life  of  the  Tzarinas  of  Russia,'  this 
.••'Ration  and  others  like  it  do  not  appear  as  inconceivable  as 
tiiey  seemed  to  Karamsin.  The  intrigues  of  the  friends  of 
Adachef  forced  Ivan  IV.  many  times  to  have  recourse  to  severity, 
but  at  this  epoch  he  was  comparatively  merciful. 

"  When  the  treachery  of  that  dog  Alexis  Adachef  and  his  ac- 
complices was  discovered,"  Ivan  afterwards  writes,  "  we  let  our 
anger  be  tempered  with  mercy ;  we  did  not  condemn  the  guilty 
to  capital  punishments,  but  only  banished  them  to  our  different 
towns Then  we  put  no  one  to  death.  Those  who  be- 
longed to  the  party  of  Silvester  and  Adachef  we  commanded  to 
separate  from  them,  and  no  longer  to  recognize  them  as  chiefs. 
This  promise  we  made  them  confirm  by  a  vow,  but  they  paid  no 
heed  to  our  injunction,  and  trampled  their  oath  under  foot.  Not 
only  did  they  not  separate  from  the  traitors,  but  they  aided  them 
by  all  possible  means,  and  schemed  to  render  them  back  their 
ancient  power,  and  to  set  on  foot  against  us  a  perfidious  plot. 
Then  only,  seeing  their  wicked  obstinacy  and  unconquerable 
spirit  of  rebellion,  I  inflicted  on  the  guilty  the  penalty  of  their 
faults."  Capital  punishment  was  indeed  rare  at  this  epoch. 
Ivan  usually  contented  himself  with  demanding  a  fresh  oath  from 
those  who  were  arrested  on  the  road  to  Lithuania,  and  exacted 
surety  from  them  and  their  friends  that  they  would  not  s-^ek 
again  to  pass  into  Poland.  Sometimes  he  condemned  them  to 
the  easy  durance  of  the  monasteries. 

What  finally  decided  the  Tzar  to  be  more  severe  in  his  treai 
ment  was  the  defection  of  Prince  Andrew  Kouib.sk i,  who  be- 
longed to  a  family  once  royal,  and  descended  from  Rurik.  He 
had  distinguished  himself  against  the  Tatars  on  the  Oka  and  at 
Kazan,  and,  being  a  zealous  partizan  of  Adachef  and  Silvester, 
he  was  deeply  irritated  by  their  fall.  Nominated  general-in- 
chief  of  the  army  in  Livonia,  his  carelessness  allowed  the  Rus- 
sians to  suffer  a  shameful  defeat.  15,000  Russians  were  beaten 
by  4000  Poles ;  and  even,  if  the  Polish  historian  Martin  Belski 
is  to  be  believed,  40,000  Russians  by  1500  Poles.  Kourbski 
had  reason  to  fear  the  anger  of  the  Tzar.  He  had  been  for 
some  time  negotiating  with  the  King  of  Poland,  being  desirous 
of  otiaining  in  Lithuania  a  command,  lands,  and  advantages 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'95 


equal  to  those  he  would  lose.  At  last,  abandoning  his  wife  and 
children  to  the  vengeance  of  the  Tzar,  he  left  Wenden  and 
crossed  into  the  Polish  camp.  Thence  he  sent  to  Ivan  a  letter 
by  his  servant  Chipanof,  whose  foot,  according  to  the  tradition, 
Ivan  nailed  with  his  iron  staff  on  to  a  step  of  the  red  staircase, 
while  the  message  was  being  read  to  him. 

"Tzar  formerly  glorified  by  God  !  "  wrote  Kourbski,  "  Tzar 
who  formerly  shone  like  the  torch  of  orthodoxy,  but  who,  for 
our  sins,  art  now  revealed  to  us  in  quite  a  different  aspect,  with 
a  soiled  and  leprous  conscience,  such  as  we  could  not  find  even 
among  barbarian  infidels  !  Exposed  to  thy  cruel  persecution, 
with  a  heart  filled  with  bitterness,  I  wish  notwithstanding  to  say 
a  few  words  to  you.  O  Tzar,  why  hast  thou  put  to  death  the 
strong  ones  of  Israel  ?  Why  hast  thou  slain  the  valiant  vo'ie- 
vodes  given  thee  by  God  ?  Why  hast  thou  shed  their  victorious 
blood,  their  only  blood  on  the  profaned  pavement  of  the  churches 
of  God,  during  the  sacred  ceremonies  ?  Why  hast  thou  red- 
dened the  porch  of  the  temple  with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  ? 
In  what  were  they  guilty  towards  thee,  O  Tzar  ?  Was  it  not 
their  valor  which  overthrew,  which  laid  at  thy  feet,  those 
proud  kingdoms  of  the  Volga,  before  which  thine  ancestors 
were  slaves  ?  Is  it  not  their  zeal,  their  intelligence,  to  which, 
after  God,  thou  owest  the  strong  towns  of  the  Germans  ?  And 
behold  thy  gratitude  to  these  unhappy  ones  !  Thou  hast  exter- 
minated whole  families  amongst  us.  Dost  thou  think  thyself 
then  immortal,  O  Tzar  ?  or  dost  thou  think  (seduced  by  some 
heresy)  that  thou  canst  escape  the  incorruptible  Judge,  Jesus 
our  God  ?  No  ;  He  will  judge  the  whole  world,  and  chiefly  such 
proud  persecutors  as  thou  art.  My  blood,  which  has  already 
flowed  for  thee  like  water,  will  cry  against  thee  to  our  Lord. 
God  sees  all  consciences  !  "  Kourbski  then  invokes  the  victims 
of  Ivan,  and  shows  them  standing  before  the  throne  of  God,  de- 
manding justice  against  their  executioner.  "  Is  it  that  in  thy 
pride  thou  trustest  in  thy  legions  to  keep  thee  in  this  ephemeral 
life,  inventing  against  the  human  race  new  engines  of  torture 
to  tear  and  disfigure  the  body  of  man,  the  image  of  the  angels  ? 
Dost  thou  reckon  on  thy  servile  flatterers,  on  thy  boon  com- 
panions, on  thy  turbulent  boyards,  who  make  thee  lose  thy  soul 
and  body,  entice  thee  to  the  debaucheries  of  Venus,  and  sacri- 
fice their  children  to  the  vile  rites  worthy  of  Saturn  ?  When  my 
last  day  comes,  I  wish  that  this  letter,  watered  with  my  tears, 
should  be  placed  on  my  coffin."  He  ended  by  declaring  him- 
self a  subject  of  Sigismond  Augustus,  "my  sovereign,  who,  I 
hope,  will  load  me  with  favors  and  consolations  for  my  misfor- 
tunes." Thus  Kourbski  spoke  "  in  the  name  of  tha  strong  ones 


,  gg  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

of  Israel,  of  the  living  and  the  dead,"  that  is,  in  the  name  of  all 
the  friends  of  Adachef ;  he  made  himself  the  organ  of  their 
wrath  and  complaints  ;  he  formulated  their  grievances,  and  ex- 
aggerated them ;  he  demanded  an  account  of  the  Tzar  of  his 
conduct  towards  them,  threatening  him  with  a  higher  tribunal, 
and  dared  to  ask  if  he  thought  himself  immortal ;  he  refused 
Ivan  all  participation  in  the  glory  acquired  at  Kazan,  insulted 
the  boyards  who  surrounded  him,  and  boasted  of  the  crime 
which  was  the  most  unpardonable  in  the  eyes  of  the  Tzar — the 
recognition  of  the  Polish  sovereignty. 

Kourbski's  letter  was  a  manifesto.  It  helped  to  irritate  the 
suspicions  of  the  Tzar,  already  only  too  disposed  to  imagine 
plots.  Ivan,  who  thought  himself  a  man  of  letters,  and  was 
really  one  of  the  most  learned  men  in  his  empire,  conceived  it 
necessary  to  answer  the  letter  of  Kourbski  with  a  long  vindica- 
tion, adorned  with  quotations  from  sacred  and  profane  authors. 
The  Tzar  and  his  rebel  subject  exchanged  many  epistles  of  this 
kind.  Ivan,  who  had  begun  by  this  time  to  justify  his  surname 
of  Terrible,  gave,  besides,  another  answer  to  Kourbski's  mani- 
festo— the  punishment  of  his  supposed  accomplices. 

Ivan  felt  that  he  could  no  longer  govern  with  a  Court,  a 
council  of  state  (douma),  and  an  administration  which  were  filled 
with  the  friends  of  Adachef  and  Kourbski.  Kourbski's  conduct 
shows  to  what  depths  of  treason  their  rancor  cculd  bring  them. 
He  was  to  return  to  devastate  Russia  with  a  Polish  army  !  Was 
the  life  of  the  Tzar  safe  in  the  midst  of  such  men  ?  In  Decem- 
ber 1564  Ivan  quitted  Moscow  with  all  his  friends,  servants,  and 
treasures,  and  retired  to  the  Slobode  Alexandrof.  He  then  wrote 
two  letters  to  Moscow — one  to  the  Archbishop,  complaining  of  the 
plots  and  infidelity  of  the  nobles,  and  the  complicity  of  the  clergy, 
who,  abusing  the  rig/it  of  intercession,  prevented  the  sovereign 
from  punishing  the  guilty  ;  in  the  other  he  reassured  the  citizens 
and  people  of  Moscow,  by  informing  them  that  they  were  not 
included  in  his  censure.  The  terror  of  the  capital  was  great ; 
the  people  trembled  at  the  thought  of  falling  again  under  the 
government  of  the  oligarchs  ;  the  boyards  feared  what  the  people 
might  do  to  them.  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  could  resign 
themselves  to  the  anger  of  the  sovereign.  The  boyards  and  the 
clergy  resolved  to  ask  pardon,  and,  if  necessary,  to  "  carry  their 
heads  "  to  the  Tzar.  They  went  in  procession  to  the  Slobode 
Alexandrof,  to  beseech  him  to  recall  his  abdication.  Ivan  con- 
sented to  resume  the  crown,  but  on  his  own  conditions.  As  he 
could  neither  govern  with  the  actual  administration  nor  destroy 
it,  as  he  was  forced  to  respect  its  vested  interests,  he  made  a 
sort  of  partition  of  the  monarchy.  The  greater  part  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


197 


empire  continued  to  be  governed  by  the  douma  of  the  boyards, 
and  constituted  the  zemchtchira,  that  is,  the  "  rule  of  the  country." 
Over  this  part  of  Russia  Ivan  only  reserved  a  surveillance,  and 
the  right  of  punishing  treason.  The  other  part  was  placed  under 
the  "  personal  and  individual "  government  of  the  Tzar,  and 
formed  the  "  opritchnina"  Leaving  the  ancient  Court,  the  an- 
cient douma,  and  the  ancient  administration  still  in  existence,  Ivan 
IV.  formed  with  his  own  creatures  a  new  Court,  a  new  council,  and 
a  new  administration  to  which  he  confided  the  towns  and  villages 
that  had  fallen  to  his  share.  He  surrounded  himself  with  a 
special  guard,  called  "  the  thousand  of  the  Tzar,"  or  the  opritchniki 
who  had  adopted,  as  armes parlantes,  a  dog's  head,  and  a  broom 
suspended  from  their  saddles.  They  were  ready  to  bite  the 
enemies  of  the  Tzar,  and  to  sweep  treason  off  the  Russian  soil. 
This  singular  regime  lasted  seven  years  (1565-1572). 

Ivan  made  great  use  of  his  right  to  punish  traitors,  or  those 
whom  he  regarded  as  such.  A  perfect  reign  of  terror  hung  over 
the  Russian  aristocracy, with  alternations  of  calm  and  renewed  fury. 
We  know  the  names  of  his  victims,  but  we  do  not  always  know 
their  crimes.  The  writers  hostile  to  Ivan  IV.,  Kourbski,  the  Italian 
Guagnini,  then  in  the  service  of  the  King  of  Poland,  and  the 
German  refugees  Taube  and  Kruse,  are  not  always  agreed  on 
the  subject. 

About  the  facts  which  can  be  clearly  proved,  we  can  see  that 
Ivan  had  real  grievances  against  the  nobles  whom  he  put  to 
death.  On  the  side  of  the  oligarchs  the  strife,  though  quiet  and 
noiseless,  was  not  less  bloody.  We  ought  not  to  be  deceived 
by  their  demonstrations  of  humility  and  submission  With  their 
foreheads  in  the  dust,  they  could  still  conspire.  We  must  beware 
of  thinking  Ivan's  enemies  were  any  better  than  himself.  They 
were  as  cruel  towards  their  inferiors  as  the  Tzar  was  towards 
them.  This  aristocracy  of  slave-masters,  habituated  under  the 
Tatar  yoke  to  an  insolent  disdain  of  human  life  and  feeling,  was 
not  superior  in  morality  to  its  tyrant.  It  presented  more  than 
one  type  similar  to  the  French  monsters  Gilles  de  Retz  and  the 
Sieur  de  Giac.  Under  very  different  colors,  it  was  the  same 
battle  that  raged  in  Russia  and  in  France.  But  in  France  men 
fought  in  open  day  on  the  battle-fields  of  the  Praguerie  or  of  the 
League  of  the  Public  Good ;  in  Russia  the  contest  was  carried 
on  by  silent  plots,  by  noiseless  attempts  to  poison  or  slay  by 
magic,  met  by  the  axe  of  the  executioner.  In  this  sinister  dia- 
logue between  the  master  and  his  subjects,  it  was  naturally  the 
master  who  spoke  the  loudest.  In  the  absence  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  authentic  documents,  we  risk  nothing  by  being  a 
little  more  sceptical  than  Karamsin. 


, ^  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  principal  episodes  of  this  autocratic  reign  of  terror  are 
i.  The  deposition  and  perhaps  the  murder  of  St.  Philip,  Arch 
bishop  of  Moscow,  guilty  of  having  nobly  interceded  for  the  con 
demned,  and  of  hating  the  oprilchniki.  2.  The  execution  ol 
Alexandra,  widow  of  Iroui  and  sister-in-law  of  Ivan  ;  of  Prince 
Vladimir  and  his  mother,  the  ambitious  Euphrosyne,  who  thus 
expiated  their  intrigues  of  1553.  We  must  remark  that  Ivan, 
whatever  Kourbski  may  say,  spared  Vladimir's  children,  and 
largely  provided  for  them.  3.  The  chastisement  of  Novgorod, 
where  the  aristocratic  party  had  entertained,  it  seemed  to  Ivan, 
the  project  of  opening  the  gates  to  the  King  of  Poland,  and 
where  the  Tzar,  according  to  his  own  testimony,  put  to  death 
1505  persons.  4.  The  great  execution  in  the  Red  Place  in  1571, 
where  a  certain  number  of  Muscovites  and  Novgorodians  were 
slain,  and  where  many  of  Ivan's  new  favorites,  notably  Viazemski 
and  the  Basmanofs,  underwent  the  same  penalty  as  his  old 
enemies. 

A  curious  memorial  has  been  left  us  of  the  vengeance  of 
"  the  Terrible  "  ;  it  is  the  synodical  letter  of  the  Monastery  of 
St.  Cyril,  in  which  Ivan  asks  for  each  of  his  victims  by  name  the 
prayers  of  the  Church.  This  list  shows  a  total  of  3470  victims, 
of  whom  986  are  mentioned  by  name.  Many  of  these  names 
are  followed  by  this  sinister  statement, — "  with  his  wife,"  "  with 
his  wife  and  children,"  '•  with  his  daughters,"  "  with  his  sons." 
It  was  this  that  Kourbski  called  "  the  extermination  of  entire 
families  "  (psiorodnd).  The  constitution  of  the  Russian  family 
at  this  epoch  was  so  strong,  that  the  death  of  the  head  necessarily 
involved  that  of  the  other  members.  Other  collective  indica- 
tions are  not  less  significant.  For  example  :  "  Kazarine  Dou- 
brovski  and  his  two  sons,  with  ten  men  who  came  to  their  help." 
"  Twenty  men  of  the  village  of  Kolmenskoe' ;  "  "eighty  of  Mat- 
veiche' ; "  these  were  no  doubt  peasants  and  dieti-boyarskie  who 
tried  to  defend  their  masters.  There  is  this  mention  relative  to 
Novgorod  :  "  Remember,  Lord,  the  souls  of  thy  servants,  to  the 
number  of  1505  persons,  Novgorodians."  Had  not  Louis  XI. 
tender  feelings  of  this  nature?  He  prayed  with  fervor  for  the 
soul  of  his  brother,  the  Duke  de  Berri. 

Other  records  demonstrate  that  Ivan  the  Terrible  thought  he 
had  serious  reasons  to  fear  for  his  life.  His  curious  corre- 
spondence with  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England  proves  this,  as  he 
obtains  of  her  the  formal  promise  that  in  case  of  misfortune  he 
is  to  find  in  England  a  safe  asylum  and  the  free  exercise  of  his 
worship  (1570).  There  is  besides  his  will  of  1572,  which  con- 
templates the  case  of  his  being  "  proscribed  by  his  boyards  and 
expelled  by  them  from  the  throne,  and  being  obliged  to  wander 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


199 


from  country  to  country,"  and  recommends  to  his  sons  to  live 
on  good  terms  with  each  other  after  his  death,  to  learn  how  to 
restrain  and  reward  their  subjects,  and  above  all  to  be  on  tht 
watch  against  them. 

During  this  terrible  intestine  strife,  the  war  with  Livonia 
and  her  ally  the  King  of  Poland  continued.  Notwithstanding 
the  help  of  the  latter,  the  Knights  were  everywhere  beaten,  and 
their  fortresses  taken  by  the  Russian  troops. 

At  last,  ruined  by  so  many  blows,  this  famous  Order  dis- 
solved. The  Isle  of  CEsel  sold  itself  to  Denmark  ;  Revel  gave 
itself  to  the  Swedes ;  Livonia  was  ceded  by  the  Grand  Master 
to  Poland ;  Kettler  reserved  to  himself  Courland  and  Semigallia, 
which  were  erected  into  a  hereditary  duchy.  There  were  no 
more  Livonian  knights,  but  Poland,  as  heir  of  the  quarrels  of 
Livonia,  became  more  than  ever  ardent  in  the  struggle.  The 
Russians  sustained  their  new  reputation.  In  1563  Ivan  the 
Terrible,  with  a  numerous  army  and  many  guns,  besieged  and 
took  Polotsk,  a  very  important  position  from  its  proximity  to 
Livonia  and  its  situation  on  the  Dwina,  the  grand  commercial 
route  to  Riga.  In  spite  of  a  victory  at  Orcha,  the  King  of  Po- 
land demanded  a  truce  (1566). 

Ivan  at  this  moment  offered  a  strange  spectacle  to  Russia. 
To  deliberate  on  the  request  of  Sigismond  he  assembled  a  coun- 
sel, composed  of  the  higher  clergy,  the  territorial  boyards  on 
the  frontiers  of  Lithuania  (and  well  acquainted  with  the  local 
topography),  and  finally  the  merchants  of  Moscow  and  Smo- 
lensk. This  despot,  who  founded  autocracy  in  blood,  convoked 
real  States-general ;  he  made  an  appeal  to  their  opinion,  as  he 
had  many  times  before,  when  from  the  stone  tribune  of  Lobnoe 
miesto  he  harangued  the  three  orders.  The  Assembly  decided 
that  the  King  of  Poland's  conditions  could  not  be  accepted,  and 
offered  men  and  money  for  the  continuation  of  the  war.  This 
was  prolonged  for  four  years,  and  ended  in  a  truce.  The  Tzar, 
who  saw  difficulties  accumulating  in  Livonia,  conceived  an  ex- 
pedient to  enable  him  to  escape  them.  No  longer  hoping  to  be 
able  directly  to  unite  the  Baltic  ports  to  his  empire,  he  offered 
the  title  of  King  of  Livonia  to  the  Danish  Prince  Magnus,  and 
made  him  marry  a  daughter  of  the  same  Prince  Vladimir  whom 
he  had  put  to  death.  Magnus,  nominal  King  of  Livonia,  soon 
perceived  that  he  was  only  an  instrument  of  Muscovite  policy. 
He  intrigued  against  the  Tzar  and  was  dethroned,  Ivan  the 
Terrible  took  Wenden  in  person,  which  Magnus  had  garrisoned, 
and  massacred  the  German  soldiers  to  the  last  man. 

Unfortunately  the  war  with  Poland  was  complicated  by  the 
raids  of  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea.  Sigismond  did  not  cease  to 


2  00  HIS  TOR  Y  01-  RUSSIA. 

work  upon  the  Khan,  who  well  understood  that  his  cause  was 
allied  with  that  of  Poland.  The  Tzar,  however,  overpowered 
the  Khan,  took  Kief,  and  established  towns  on  the  Dnieper. 
And  what  could  the  Tatars  gain  there,  after  all  ?  Had  not  Ivan 
overthrown  two  Mongol  kingdoms  ?  The  Sultan  of  Stamboul, 
Selim  II.,  was  ready  to  join  in  the  Holy  War  for  Kazan  and 
Astrakhan.  In  1569,  17,000  Turks,  commanded  by  Kassim 
Pacha,  and  50,000  Tatars,  led  by  the  Khan,  besieged  Astrakhan. 
The  operations  dragged  on  ;  the  Pacha  wished  to  pass  the 
winter  there,  but  a  sedition  broke  out  in  the  army.  He  was 
obliged  to  raise  the  siege,  and  lost  many  of  his  men  in  the 
steppes  of  the  desert.  Two  years  after,  the  Khan  Devlet- 
Ghirei  invaded  Russia  with  20,000  men.  Was  he  aided  by  the 
treachery  of  the  volevodes  ?  He  crossed  the  Oka,  and  suddenly 
appeared  under  the  walls  of  Moscow.  He  burned  the  faubourgs 
and  the  fire  spread  to  the  town,  which,  except  the  Kremlin,  was 
completely  reduced  to  ashes.  A  foreign  author  gives  the  evi- 
dently exaggerated  number  of  800,000  victims.  The  Khan  retired 
with  more  than  100,000  prisoners,  and  despatched  the  following 
insolent  message  to  Ivan  :  "  I  burn,  I  ravage  everything  because 
of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  I  came  to  you  and  I  burnt  Moscow. 
I  wished  to  have  your  crown  and  your  head,  but  you  did  not 
show  yourself ;  you  declined  a  battle,  and  you  dare  to  call  your- 
self a  Tzar  of  Moscow.  Will  you  live  at  peace  with  me  ?  Yield 
me  up  Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  If  you  have  only  money  to  offer 
me,  it  would  be  useless,  were  it  the  riches  of  the  whole  world. 
What  I  want  is  Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  As  to  the  roads  to  your 
empire,  I  have  seen  them — I  know  them."  He  returned  the 
following  year  (1572),  but  Prince  Michael  Vorotinski  met  him 
on  the  banks  of  the  Lopasnia,  and  inflicted  on  him  a  complete 
defeat. 

The  same  year  (that  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew) 
died  Sigismond  Augustus  II.,  king  of  Poland.  His  reign  was 
especially  memorable  for  the  union  of  Lublin  (1569),  in  virtue  of 
"ivhich  Poland  and  Lithuania  were  henceforth  to  form  only  one 
State  under  an  elective  prince.  Thus  Poland  enfeebled  royal 
power  at  home,  just  when  it  acquired  in  Russia  an  extraordinary 
degree  of  energy.  A  party  of  nobles  was  formed  at  Warsaw  who 
wished  to  elect  the  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  as  King  of  Poland. 
This  was  to  prepare  for  the  reunion  of  the  two  great  Slav  em- 
pires, separated  less  by  language  than  religion,  whose  growing 
antagonism  could  only  terminate  in  the  ruin  of  one  of  them,  to 
the  great  advantage  of  the  German  race.  Ivan  coveted  the 
crown,  not  for  his  son,  but  for  himself.  Let  us  see  him  court 
*he  Polish  ambassadors,  and  try  to  defend  himself  against  the 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2OI 

accusations  of  cruelty  and  tyranny  which  the  banished  Musco 
vites  brought  against  him. 

"  If  your /aw,  who  are  now  without  a  king,"  said  he  to  the 
Polish  envoy  Voropai,  "  desire  me  for  their  sovereign,  they  will 
see  what  a  good  protector  and  kind  master  they  will  find  in  me. 
Many  among  you  say  that  I  am  cruel.  It  is  true  that  I  am  cruel 
and  irascible — I  do  not  deny  it ;  but  to  whom,  I  ask  you,  am  I 
cruel  ?  I  am  cruel  towards  anyone  that  is  cruel  to  me.  The 
good !  ah,  I  would  give  them  in  a  moment  the  chain  and  the 
robe  that  I  wear  !  It  is  nothing  wonderful  that  your  princes 
love  their  subjects,  if  their  subjects  love  them.  Mine  have  de- 
livered me  over  to  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea.  My  vo'ievodes  did 
not  even  warn  me  of  the  arrival  of  the  enemy.  Perhaps  it  was 
difficult  for  them  to  vanquish  a  force  so  superior  to  them  in  num- 
bers ;  but  even  if  they  had  lost  some  thousands  of  men,  and 
only  brought  me  a  whip  or  a  cane  of  the  Tatars,  I  should  have 
been  grateful.  Think  of  the  enormity  of  their  treason  towards 
me.  If  some  of  them  were  afterwards  chastised,  it  was  for  their 
crimes  they  were  punished.  I  ask  you — do  you  spare  traitors  ?  " 
Ivan  then  spoke  of  his  grievances  against  Kourbski,  and  ended 
by  promising  "  to  observe  the  laws,  to  respect  and  even  to  ex- 
tend the  liberties  and  franchises  of  Poland." 

The  ambassador  of  France  at  Warsaw  finally  carried  the  day, 
and  Henri  de  Valois,  due  d'Anjou,  was  proclaimed  king.  He 
did  not  stay  long  in  Poland,  and,  after  his  flight  to  the  West,  a 
new  Diet  assembled,  and  the  intrigues  of  the  rival  Courts  began 
again. 

Stephen  Batory,  voi'evode  of  Transylvania,  was  elected  king. 
He  was  a  young,  ambitious,  and  energetic  prince,  and  no  more 
formidable  enemy  to  Ivan  the  Terrible  in  his  old  age  could  have 
been  chosen.  It  was  now  not  only  a  question  of  the  conquest 
of  Livonia  which  was  pursued  so  laboriously  in  the  face  of  so 
many  obstacles,  but,  in  placing  the  crown  on  his  head,  Batory 
had  sworn  to  give  back  to  Poland  the  towns  conquered  from 
her  by  the  Muscovite  pri  ices.  It  was  now  a  contest  between 
the  semi-barbarous  army  of  Russia,  her  almost  feudal  soldiery, 
her  Tatar  cavalry,  her  tactics  of  routine,  and  her  feeble  artillery, 
and  a  really  European  army,  a  well-directed  artillery,  compact 
regiments  of  German  mercenaries,  and  Hungarian  veterans,  sea- 
~oned  by  many  combats.  Ivan  awaited  his  enemy  in  Livonia, 
when  suddenly  Batory  appeared  before  Polotsk  and  took  it,  in 
spite  of  a  vigorous  resistance.  The  Russian  gunners  hung 
themselves  by  their  guns  in  despair.  This  and  the  following 
years  were  marked  by  the  capture  of  many  Russian  fortresses. 
Batory,  the  hero  of  the  North— the  Charles  XII.  of  the  century 


202  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

of  Ivan  the  Terrible — seemed  ready  to  annihilate  the  work  of  a 
long  reign,  and  to  check  the  first  effort  of  Russia  to  escape  from 
a  stale  of  barbarism.  The  Swedes  on  their  side,  commanded 
by  De  la  Gardie,  took  Kexholm  in  Carelia,  and  invaded 
Esthonia.  Old  Pskovian  and  Novgorodian  Russia  was  invaded. 
In  1581  Batory  besieged  Pskof,  whilst  De  la  Gardie  captured 
Narva,  Ivangorod,  Iain,  and  Koporie.  But  Pskot  marked  the 
limit  of  Batory's  successes.  This  little  town  was  defended 
with  so  much  energy  by  Ivan  Choui'ski,  that,  after  a  three 
months'  siege  and  many  assaults,  Poles  and  Hungarians  had  to 
confess  themselves  vanquished. 

Ivan  had  ceased  to  appear  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  thinking 
that  a  prince  who  is  not  sure  of  his  peers  would  be  foolish  if  he 
risked  himself  in  a  battle  ;  a  conclusion  to  which  Louis  XI.  had 
come  at  Montlhe'ry.  There  still  remained  diplomacy  to  direct. 
Threatened  by  Batory,  he  had  recourse  to  an  expedient.  He 
implored  the  mediation  of  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  between  the 
Catholic  king  and  himself  The  Pontiff  sent  to  Moscow  the 
Jesuit  Antonio  Possevino,  with  orders  at  the  same  time  to  nego- 
tiate the  union  with  the  two  Churches.  The  account  of  Posse- 
vino  shows  us  Ivan  the  Terrible  in  his  true  colors ;  almost  free- 
thinking,  curious,  and  sometimes  humorous,  with  ideas  of  toler- 
ance remarkable  for  his  time.  If  the  Pope's  envoy  failed  in  the 
religious  part  of  his  mission,  he  at  least  succeeded  in  concluding 
a  truce  between  the  two  sovereigns,  by  which  Ivan  had  to  cede 
Polotsk  and  all  Livonia.  This  bold  enterprise  for  opening  the 
Baltic  Sea,  which  preceded  by  150  years  that  of  Peter  the  Great, 
had  fallen  miserably  to  the  ground.  The  fruit  of  thirty  years' 
efforts  and  sacrifices  was  lost  (1582). 


THE   ENGLISH   IN   RUSSIA — CONQUEST  OF   SIBERIA. 

Writers  hostile  to  Ivan  love  to  contrast  the  end  of  his  reign 
— his  personal  government — with  his  early  years,  when  Silvester 
and  Adachef  were  in  power.  I  n  the  first  period  there  was  noth- 
ing but  success  ;  Kazan  and  Astrakhan  were  conquered.  In 
the  second  period  the  Russians  were  vanquished  by  the  Poles 
and  Swedes  ;  were  expelled  from  Livonia ;  they  lost  Polotsk, 
and  saw  Moscow  burnt  by  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea.  The  mean- 
ing of  these  facts  really  is  that  the  Russian  arms  were  triuin- 
phant  in  the  East  against  barbarians  ignorant  of  the  military  art, 
and  unfortunate  in  the  West,  where  they  had  to  contend  with 
the  artillery,  the  tactics,  the  discipline,  and  the  troops  of  Europo. 
Ivan  needed  more  wit  to  be  defeated  as  he  was  in  Livonia, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


203 


to  win  as  he  did  in  Kazan.  It  is  no  dishonor  for  the  Russia  of 
the  i6th  century  to  have  failed  in  this  great  undertaking,  since 
Peter,  with  all  his  geniu^  spent  twenty-five  years  in  the  same 
task.  This  unlucky  period  of  the  reign  of  Ivan  \vas  not  without 
fruit  for  the  grandeur  and  civilization  of  Russia.  The  Germans 
closed  to  her  the  Bailie,  the  English  opened  for  her  the  White 
Sea. 

Under  Edward  VI.  a  company  of  merchant  venturers  was 
formed  for  the  discovery  of  "  regions,  kingdoms,  islands,  and 
places  unknown  and  unvisited  by  the  highway  of  the  sea." 
Sebastian  Cabot,  chief  pilot  of  England,  was  nominated  governor 
for  life.  Three  vessels,  under  the  command  of  Sir  Hugh  Wil« 
loughby  and  Chancellor,  set  sail  towards  the  north-east,  towards 
that  strange  sea  spoken  of  by  Tacitus — "  a  sluggish  mere  and 
motionless — which  forms  the  girdle  of  the  world,  where  you 
hear  the  sound  of  sun-rising ! "  That  sea  must  lead,  men 
thought,  to  China.  On  the  coasts  of  Scandinavia  near  Varde- 
huus,  a  frightful  tempest  arose  and  dispersed  the  squadron. 
Willotighby  disappeared  with  the  '  Buona  Speranza '  and  the 
'  Buona  Confidenza.'  Some  fishermen  afterwards  found  the  two 
ships  in  a  bay  of  the  White  Sea,  where  they  had  been  nipped  by 
the  ice,  and  all  the  sailors  who  manned  them  were  dead  of 
cold  and  hunger.  Chancellor,  with  the  '  Edward  Bonaventura,' 
succeeded  in  doubling  Laponia  and  the  Holy  Cape,  penetrated 
first  into  an  unknown  sea,  and  then  into  the  mouth  of  a  river, 
near  which  was  a  monastery.  The  sea  was  the  White  Sea,  the 
river  the  Dwina,  the  monastery  that  of  St.  Nicholas.  Chancel- 
lor learned  with  astonishment  that  he  was  on  the  territory  of  the 
Tzar  of  Moscow  ;  he  had  found  Russia  beneath  the  North  Pole 
(1553).  Further  off  was  the  monastery  of  St.  Michael,  near 
which  was  afterwards  to  be  built  in  this  desert,  chiefly  thanks 
to  the  English,  the  commercial  city  of  St.  Michael  the  Archangel, 
or,  more  shortly,  Arkhangel.  Chancellor  at  once  left  for  Mos- 
cow, and  delivered  to  Ivan  the  Terrible  the  letters  which  Ed- 
ward VI.,  not  knowing  where  his  subjects  might  land,  had  ad- 
dressed vaguely  "  to  all  the  princes  and  lords,  to  all  the  judges 
of  the  earth,  to  their  officers,  to  whoever  possesses  any  high 
authority  in  all  the  regions  under  the  vast  sky."  Ivan  IV. 
admitted  the  English  "  to  see  his  majesty  and  his  eyes,"  feasted 
them  in  the  Golden  Palace,  and  gave  them  a  letter  for  their 
king,  in  which  he  authorized  the  English  to  trade  with  his  domin- 
ions, and  made  them  promise  to  send  ships  to  the  Dwina. 

Mary  Tudor  succeeded  her  brother,  and  shared  the.  throne  with 
her  Spanish  husband,  Philip  II.  They  confirmed  the  privileges 
of  the  company  of  merchant  venturers,  and  in  1556  Chancellor 


204 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


accompanied  by  Richard  Gray  and  George  Killingworth,  again 
set  sail  for  the  mouth  of  the  Dwina,  and  arrived  successfully  at 
Moscow.  This  time  they  obtained  from  the  Tzar  letters-patent 
formally  authorizing  the  members  of  the  company  to  establish 
themselves  at  Kholmogory  and  at  Vologda,  and  to  trade  east 
and  west.  During  this  lime  Stephen  Burroughs,  in  the  '  Search- 
thrift,'  navigated  the  east,  gained  the  shores  of  the  country  of 
the  Samoyedes,  touched  on  the  islands  of  Nova  Zembla  and 
Vaigatz,  and  was  only  checked  by  the  approach  of  the  dark  Po- 
lar winter. 

Chancellor's  two  vessels — the  '  Edward  Bonaventura '  and 
the  '  Philip  and  Mary  ' — which  had  discovered  the  missing  ships 
of  Willoughby,  departed  for  England.  The  former  had  on  board 
Osip  Nepei,  governor  of  Vologda,  the  first  Russian  ambassador 
that  had  been  seen  in  England,  accompanied  by  a  suite  of  six- 
teen Russians,  and  carrying  a  letter  and  presents  from  Ivan 
IV.  A  tempest  scattered  the  fleet,  sent  the  '  Philip  and  Mary  ' 
as  far  as  the  coast  of  Norway,  sunk  the  '  Speranza '  and  the 
'  Confidenza,'  and  threw  the  'Bonaventura  '  on  the  inhospitable 
rocks  of  Inverness.  Chancellor  succeeded  in  saving  the  Rus- 
sian envoy,  but  perished  himself  with  his  son  and  nearly  all  the 
crew.  The  cargo  and  the  presents  of  the  Tzar  were  plundered 
by  the  savage  natives  of  the  country. 

Twelve  miles  from  London  Osip  Nepei  was  received  by 
eighty  merchants  of  the  company,  mounted  on  magnificent 
horses,  and  adorned  with  heavy  chains  of  gold.  He  now  be- 
came acquainted  with  "  all  the  solid  respectability  of  old  Eng- 
land." His  cortege  was  increased  by  new  squadrons  of  mer- 
chants and  gentlemen  as  they  approached  the  town,  and  he  made 
his  triumphal  entry  on  February  the  28th  1557.  Harangued  by 
the  Lord  Mayor,  received  by  the  Queen  and  the  King,  feasted 
by  the  corporation  of  drapers  he  departed  for  Russia  with  letters- 
patent  according  to  Russian  merchants  in  England  a  reciprocity 
of  privileges.  England  did  not  bind  herself  down  to  much. 

Nepei  this  time  was  accompanied  by  Jenkinson,  an  admirable 
type  of  an  English  sailor, — bold,  indefatigable,  ready  for  any- 
thing ;  a  merchant,  an  administrator,  a  diplomat  at  need,  who 
had  already  visited  all  the  seas  of  Europe,  and,  in  despair  at 
England  not  being  able  to  contest  the  Mediterranean  with  her 
Venetian  rival,  wished  to  secure  her  a  new  passage  by  Russia  to 
the  East.  His  open  character  and  wide  knowledge  were  won- 
derfully seductive  to  Ivan.  He  obtained  from  the  Tzar  a  letter 
of  recommendation  to  the  Asiatic  princes,  descended  the  Volga, 
flew  the  first  English  flag  on  the  Caspian,  landed  on  the  coast  of 
Turkestan ;  plunged  with  camels  loaded  with  merchandise  into 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


20.5 


regions  infested  with  brigands,  and  ravaged  by  the  wars  of  the 
khans ;  was  very  nearly  massacred,  reached  Bokhara,  and  was 
lucky  enough  to  return  before  the  city  was  sacked  by  the  Sultan 
of  Samarcand  (1558—1559).  In  another  voyage  (1562)  he  again 
crossed  the  Caspian,  and  presented  specimens  of  English  man- 
ufacture and  the  letters  of  Elizabeth  to  Shah  Thamas,  King  of 
Persia,  who,  warned  by  the  friends  of  the  Turks  and  Venetians, 
received  Jenkinson  with  an  insulting  mistrust  and  coldness. 
When  he  retired  from  the  Court,  a  domestic  followed  him  carry- 
ing a  basin  of  sand,  and  scattered  it  to  efface  the  impure  foot- 
steps of  the  giaour  on  the  soil  of  the  sacred  palace.  Jenkinson 
brought  back  to  Ivan  IV.  messages  from  many  small  princes, 
notably  from  those  of  Chirvan  and  Georgia,  who  wished  to  place 
themselves  under  the  Muscovite  protection.  The  results  of 
these  voyages  were  negative.  Seeing  the  instability  of  the 
Asiatic  regions,  the  English  had  for  the  present  to  confine  them- 
selves to  trading  in  the  territories  of  the  Tzar.  The  latter,  in 
acknowledgment  of  the  services  rendered  him  by  Jenkinson,  au> 
thorized  them  to  trade  on  all  the  rivers  of  the  north,  from  the 
Dwina  to  the  Obi,  and  to  establish  themselves  in  the  principal 
Russian  towns — Pskof,  Novgorod,  Nijni-Novgorod,  Kazan,  As- 
trakhan, and  Narva,  which  had  just  fallen  into  the  power  of  the 
Russians. 

In  1568  Ivan  wished  to  conclude  with  Elizabeth  a  treaty  of 
alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  against  Poland  and  Sweden. 
He  offered  her  in  exchange  a  monopoly  of  commerce  with  Rus- 
sia, though  this  right,  by  his  own  showing,  weighed  more  heavily 
on  his  empire  than  a  tribute  would  have  done.  He  also  re- 
quested her  to  sign  an  engagement,  reciprocal  for  the  two  sov- 
ereigns, to  furnish  each  other  with  an  asylum  in  the  event  of  the 
success  of  an  enemy,  or  the  rebellion  of  their  subjects,  obliging 
them  to  fly  from  their  States.  Elizabeth  declined  the  offer  of 
alliance,  and  refused  to  accept  for  herself  the  offered  asylum, 
"  finding,  by  the  grace  of  God,  no  dangers  of  the  sort  in  her  do- 
minions." It  was  in  1570  that  she  signed  the  treaty  mentioned 
above,  and  had  it  countersigned  by  Bacon  and  the  principal 
statesmen.  This,  however,  was  far  from  contenting  Ivan,  as 
Elizabeth  persisted  in  declining  a  refuge  in  Russia.  The  dis- 
cussion on  this  "  great  affair,"  as  Ivan  calls  it  in  his  letters,  was 
prolonged  for  some  time  longer.  Elizabeth  sent  Randolph, 
Jenkinson,  and  Daniel  Silvester  to  Russia.  Ivan  was  repre- 
sented in  London  by  Andrew  Sovine,  Pisemski,  and  the  English 
merchant,  Horsey. 

The  last  envoy  of  England  in  the  reign  of  Ivan  was  Jerome 
Bowes,  charged  to  explain  to  the  Tzar  the  difficulties  in  the  way 


205  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

of  his  project  of  marriage  with  Lady  Mary  Hastings,  cousin  of 
Elizabeth.  Notwithstanding  his  heaviness  and  want  of  tact, 
Bowes  obtained  great  credit  with  the  Tzar,  who  sometimes  said 
to  him,  "  May  it  please  God  that  my  servants  prove  as  faithful !  " 
Bowes  profited  by  his  favor  to  get  the  privileges  of  the  English 
augmented,  but  he  made  himself  many  enemies  at  Court,  and 
was  greatly  maltreated  during  the  reaction  that  followed  the 
death  of  Ivan.  The  relations  were  renewed  in  Feodor's  reign 
by  Horse}',  and  above  all,  by  Fletcher,  author  of  a  curious  ac- 
count of  Russia. 

French  merchants  had  also  brought  to  Ivan  a  letter  of 
Henry  III.,  and  had  settled  themselves  in  Moscow.  Other  en- 
voys arrived  from  Holland,  Spain,  and  Italy,  to  try  to  rival  the 
English ;  but  the  latter,  who  had  been  the  first  to  reach  Russia, 
kept  the  pre-eminence. 

In  1558  the  Tzar  had  yielded  to  Gregory  Strogonof  ninety- 
two  miles  of  desert  land  on  the  banks  of  the  Kama.  Here  the 
Strogonofs  created  many  centres  of  population,  and  began  to 
explore  the  mineral  wealths  of  the  Ourals.  Their  colonists  even 
passed  the  "  mountain  girdle,"  and  came  in  contact  with  the 
kingdom  of  Siberia.  The  Strogonofs,  as  audacious  as  the 
Spaniards,  dreamed  of  the  conquest  of  this  vast  empire,  and  re- 
quested authority  of  the  Tzar  to  take  the  offensive  against  the 
Tatars.  To  fight,  an  army  was  necessary.  Russia  was  so  full 
of  vigor,  that  the  most  impure  elements  often  became  the  agents 
of  her  security  and  progress.  The  Good  Companions  of  the  Don 
had  more  than  once  excited  the  anger  of  the  Tzar  by  pillaging 
the  travellers  and  boats  on  the  royal  road  of  the  Volga.  They 
had  not  always  respected  the  possessions  of  the  Crown.  One 
of  these  brigand  chiefs,  the  Cossack  Irmak  Timofe'evitch,  obtained 
the  pardon  of  the  Tzar,  and  took  service  with  the  Strogonofs. 
At  the  head  of  850  men — Russians,  Cossacks,  Tatars,  German, 
and  Polish  prisoners  of  war — he  crossed  the  Ourals,  terrified 
the  natives  by  the  novelty  of  fire-arms,  traversed  the  immense 
untrodden  forests  of  Tobol,  defeated  the  Khan  Koutchoum  in 
many  battles,  took  Sibir,  his  capital,  and  made  his  cousin  Mamet- 
koul  prisoner.  Then  he  subjugated  the  banks  of  the  Irtych 
and  the  Obi,  and  consoled  the  last  years  of  the  Tzar  by  the 
news  that  he  had  conquered  him  a  new  kingdom,  and  added  to 
all  his  other  crowns  that  of  Siberia.  Ivan  also  sent  bishops  and 
priests  into  his  new  dominions.  Irmak,  after  having  finished  his 
conquest  and  thrown  open  the  communications  with  the  rich 
Bokhara,  only  survived  Ivan  a  short  time.  One  day  he  allowed 
himself  to  be  surprised  by  his  enemies,  and  sank  in  trying  to 
swim  the  Irtych,  from  the  weight  of  the  cuirass  given  him  1> 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


207 


Tzar  (1584).  This  rival  of  Pizarro  and  Cortez,  the  conquistador 
of  a  new  world,  was  reckoned  a  hero  by  the  people,  and  is 
honored  as  a  saint  by  the  Church.  Miracles  were  accomplished 
at  his  tomb  ;  epic  songs  celebrated  his  exploits.  The  Tatars 
have  composed  a  whole  legend  about  him. 

If  Adachef  had  given  to  Russia  in  1551  her  first  municipal 
liberties,  Ivan  had  assembled  in  1556  the  first  States-general, 
composed  of  the  three  orders.  The  reformation  of  the  Church 
under  Silvester  was  completed  by  the  Council  of  1573,  which 
forbade  rich  convents  to  acquire  new  lands ;  and,  by  the  Council 
of  1580,  extending  the  prohibition  to  all  convents.  The  Church 
could  no  longer  acquire  property.  Ivan  the  Terrible  restrained 
an  abuse  which  troubled  all  the  public  ceremonies,  and  more 
than  once  imperilled  the  success  of  battles.  We  know  how 
powerful,  in  the  Russia  of  the  i6th  century,  was  the  constitution 
of  the  family.  When  a  noble  rose  or  fell,  his  whole  family  rose 
or  fell  with  him  ;  even  the  memory  of  his  ancestors  and  the 
future  of  his  youngest  nephews  were  concerned.  This  is  the 
reason  why  a  Russian  noble  never  consented  to  occupy  an  in- 
ferior place,  if  no  precedents  on  the  subject  existed.  Court  and 
camp  were  constantly  disturbed  by  the  "  quarrels  of  precedence  " 
(niiestnitchestvo).  Neither  the  knout  nor  the  executioner's  axe 
could  subdue  their  resistance.  They  would  rather  die  than  dis- 
honor their  ancestors.  The  '  Books  of  Rank  '  were  consulted  on 
all  occasions,  to  know  the  respective  precedence  of  the  different 
families.  Ivan  IV.  forbade  all  disputes  of  rank  to  any  noble 
who  was  not  the  head  of  his  family.  This  was  only  to  restrain 
the  evil ;  it  had  yet  to  be  extirpated. 

Ivan  the  Terrible  may  be  considered  as  the  founder  of  the 
National  Guard  of  the  streltsi  or  strelifz,  who  during  two  hundred 
years  rendered  great  services  to  the  empire. — He  also  organized, 
on  the  frontiers  threatened  by  the  Tatars,  a  series  of  posts  and 
camps  where  the  soldiers  of  the  country  might  be  exercised. 

He  gathered  strangers  about  him.  He  authorized  the  minister 
Wettermann,  of  Dorpat,  to  preach  at  Moscow,  listened  to  Eber- 
feld,  and  refused  a  discussion  with  Rosvita,  snying  that  he  would 
not  "  cast  pearls  before  swine."  He  permitted  the  erection  of 
the  first  Calvinist  and  Lutheran  churches  at  Moscow,  thus  an- 
ticipating the  toleration  of  the  i8th  century  ;  but,  on  seeing  the 
people's  dislike  to  them,  he  had  them  removed  two  versts  from 
the  capital. 

Ivan's  character  was  a  strange  compound  of  greatness  and 
barbarism.  Cruel,  dissolute,  superstitious,  we  see  him  by  turns 
yielding  himself,  with  his  favorites,  to  the  most  shameful  ex- 
cesses, or,  covered  with  a  monkish  garment,  heading  them  in 


20g  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

processions  and  other  pious  exercises.  Like  Henry  VIII.,  he 
had  many  wives.  After  Anastasia  Romanof  he  married  a  bar- 
barian, the  Tcherkess  Maria;  next,  two  legitimate  wives;  then 
two  more  whose  union  the  Church  refused  to  sanction.  By  his 
seventh  wife,  Maria  Nagoi  he  had  a  son,  another  Dmitri.  At 
the  close  of  his  days  we  see  him  seeking  an  alliance  with 
foreigners,  and  asking  first  the  sister  of  the  King  of  Poland,  and 
then  a  cousin  of  Elizabeth  of  England,  in  marriage.  His  brutal 
habits  and  the  facility  with  which  he  used  his  iron  staff,  had  a 
tragic  conclusion.  In  an  altercation  with  his  son  Ivan  he  struck 
him,  and  the  blow  was  mortal.  Great  and  fierce  was  the  sorrow 
of  the  Tzar.  In  slaying  his  beloved  son,  he  had  slain  his  own 
work.  He  had  no  longer  a  successor,  since  Feodor,  the  elder 
of  his  remaining  sons,  was  feeble  in  body  and  mind ;  and  the 
second  Dmitri  was  only  an  infant.  It  was  for  foreign  succes- 
sors— for  one  of  the  detested  boyards — that,  at  the  price  of  so 
much  blood  and  so  many  perils,  he  had  founded  autocracy.  He 
only  survived  his  son  three  years,  and  died  in  1584.  Without 
allowing  himself  to  be  biassed  by  Ivan's  numerous  cruelties,  the 
historian  ought  fairly  to  compare  him  with  men  of  his  own  time. 
He  ought  not  to  forget  that  the  i6th  century  is  the  century  of 
Henry  VIII.,  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  of  Catherine  de  Medici, 
of  the  Inquisition,  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  and  of  strapados.  Was 
the  Europe  of  this  era  indeed  so  far  advanced  beyond  Asiatic 
Russia,  newly  escaped  from  the  Mongol  yoke  ?  Ivan 'the  Terrible, 
in  decimating,  in  suppressing,  in  tyrannizing  over  the  aristocracy, 
at  least  put  it  out  of  their  power  to  establish  after  him  that 
anarchic  noblesse,  the  hidden  danger  of  Slav  nations,  which  in 
Poland,  under  the  name  of  pospolite,  began  by  enfeebling  royalty, 
and  ended  by  enfeebling  the  nation. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MUSCOVITE  RUSSIA  AND  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

The  Muscovite  government — The  kin  and  the  men  of  the  Tzar — The prikazes— 
Rural  classes — Citizens — Commerce — Domestic  slavery —  Seclusion  o» 
women — The  Renaissance  ;  Literature,  popular  songs,  and  cathedrals- 
Moscow  in  the  i6th  century. 


MUSCOVITE    GOVERNMENT — THE    RELATIONS   AND    MEN   OF    THE 
TZAR — THE  PRIKAZES. 

• 

THE  Russia  of  the  i6th  and  i7th  centuries  is  an  Oriental 
state,  almost  without  relations  with  Europe.  The  Livonian 
knights,  the  Poles,  the  Swedes,  and  the  Danes,  who  understood 
that  it  was  only  her  barbarism  which  ensured  her  inferiority  to 
her  weaker  neighbors,  took  good  care  that  neither  the  men,  the 
arms,  nor  the  sciences  of  the  West  should  reach  her.  Sigismond 
threatened  the  English  merchants  of  the  Baltic  with  death.  He 
did  not  intend  that  "  the  Muscovite,  who  is  not  only  our  present 
adversary,  but  the  eternal  enemy  of  all  free  States,  should  pro- 
vide herself  with  guns,  bullets,  and  munitions ;  and,  above  all, 
with  artisans  who  continue  to  make  arms,  hitherto  unknown  in 
this  barbaric  country."  Moscow,  thanks  to  those  jealous  precau- 
tions, thanks  also  to  the  hatred  of  the  Russians  for  the  "  Mus- 
sulmans "  and  "  heretics  "  of  the  West,  remained  what  the  Tatar 
invasions  had  made  her — an  Asiatic  Empire.  The  patriarchal  rule 
of  ancient  Slavonia  and  the  example  of  the  Oriental  sovereigns 
contributed  to  maintain  in  her  the  despotic  principle  in  all  its 
force.  The  Tzar  was  at  once  the  father  and  the  master  of  his 
subjects,  more  absolute  than  the  Khan  of  the  Tatars  or  the 
Sultan  of  Constantinople.  The  persons  and  the  goods  of  his 
subjects  were  his  property ;  the  greatest  lords,  the  princes  de- 
scended from  Rurik,  were  only  his  slaves  (kholopy).  A  petition 
in  Russian  signifies  a  "  beating  of  the  forehead  "  (tchflobitif). 
The  nobles  of  the  empire  signed  their  requests  not  with  their 
names,  Ivan  or  Peter,  but  with  a  lackey's  nickname,  a  servile  dim- 
inutive, Vania  or  Pdtrouchka.  The  Byzantine  formula,  "  May  I 
%peak  and  live  ? "  is  exaggerated  in  the  Russian,  "  Bid  me  not  to 


2  !  0  HISTOK  Y  OF  K USSIA. 

be  chastised  ;  bid  me  to  speak  a  word."  Men  approached  the  Tzai 
in  fear  and  trembling ;  the  people  prostrated  themselves  before 
that  terrible  iron  staff  with  which  Ivan  was  always  armed.  He  con- 
sidered the  empire  as  his  private  property ;  he  administered  it 
with  his  own  "  people,"  who  had  succeeded  to  the  droujina  of 
former  princes ;  he  governed  it  by  the  help  of  his  own  relations 
or  those  of  his  wife.  The  sons  of  the  greatest  lords  gloried  in 
serving  him  in  the  capacity  of  spalniki  or  gentlemen  of  the 
bedchamber,  and  slolniki  or  waiters  at  the  royal  table.  These 
domestic  functions  led  to  the  rank  of  boyards  or  okolnitchie  (sur- 
rounders  of  the  prince.)  The  principal  boyards  formed  the  douma 
or  council  of  the  empire,  assembled  in  the  chamber  of  the  prince, 
and  were  presided  over  by  him.  On  solemn  occasions  the  sobor  or 
general  assembly  was  convoked,  which  was  composed  of  deputies 
from  all  the  orders,  and  was  a  sort  of  States-general  of  ancient 
Russia.  The  proud  Russian  aristocracy  did  not  allow  itself  tamely 
to  be  reduced  to  this  state  of  independence  ;  but  the  hriiazes 
scattered  as  provincial  or  municipal  governors  through  Siberia, 
Kazan,  or  Astrakhan,  or  subjected  in  the  capital  to  rigorous 
surveillance,  had  become  powerless.  To  ensure  the  results  of 
their  cruel  policy,  the  successors  of  Ivan  IV.  forbade  the 
bearers  of  certain  too  illustrious  names  to  marry. 

When  the  Tzar  desired  to  marry,  he  addressed  a  circular  to 
the  governors  of  the  towns  and  provinces,  commanding  them  to 
send  to  Moscow  the  most  beautiful  maidens  of  the  empire,  or 
at  all  events  those  of  noble  birth.  Like  Ahasuerus  in  the  Bible, 
like  the  Emperor  Theophilus  in  the  chronicles  of  Byzantium, 
like  Louis  the  Ddbonnaire  in  the  narrative  of  the  '  Astronomer,' 
he  made  his  selection  out  of  all  these  beauties.  Fifteen  hundred 
young  girls  were  assembled  for  Vassili  Ivanovitch  to  choose  from  ; 
after  the  first  meeting,  500  of  these  were  sent  to  Moscow.  The 
Grand  Prince  then  made  a  fresh  selection  of  300,  then  of  200, 
then  of  100,  then  of  10,  who  were  examined  by  the  doctors  and 
miihvives.  The  most  beautiful  and  the  healthiest  became  the 
Tzarina;  she  took  a  new  name,  as  a  sign  that  she  was  going  to 
begin  a  new  existence.  Her  father,  on  becoming  father-in  law 
of  the  Tzar,  also  changed  his  name ;  her  relations  became  the 
nearest  relations  (proihei)  of  the  prince,  constituted  his  compan- 
ions, undertook  the  care  of  everything,  and  governed  the  empire 
like  the  house  of  their  imperial  relative.  The  dispossessed  minis- 
ters and  friends  tried  in  secret  to  reconquer  their  lost  power  by 
putting  the  new  sovereign  to  death,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  have 
recourse  to  magic  and  poison.  Many  of  these  imperial  brides 
never  survived  their  triumphs,  and,  suddenly  attacked  by 
mysterious  maladies,  died  before  their  coronation  day.  All  the 


tilSTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  *  1  j 

successors  of  Vassili  Ivanovitch,  even  including  Alexis  Mikhai- 
lovitch,  instituted  these  assemblages  of  beauty  for  the  choice  of 
their  wives.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the  sovereigns  of  Moscow 
and  of  the  princes  of  their  blood. 

The  men  of  the  droujina  or  of  the  surrounding  of  the  prince 
thought  it  beneath  their  dignity  or  above  their  power  to  serve 
him  otherwise  than  in  war  or  justice.  The  work  of  the  pen  had 
to  be  confided  to  the  sons  of  the  priests  and  merchants — the  diafa 
whose  beginnings  were  as  humble  as  those  of  the  Capetian  law 
yers,  seated  at  the  feet  of  the  peers  of  France  ;  like  them,  the\ 
ended  by  taking  the  place  of  the  great  lords.  The  administration 
of  the  State  was  entrusted  to  twenty  or  thirty prikazes  or  bureaux, 
whose  numbers  and  functions  varied  at  different  times.  There 
was  notably  \hzprikaz  of  provisions,  that  of  drinks,  and  that  of 
the  pantry,  which  were  all  concerned  with  the  commissariat  of 
the  Court.  The  duties  were  very  heavy,  as  not  only  the  Tzar, 
the  Tzarina,  and  the  princes  of  the  blood  kept  an  open  table, 
but,  in  accordance  with  patriarchal  and  family  ideas,  the  prince 
was  supposed  to  feed  from  his  own  table  the  nobles  and  function- 
aries lodged  beyond  the  palace.  He  was  obliged  to  send  them 
daily,  cooked  meats,  wines,  and  fruits.  There  was  the  prikaz  of 
the  gold  and  silver  cup,  that  of  the  wardrobe,  of  pharmacy,  of 
horses,  of  the  falconry,  of  games,  to  which  belonged  comedians 
buffoons,  dwarfs,  fools,  keepers  of  bears  and  dogs  ready  to 
fight  with  the  bears,  the  menagerie  of  rare  animals,  chess,  cards, 
and  in  general  everything  that  served  to  amuse  the  Tzar. 
The  prikaz  kazcnnyi,  or  "  of  the  crown,"  had  under  its  con- 
trol the  manufactures  fabricating  the  golden  and  silken  stuffs, 
of  which  the  prince  had  a  monopoly,  and  the  depot  of  the  pre- 
cious Siberian  furs.  It  furnished  the  presents  to  be  distributed 
among  the  clergy,  the  boyards,  the  ambassadors  of  foreign  powers, 
and  the  Greek  monks  who  came  from  Byzantium  or  Mount  Athos, 
to  ask  for  alms.  The  prikazes  of  the  great  palace,  of  the  quarter, 
of  the  revenue,  and  of  the  tax  on  liquors,  were  concerned  with 
the  finances.  There  were  also  those  of  the  imperial  family,  of 
secret  affairs,  of  petitions,  posts,  and  police  ;  of  the  buildings  of 
the  Tzar,  slaves,  monasteries,  streltsi,  embassies,  and  artillery. 
The  prikazes  of  Oustiougue,  of  Kazan,  of  Galitch,  of  Kostroma, 
of  Little  Russia,  and  Siberia,  had  a  territorial  competence. 
Usually  the  expenses  of  such  and  such  a  bureau  were  defrayed 
by  the  produce  of  taxes  on  a  given  town  or  province. 

The  State  revenues  were  composed  :  i.  Of  that  of  the  de- 
mesne, including  thirty-six  towns  and  their  territory,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  which  paid  their  dues  either  in  kind  or  in  money.  2. 
Of  the  taglat  an  annual  impost  on  every  60  measures  of  corn. 


2  ,  2  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

3.  Of  the  podatf,  a  fixed  tax  on  every  dvor  or  fire.  4.  The 
produce  of  the  custom-houses,  and  of  the  excess  of  the  municipal 
dues.  5.  The  tax  on  the  public  baths.  6.  The  farming-out  of 
the  Crown  taverns.  7.  The  fines  and  expenses  of  justice,  the 
confiscations  pronounced  by  the  "tribunal  of  the  brigands." 
Fletcher,  who  visited  Russia  in  the  time  of  Boris  Godounof, 
valued  the  whole  of  these  revenues  at  1,223,000  roubles  of  their 
money.  The  Tzar  annually  received  besides,  furs  and  othei 
things  from  Siberia,  Permia,  and  the  Petchora ;  he  exchanges 
them  himself  with  the  Turkish,  Persian,  Armenian,  Bokharian, 
or  Western  merchants,  who  came  to  the  fairs  or  landed  at  the 
ports  of  the  empire.  Further,  the  Crown,  after  having  allowed 
the  officers  to  gorge  themselves  some  time  at  the  expense  of  the 
people,  reserved  to  itself  the  power  of  calling  them  to  justice, 
and  of  depriving  them  of  part,  or  the  whole,  of  their  booty.  The 
Tzar,  who,  like  the  ancient  despots  of  Egypt  and  the  East,  had 
already  monopolized  certain  branches  of  commerce,  kept  up  an 
undignified  rivalry  with  his  own  subjects.  He  sent  agents  into 
special  provinces,  who  seized  on  all  the  productions  of  the  country, 
furs,  wax,  and  honey ;  forced  the  proprietors  to  sell  them  to 
them  at  a  low  price,  and  then  obliged  the  English  of  Arkhangel 
or  the  merchants  of  Asia  to  buy  them  at  a  high  rate  ;  he  even  laid 
hands  on  the  goods  brought  by  these  merchants,  and  made  the 
Russian  tradesmen  pay  dear  for  them,  forbidding  them  to  pur 
chase  from  others  till  the  warehouses  of  the  Tzar  were  emptied. 
Fletcher  exposes  many  other  means  of  extortion,  to  which  the 
Tzarian  government  periodically  had  recourse. 

The  grades  of  courts  of  civil  justice  were  three  :  i.  The  tri- 
bunals of  the  starost  of  the  district,  and  of  the  hundred  men, 
a  magistrate  established  for  every  hundred  ploughs.  2.  The 
tribunal  of  the  voYevode,  in  the  head-city  of  each  province. 
3.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Moscow.  In  spite  of  the  Codes  of 
Ivan  III.  and  Ivan  IV.,  the  law  was  so  confused  and  uncertain 
that  Fletcher  said  of  it,  "  There  is  no  written  law  in  Russia." 
The  mode  of  procedure  was  that  of  the  Carolingian  age  ;  if  a 
man  could  neither  produce  witnesses  nor  written  proofs,  the 
judge  could  take  the  oath  of  one  of  the  parties.  Often  the  value 
of  an  oath  was  confirmed  by  a  judicial  duel.  The  champions, 
says  Herberstein,  loaded  themselves  with  arms  and  heavy 
armor.  They  were  so  embarrassed  by  all  this  weight  of  iron, 
that  a  Russian  was  invariably  overcome  by  a  foreigner,  and  Ivan 
III.  forbade  foreigners  to  fight  with  his  subjects.  Often  the 
parties  had  themselves  represented  by  hired  champions,  and 
then  the  combat  became  a  comedy,  the  mercenaries  only  think- 
ing how  to  spare  themselves. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


213 


The  legislation  in  the  matter  of  debts  equalled  in  rigor  that 
of  the  Roman  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  The  insolvent  debtor 
was  subjected  to  iheprarcge ;  that  is,  tied  up  half-naked  on  a 
public  place,  and  beaten  three  hours  a  day.  This  punishment 
was  repeated  for  thirty  or  forty  days.  If  by  that  time  no  one 
was  moved  by  his  lamentations  and  cries  to  pay  his  debt  for  him 
he  was  allowed  to  be  sold,  and  his  wife  and  children  let  out  to 
hire ;  if  he  had  none,  he  became  the  slave  of  the  creditor.  The 
penal  legislation  was  frightful.  In  cases  of  accusation  of  theft, 
murder,  or  treason,  the  accused  was  subjected  to  tortures  worthy 
of  a  Spanish  Inquisitor.  The  punishments  were  infinitely  varied  : 
a  man  might  be  hung,  beheaded,  broken  on  the  wheel,  impaled, 
drowned  under  the  ice,  or  knouted  to  death.  A  wife  who  had 
murdered  her  husband  "  was  buried  alive  up  to  her  neck ;  " 
heretics  went  to  the  stake ;  sorcerers  were  burned  alive  in  an 
iron  cage ;  coiners  had  liquid  metal  poured  down  their  throats. 
We  must  not  forget  the  death  of  <;  ten  thousand  pieces,"  the  tor- 
ment in  which  the  sides  were  torn  away  by  iron  hooks,  and  all 
the  varieties  of  mutilation.  On  the  other  hand,  a  noble  who 
slew  a  mougik  was  only  fined  or  whipped.  The  noble  who  killed 
his  slave  suffered  no  penalty  ;  he  could  do  what  he  liked  with 
his  own. 

Before  the  creation  of  the  patriarchate,  the  highest  dignity  in 
the  Russian  Church  was  that  of  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow. 
Then  came  the  six  Archbishops  of  Novgorod,  Rostof,  Smolensk, 
Kazan,  Pskof,  and  Vologda ;  the  six  Bishops  of  Riazan,  Tver, 
Kolomenskod,  Vladimir,  Souzdal,  and  Kroutiski  or  Sara'i,  whose 
dioceses  were  immense.  This  Church  was  as  dependent  on  the 
Tzar  as  that  of  Byzantium  had  been  on  the  Emperors  ;  at  the 
expense  of  a  few  formalities  he  could  create  a  prelate  or  a  new 
see.  The  bishops  were  selected  from  the  Black  Clergy ;  that 
is,  the  monks  who  had  taken  the  vow  of  chastity.  Their  reve- 
nues were  large  and  their  ceremonies  imposing.  "  As  for  exhort- 
ing or  instructing  their  sheep,"  says  Fletcher,  "  they  have  neither 
the  habit  of  it  nor  the  talent  for  it,  for  all  the  clergy  are  as  pro- 
foundly ignorant  of  the  Word  of  God  as  of  all  other  learning." 
With  the  secular  or  White  Clergy,  marriage  was  not  only  a  right, 
but  a  duty.  Their  manners  and  education  hardly  distinguished 
them  from  the  peasants,  and  like  them,  they  were  sometimes 
subjected  to  the  most  degrading  chastisements.  The  convents 
were  numerous,  very  full,  and  very  rich  ;  that  of  St.  Sergius,  at 
Troiitsa,  possessed  110,000  souls, — that  is,  male  peasants.  All 
broken  men  took  refuge  there  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  councils 
fulminated  against  the  vagabond  monks  who  infested  the  country. 
More  than  once  the  monasteries  served  as  prisons  for  disgraced 


2  , 4  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

nobles,  who  there  led  a  gay  and  noisy  life,  like  the  Frank  nobles 
of  other  days  in  the  cloisters  of  the  Merovingian  churches. 
Delicate  meats  were  sent  them  from  the  table  of  the  Tzar — stur- 
geons, sterlets,  figs,  dry  raisins,  oranges,  pepper,  and  saffron. 

In  a  letter  to  the  monks  of  St.  Cyril  on  the  White  Lake,  Ivan 
IV.  blames  with  a  mixture  of  severity  and  irony  their  lenity 
towards  the  imprisoned  boyards.  "  In  my  youth,"  he  writes. 
"  when  we  were  at  St. -Cyril,  if  dinner  happened  to  be  late,  and 
if  the  intendant  asked  a  sterlet  or  any  other  fish  of  the  cellarer, 
he  would  reply,  '  I  have  no  orders  about  it ;  I  have  only  prepared 
what  I  was  ordered.  Now  it  is  night,  and  I  can  give  you  nothing ; 
I  fear  the  sovereign,  but  I  fear  God  more.'  "  "  See,"  continues 
Ivan,  "  what  was  the  severity  of  the  rule.  They  fulfilled  the  word 
of  the  prophet :  '  Speak  the  truth,  and  have  no  shame  before  the 
Tzar.'  To-day  my  boyard  Cheremetief  reigns  in  his  cell  like  a 
Tzar;  my  boyard  Khabarof  pays  him  visits  with  the  monks. 
They  drink  as  if  in  lay  society.  Is  it  a  wedding  ?  is  it  a  baptism  ? 
The  captive  distributes  pieces  of  iced  fruits,  spiced  bread,  and 
sweetmeats.  Beyond  the  monastery  there  is  a  house  filled  with 
provisions.  Some  say  that  strong  drinks  are  gradually  smug- 
gled into  the  cell  of  Cheremetief.  Now  in  monasteries  it  is 
against  the  rules  to  have  foreign  wines ;  how  much  more,  then, 
strong  waters  ?  " 

The  orthodox  faith,  deprived  of  the  stimulus  of  liberty  and 
instruction,  tended  to  become  mere  routine.  Salvation  was 
gained  by  hearing  long  liturgies,  by  multiplying  Slavonic  orisons, 
by  making  hundreds  of  prostrations  and  genuflexions,  by  telling 
rosaries,  and  by  frequenting  shrines.  The  most  celebrated 
centres  were  the  catacombs  of  Kief,  where  slept  the  incorrupti- 
ble bodies  of  the  saints,  and  where  dwell  their  successors  with- 
out ever  seeing  the  light  of  day  ;  the  monastery  of  St.  Cyril,  on 
the  White  Lake  ;  of  St.  Sergius,  at  TroTtsa ;  and  the  cathedral 
of  St.  Sophia,  at  Novgorod.  Men  prostrated  themselves  at  the 
tombs  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Alexis  of  Moscow ;  before  the  won- 
der-working virgins  of  Vladimir,  Smolensk,  Tischvin,  and  Pskof. 
The  most  pious  journeyed  as  far  as  the  sacred  Mount  Athos, 
and  the  city  of  Constantinople,  full  of  blessed  relics,  though  pol- 
luted by  the  presence  of  the  Turk  ;  nay,  further  still,  to  the  tomb 
of  Christ,  to  Golgotha,  to  Mount  Sinai,  wherever  orthodox  com- 
munities disputed  possession  with  Catholic  communities. 

The  national  army  was,  like  the  Tatar  army,  chiefly  com- 
posed of  cavalry.  The  stolniki,  spnlniki,  and  other  young  cour- 
tiers, formed  an  Imperial  Guard  of  about  8000  men.  All  the 
gentlemen  of  the  empire,  thoriane,  or  dieti-boyarskit,  were  con- 
fined to  the  mounted  ranks;  (he  revenues  of  their  lands  were 


HISTOR  Y  Ol<  RUSSIA. 


2'S 


counted  as  pay  for  these  men  of  service  (sloujilii  lioudt)  ;  the  an- 
cient distinction  between  the  pomestie  (fiefs)  and  the  votchiny 
(free  allods)  was  almost  abolished.  It  was  nearly  the  regime  of 
the  fiefs  of  the  West,  or  of  the  ziams  and  timars  of  Turkey. 
This  noble  cavalry  could  reckon  80,000  horsemen  ;  with  the 
levy  of  free  peasants,  it  mounted  up  to  300,000.  To  this  we 
must  join  the  irregular  cavalry,  composed  of  the  Cossacks  of  the 
Don  and  the  Terek,  of  Tatars  and  Bachkirs.  The  national  in- 
fantry was  constituted — i,  by  the  datotchnie' lioudi,  peasants  of 
the  monasteries,  churches,  and  domains  ;  2,  by  the  streltsi,  free 
archers,  or  communal  soldiers,  organized  in  the  time  of  Ivan  IV., 
and  who,  in  Moscow  alone,  formed  a  body  of  12,000  men.  Then 
came  the  artillery,  and  the  soldiers  told  off  to  the  goul'ia'igorod, 
the  "  city  that  walks,"  movable  ramparts  of  wood,  which  were 
used  both  in  sieges  and  in  the  open  country,  where  the  Russian 
troops,  if  they  were  not  protected,  showed  little  firmness.  In 
the  1 5th  century,  foreign  mercenaries  began  to  be  enlisted — 
Poles,  Hungarians,  Greeks,  Turks,  Scotch,  Scandinavians, 
armed  and  disciplined  after  the  European  fashion,  and  enrolled 
under  the  names  of  ritters,  soldiers,  and  dragoons.  History  has 
preserved  the  names  of  some  of  their  leaders :  Rosen  the  Ger- 
man, and  Margeret  the  Frenchman,  who  has  left  us  some  curious 
memoirs  of  the  False  Dmitri. 

The  equipment  of  the  national  troops  was  completely  Oriental. 
They  had  long  robes,  high  saddles,  short  stirrups,  rich  capari- 
sons, scale  or  ring  armor.  The  Tzar  himself  went  into  battle 
with  his  lance,  bow  and  quiver.  The  army  was  always  divided 
into  five  divisions — the  main  army,  the  right  and  left  wings,  the 
van  and  rear  guards.  Each  was  commanded  by  two  voievodes 
of  unequal  rank,  without  counting  the  voievode  of  the  artillery 
or  of  the  movable  camp,  and  the  atamans  of  the  streltsi  and  of 
the  Cossacks.  The  grades  of  the  regular  army  were  those  of 
the  tysatski  or  chiliarch,  the  centurion,  the  commander  of  fifty, 
and  the  detiatski,  or  commander  of  ten.  All  obeyed  the  grand 
voievode,  or  general-in-chief.  Each  soldier  brought  provisions 
for  four  months,  and  the  Tzar  furnished  nothing,  except  oc- 
casionally some  corn.  The  men  lived  almost  entirely  on  biscuit, 
dried  fish  or  bacon,  and  proved  capable  of  enduring  much 
fatigue.  The  campaigns  never  lasted  long,  and  only  part  of  the 
army  was  permanent. 

From  this  time  Russia  sought  to  enter  into  regular  relations 
with  foreign  Powers.  Her  diplomatic  traditions  were  those  of 
the  East  or  Byzantium.  Her  first  ambassadors  were  the  Greek 
Dmitri  Trakhaniotes,  and  the  Italian  Marco  Ruffo,  sent  into 
Persia.  They  treated  with  most  deference  the  neighboring 


2  x 5  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

States,  not  those  which  were  most  powerful.  Whilst  they  sent 
a  simple  courier  (gotiets)  to  the  Emperor,  and  the  kings  of  France, 
England,  and  Spain,  they  despatched  boyards,  accompanied  by 
diaks,  to  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Poland.  The //T&Z.Z  of  the  em- 
bassies, which  had  under  its  orders  fifty  translators  and  seventy 
interpreters  of  all  languages,  gave  them  their  safe  conduct,  de- 
tailed instructions,  letters  for  the  foreign  sovereign,  presents, 
two  years'  pay,  and  a  certain  number  of  furs  of  costly  materials 
from  the  prikaz  of  the  Crown,  which  they  were  to  do  their  best 
to  sell  at  a  high  price.  The  Russian  ambassador,  like  those  of 
the  Greeks  and  Tatars,  was  also  a  commission  agent  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Tzar.  The  envoys  were  recommended  to  avoid 
all  insolence,  and  to  watch  their  men,  but  to  display  the  greatest 
luxury,  to  exact  due  payment  of  all  honors,  and,  at  the  peril  of 
their  lives,  never  to  suffer  the  Tzar's  titles  to  be  diminished — 
titles  which  were  rather  complicated,  as  he  enumerated  all  his 
subject  States.  The  mercantile  preoccupations  of  the  Russian 
ambassadors,  and  their  eternal  quarrels  about  etiquette,  rendered 
them  unbearable  at  all  the  European  Courts.  On  their  return 
they  were  summoned  before  the  Tzar,  gave  him  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  their  mission,  and  handed  over  to  him  the  journal  of 
their  tour  and  the  notes  of  all  that  they  had  observed  in  the  dis- 
tant countries.  From  the  i6th  century  a  shrewd  and  observant 
spirit  is  noticeable  in  their  relations,  which  is  not  unworthy  of 
the  wisdom  of  their  masters,  the  Byzantines. 

When  foreign  ambassadors  arrived  in  Russia,  they  were 
treated  with  magnificence  and  distrust.  From  the  time  they 
crossed  the  frontier,  they  and  their  people  were  fed,  housed,  and 
provided  with  carriages,  but  a pristaf  attached  to  their  persons 
watched  carefully  that  they  obtained  no  interviews  with  the 
natives,  nor  information  about  the  state  of  the  country.  They 
were  taken  through  the  richest  and  most  populous  provinces  ; 
the  citizens  were  everywhere  required  to  meet  them  on  their 
route,  dressed  in  their  costliest  clothes.  At  Moscow  a  palace  of 
the  Tzar  was  assigned  them  as  a  residence,  and  they  were  fed 
from  his  table.  Their  first  interview  took  place  with  great  pomp 
in  the  Palace  of  Facets  (Granaritaia  pahiid).  The  walls  of  the 
hall  were  hung  with  magnificent  tapestries  ;  gold  and  silvor 
vessels,  of  Asiatic  form,  shone  on  the  dais.  The  Tzar,  crown  on 
head,  sceptre  in  hand,  seated  on  the  throne  of  Solomon,  sup- 
ported by  the  mechanical  lions,  which  roared  loudly,  surrounded 
by  his  ryndis  in  long  white  caftans  and  armed  with  the  great 
silver  axe,  by  his  sumptuously-dressed  boyards,  and  by  his  clergy 
in  their  simple  costume,  received  their  letters  of  credit.  He 
asked  the  ambassador  for  news  of  his  master,  and  how  he  had 
travelled.  If  the  Tzar  were  not  contented  with  him,  the  am- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


217 


bassadors'  palace  became  a  prison  where  no  native  might  pene- 
trate, and  carefully-studied  humiliations  were  practised  to  extract 
from  him  concessions  or  to  abridge  his  stay. 

THE   RURAL   CLASSES CITIZENS   OF   THE   TOWNS — COMMERCE. 

The  lower  classes  of  Muscovy  were  composed  of  three  ele- 
ments : — i.  The  slave,  or  kholop,  properly  so  called,  the  mancip- 
ium  of  the  Romans,  a  man  taken  in  war,  sold  by  himself  or  some 
one  else,  or  son  of  a  kholop.  2.  The  peasant  inscribed  on  the 
lands  of  a  noble,  the  colonus  adscriptius  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
whose  person  was  legally  free,  but  who  was  to  be  reduced  by 
means  of  a  more  and  more  rigorous  legislation  to  the  condition 
of  krepostnyi  or  serf  of  the  glebe.  3.  The  free  cultivator,  who 
lived  like  a  farmer  on  the  lands  of  another,  and  had  the  right  to 
change  his  master,  but  who  was  soon  to  be  mingled  with  the 
preceding  class. 

It  was  the  inscribed  peasants  who  constituted  almost  the  whole 
of  the  rural  population.  In  the  ancient  provinces  the  peasant 
might  consider  himself  as  the  primitive  inhabitant  of  the  soil. 
He  was  only  made  subject  to  the  gentleman  in  order  to  secure 
to  the  latter  an  income  sufficient  for  military  service ;  he  there- 
fore continued  to  look  on  himself  as  the  true  proprietor.  In 
these  rural  masses,  the  primitive  features  of  the  Slav  organiza- 
tion were  preserved  in  all  their  vigor.  It  was  the  commune,  or 
mir,  and  not  the  individuals,  who  possessed  the  land  ;  it  was  the 
commune  that  was  responsible  to  the  Tzar  for  the  tax,  for  the 
corvee  and  dues  to  the  lord.  This  responsibility  armed  the  com- 
mune with  an  enormous  power  over  its  members,  and  this  power 
embodied  itself  in  the  starost,  assisted  by  elders.  In  the  bosom 
of  the  commune  the  family  was  not  organized  less  severely,  less 
tyrannically  than  the  mir.  The  father  of  the  family  had  over  his 
wife,  his  sons,  married  or  single,  and  their  wives,  an  authority 
almost  as  absolute  as  that  of  the  starost  over  the  commune,  or 
the  Tzar  over  the  empire.  The  paternal  authority  became 
harder  and  more  stern  from  the  contact  with  serfage  and  the 
despotic  rule.  Ancient  barbarism  was  still  intact  among  these 
ignorant  people :  the  graceful  customs  or  the  savage  manners, 
the  poetic  or  cruel  superstitions  of  the  early  Slavs,  were  perpet- 
uated by  them.  The  Russian  peasant  remained  a  pagan  under 
his  veneer  of  orthodoxy.  His  funeral  songs  seem  destitute  of 
all  Christian  hope.  His  marriage  songs  preserve  the  tradition 
of  the  purchase  or  capture  of  the  bride.  The  sad  lot  of  the 
rustic  was  yet  to  be  aggravated  during  the  three  centuries  of 
progress  which  the  upper  classes  had  still  to  accomplish.  In 


2 1  g  HISTOK  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

view  of  the  State,  as  of  the  proprietor,  he  tended  more  and  more 
to  become  a  beast  of  burden,  a  productive  force  to  be  used  and 
abused  at  pleasure. 

The  Russian  towns  were  composed  first  of  a  fortress  or 
krcnil,  where  at  need  a  garrison  of  "  men  of  the  service  "  could 
be  sent,  the  walls  being  generally  of  wood  ;  next  of  faubourgs  or 
possads,  inhabited  by  the  citizens  or  possadskie.  They  were 
governed  by  vo'ievodes  nominated  by  the  prince,  or  by  a  starost 
or  mayor  who  was  elected  by  an  assembly  of  the  inhabitants, 
nobles,  priests,  or  citizens,  but  was  always  a  gentleman.  The 
starost  governed  the  town  and  the  district  depending  on  it.  As 
the  citizens  paid  the  heaviest  taxes,  they  were  forbidden  to  quit 
the  town  ;  they  were,  as  during  the  last  days  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, bound  to  the  city  glebe.  Alexis  Mikhai'lovitch  was  after- 
wards to  attach  the  pain  of  death  to  this  prohibition.  To  assess 
the  impost,  the  starost  convoked  at  once  both  the  deputies  of 
the  town  and  those  of  the  rural  communes.  The  impost  of  the 
tagla  was  paid  by  the  town  collectively,  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  fires,  and  all  the  people  were  collectively  responsible 
for  each  other  to  the  State. 

In  the  burgess  class  may  be  counted  the  merchants,  whose 
Russian  name  of  gosti  (guests  and  strangers)  shows  how  far 
commerce  still  was  from  being  acclimatized  in  this  land  and 
under  this  regime.  Muscovy  produced  in  abundance  leather 
from  oxen;  furs  from  the  blue  and  black  fox,  the  zibeline,  the 
beaver,  and  the  ermine  ;  wax,  honey,  hemp,  tallow,  oil  from  the 
seal,  and  dried  fish.  From  China,  Bokhara,  and  Persia,  she  re- 
ceived silks,  tea,  and  spices.  The  Russian  people  are  naturally 
intelligent  and  industrious,  but  still  commerce  languished. 
Fletcher,  the  Englishman,  has  assigned  as  the  reason  for  this 
decay,  the  insecurity  created  by  anarchy  and  despotism.  The 
mougik  did  not  care  either  to  save  or  to  lay  by.  He  pretended 
to  be  poor  and  miserable,  to  escape  the  exactions  of  the  prince 
and  the  plunder  of  his  agents.  If  he  had  money,  he  buried  it, 
as  one  in  fear  of  an  invasion.  "  Often,"  says  the  English 
writer,  "  you  will  see  them  trembling  with  fear,  lest  a  boyard 
should  know  what  they  have  to  sell.  I  have  seen  them  at  times, 
when  they  had  spread  out  their  wares  so  that  you  might  make  a 
better  choice,  look  all  round  them,  as  if  they  feared  an  enemy 
v.ould  surprise  them  and  lay  hands  on  them.  If  I  asked  them 
the  cause,  they  would  say  to  me,  'I  was  afraid  there  might  be  a 
noble  or  one  of  the  "  sons  of  boyards  "  here  ;  they  would  take 
away  my  merchandise  by  force.'  "  "  The  merchants  and  the 
citizens,"  says  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu,  "  could  with  difficulty  become 
a  powerful  class  in  a  country  cut  off  from  Europe  and  the  sea, 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2 19 

and  cut  off,  too,  from  all  great  commercial  routes  by  the  Lithu- 
anians, the  Teutonic  Order,  and  the  Tatars."  The  citizen,  like  the 
inhabitant  of  the  French  towns  of  the  i4th  century,  was  only  a 
sort  of  villain  ;  he  wore  the  costume  of  a  peasant,  and  lived 
almost  like  him.  The  merchants  were  really  what  they  were 
called  by  Ivan  the  Terrible — the  mougiks  of  commerce. 


DOMESTIC   SLAVERY — THE   SECLUSION   OF   WOMEN. 

Only  two  more  facts  were  needed  to  give  to  Russian  society 
the  same  Asiatic  character  which  we  noted  already  in  the  des- 
potism of  the  Tzars  and  the  communism  of  the  people  :  domestic 
slavery,  and  the  seclusion  of  women. 

Besides  the  peasants  more  or  less  attached  to  the  glebe,  all 
Russian  proprietors  kept  in  their  castles,  or  in  their  town-houses 
at  Moscow,  a  multitude  of  servants  like  those  who  encumbered 
the  senators'  palaces  in  imperial  Rome.  A  great  lord  always 
gathered  round  him  many  hundreds  of  these  dvorovie,  both  men 
and  women,  bought  or  born  in  the  house,  whom  he  never  paid, 
whom  he  fed  badly,  and  who  served  him  badly  in  return,  but 
whose  numbers  served  to  give  an  idea  of  the  wealth  of  their 
master.  The  cortege  of  a  noble  on  his  way  to  the  Kremlin  may 
be  compared  to  that  of  a  Japanese  daimio.  A  long  file  of 
sledges  or  chariots,  a  hundred  horses,  outriders  who  made  the 
people  stand  back  by  blows  with  their  whips  ;  a  crowd  of  armed 
men,  who  escorted  the  noble  ;  and  behind  a  host  of  dvorovic, 
often  with  naked  feet  beneath  their  magnificent  liveries,  filled 
with  their  stir  and  noise  the  streets  of  Bie'lyi-gorod.  These  dom- 
estic slaves  were  subjected,  without  distinction  of  sex,  to  the 
most  severe  discipline,  and  were  forced  to  submit  to  all  the  cruel 
or  voluptuous  caprices  of  their  masters,  and,  like  the  slaves  of 
antiquity,  were  exposed  to  the  most  frightful  chastisements. 
Whilst  the  registered  colon  was  attached  to  the  land,  the  kholopy 
could  be  sold,  either  by  heads  or  by  families,  without  compunc- 
tion. Wives  were  separated  from  their  husbands,  and  children 
from  their  parents. 

The  custom  of  secluding  women  is  older  than  the  Tatar 
invasion.  The  Russian  Slavs  were  Asiatics,  even  before  they 
\vere  subdued  by  the  Mongols.  Byzantium  had  likewise  far 
more  influence  than  Kazan  on  Russian  manners.  Now,  in 
ancient  Athens,  and  in  the  Constantinople  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  matron  and  the  young  girl  were  alike  obliged  to  remain 
in  the  gytuzceum,  which  became  in  Moscow  the  tcrem  or  verkh 
(upper  apartment).  In  Russia,  as  in  the  Rome  of  the  Twelve 


220  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Tables,  the  woman  was  always  a  minor.  This  was  one  con* 
sequence  of  the  patriarchal  organization  of  the  family.  She 
always  remained  under  the  guardianship  of  her  father,  her  hus- 
band's father,  an  uncle,  an  elder  brother,  or  a  grandfather.  The 
Russian  monks  translated  for  her  use  the  sermons  of  the  monks 
of  the  Lower  Empire,  which  enjoined  the  wife  "  to  obey  her 
husband  as  the  slave  obeys  his  master  ;  "  to  consider  herself 
only  as  the  "  property  of  the  man  ;  "  never  to  allow  herself  to 
be  called  gospoja,  or  mistress,  but  to  look  on  her  husband  as  her 
gospodine  or  lord.  The  father  of  the  family  had  the  right  to 
correct  her,  like  one  of  his  children  or  slaves.  The  priest  Sil- 
vester, in  his  '  Domostroi,'  only  advises  him  not  to  employ  too 
thick  sticks,  or  staffs  tipped  with  iron  ;  nor  humiliate  her  unduly 
by  whipping  her  before  his  men,  but,  without  anger  or  violence, 
to  correct  her  moderately  in  private.  No  woman  dared  to  ob- 
ject to  this  chastisement  ;  the  most  robust  would  allow  herself 
calmly  to  be  beaten  by  a  feeble  husband. 

The  Russian  proverb  says,  "  I  love  thee  like  my  soul,  and  I 
dust  thee  like  my  jacket."  Herberstein  mentions  a  Muscovite 
woman  who,  having  married  a  foreigner,  did  not  believe  herself 
loved,  as  he  never  beat  her.  At  home  the  Russian  woman  was 
hid  behind  the  curtains  of  the  terem  ;  in  the  street,  by  those  of 
her  litter.  Over  her  face  fell  the  fata,  a  sort  of  nun's  veil.  It 
was  an  outrage  even  to  raise  the  eyes  to  the  wife  of  a  noble, 
and  high  treason  to  see  the  face  of  the  wife  of  the  Tzar.  A 
stranger  might  have  thought  himself  at  Stamboul  or  Ispahan.  It 
appeared  so  highly  necessary  that  this  fragile  being  should  re- 
main at  home,  that  she  was  allowed  to  dispense  even  with  going 
to  church.  Her  church  was  her  own  house,  where  she  had  to 
occupy  herself  with  prayers,  pious  reading,  prostrations,  genu- 
flexions, and  alms,  and  was  surrounded  by  beggars,  monks,  and 
nuns.  The  priest  Silvester  also  wished  her  to  superintend  her 
house,  be  the  first  to  rise,  to  watch  over  her  men  and  maid- 
servants,  to  distribute  their  tasks,  and  work  herself  with  her 
own  hands,  like  Lucrece  of  old,  or  the  wise  women  of  the 
Proverbs.  In  reality  she  had  many  other  ways  of  occupying 
her  time  The  toilette  of  the  Russian  boyarines  was  very  com- 
plicated. "  They  paint  themselves  all  colors,"  says  Petrei ; 
"  not  only  their  faces,  but  their  eyes,  neck,  and  hands.  They  lay 
on  white,  red,  blue,  and  black.  Black  eyelashes  they  tint  white,  and 
white  ones  black,  or  some  dark  color,  but  they  put  on  the  paint 
so  badly  that  it  is  visible  to  every  one.  At  the  time  of  my  visit 
to  Moscow  the  wife  of  an  illustrious  boyard,  who  was  exceed- 
ingly beautiful,  declined  to  paint  herself,'  but  she  was  an  object 
of  scorn  to  all  the  other  women.  '  She  despises  our  customs,' 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  2  2 1 

said  they.  They  induced  their  husbands  to  complain  to  the 
Tzar,  and  obtained  an  imperial  order  to  make  her  paint." 
Stoutness  was  the  ideal  of  Turkish  and  Tatar  beauty,  so  the 
Russians  did  all  in  their  power  to  deform  their  slender  figures, 
and,  by  means  of  idleness  and  drugs,  managed  to  succeed.  As 
to  the  men,  they  always  wore  a  long  beard  and  long  dresses. 
To  shave  the  beard  like  the  European  nations,  was,  said  Ivan  the 
Terrible,  "  a  sin  that  the  blood  of  all  the  martyrs  could  not 
cleanse.  Was  it  not  to  deface  the  image  of  man,  created  by 
God  ? " 

The  influence  of  Byzantine  monachism  is  also  to  be  found 
in  the  objection  to  all  innocent  amusements.  Cards,  and  even 
chess,  were  forbidden  ;  music  and  songs  glorifying  the  ancient 
heroes  of  Russia  were  condemned  as  "  diabolic  "  ;  the  noble 
exercises  of  the  chase  and  dancing  were  not  allowed.  "  If  they 
give  themselves  up  at  table,"  says  the  '  Domostroi',"  "  to  filthy 
conversation  ;  if  they  play  the  lute  or  the  goussla  ;  if  they  dance, 
or  jump,  or  clap  their  hands,  then,  as  smoke  chases  the  bees, 
the  angels  of  God  are  made  to  fly  from  that  table  by  those 
devilish  words,  and  demons  take  their  place.  Those  who  give 
themselves  up  to  diabolic  songs  ;  those  who  play  the  lute,  the 
tambourine,  or  the  trumpet ;  those  who  amuse  themselves  with 
bears,  dogs,  and  falcons — with  dice,  chess,  or  tric-trac,  will  to- 
gether go  to  hell,  and  together  will  be  damned." 

Thanks  to  the  general  ignorance,  there  was  no  intellectual 
life  in  Russia  ;  thanks  to  the  seclusion  of  women,  there  was  no 
society.  Compared  with  the  gallant  and  witty  society  of  Poland, 
Russia  seems  a  vast  monastery.  The  devil  lost  nothing  in  the 
long  run.  The  nobles,  living  in  the  midst  of  slaves  subjected 
to  their  caprices,  degraded  themselves  while  they  degraded  their 
victims.  Debauchery  and  drunkenness  were  the  national  sins. 
Rich  and  poor,  young  and  old,  women  and  children,  often 
dropped  down  dead  drunk  in  the  streets,  without  surprising  any- 
one. The  priests,  in  their  visits  to  their  sheep,  got  theologically 
drunk.  "  Even  at  the  houses  of  the  great  lords,"  says  M. 
Zabidline,  "  no  feast  was  gay  and  joyous  unless  every  one  was 
drunk.  Tt  was  precisely  in  drunkenness  that  the  gayety  con- 
sisted. The  guests  were  never  gay  if  they  were  not  drunk." 
Even  to-day,  "  to  be  merry  "  signifies  to  have  been  drinking. 
The  preachers,  even,  while  attacking  the  national  vice,  touched  it 
delicately.  "  My  brothers,"  says  one  of  them,  "  what  is  worse 
than  drunkenness  ?  You  lose  memory  and  reason,  like  a  mad- 
man, who  knows  not  what  he  does.  Is  this  mirth,  my  friends, 
mirth  according  to  the  law  and  glory  of  God  ?  The  drunkard 
is  senseless.  He  lies  like  a  corpse.  If  you  speak  to  himx  he 


222 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


does  not  answer,  He  foams,  he  stinks,  he  grunts  like  a  brute. 
Think  of  his  poor  soul  which  grows  foul  in  its  vile  body,  which 
is  its  prison.  Drunkenness  sends  our  guardian  angels  away, 
and  makes  the  devil  merry.  To  be  drunk,  is  to  perform  sacri- 
fices to  Satan.  The  devil  rejoices,  and  says,  '  No  ;  the  sacri- 
fices of  the  pagans  never  caused  me  half  so  much  joy  and  happi- 
ness as  the  intoxication  of  a  Christian.'  Fly,  then,  my  brothers, 
the  curse  of  drunkenness.  To  drink  is  lawful,  and  is.  to  the 
glory  of  God,  who  has  given  us  wine  to  make  us  rejoice.  The 
Fathers  were  far  from  forbidding  wine,  but  we  must  never  drink 
ourselves  drunk." 

Their  only  diversions  were,  in  spite  of  the  '  Domostroi,'  the 
jests  of  the  buffoons,  who,  like  the  writers  of  the  French  fa- 
bliaux, never  spared  Churchmen  ;  the  coarse  pleasantries  of  court 
fools  andfu/fcs,  who  were  the  inseparable  companions  of  the  great, 
and  were  to  be  found  even  in  the  monasteries  ;  hunts  with  falcons 
and  hounds,  and  bear  fights.  All  these  festivities  were  accom- 
panied with  music,  and  sometimes  a  blind  singer  would  come 
and  celebrate  the  bogatyrs  of  Old  Russia.  The  rich  never  will- 
ingly went  to  sleep  without  being  lulled  by  tales  told  by  some 
popular  story-teller.  Ivan  the  Terrible  always  had  three,  who 
succeeded  each  other  at  his  bedside.  Soon,  under  Alexis 
Mikha'ilovitch,  theatrical  representations  in  imitation  of  Europe 
were  to  begin. 

All  Western  superstitions  were  current  in  Russia,  which  also 
added  follies  of  her  own.  The  people  believed  in  horoscopes, 
diviners,  sorcery,  magic,  the  miraculous  virtues  of  certain  herbs 
or  certain  formulae,  the  evils  produced  by  "  lifting  the  foot- 
marks" of  an  enemy,  in  bewitched  swords,  in  love  philtres,  in 
were-wolves,  ghosts  and  vampires,  which  play  such  a  terrible  part 
in  the  popular  tales  of  Russia.  Their  terror  of  sorcerers  is 
shown  by  the  horrible  deaths  they  made  them  die.  The  most 
enlightened  Tzars  shared  this  weakness,  and  Boris  Godounof 
made  all  his  servants  swear  "  never  to  have  recourse  to  magi- 
rians,  male  or  female,  or  to  any  other  means  of  hurting  the 
Tzar,  the  Tzarina,  or  their  children ;  never  to  cast  spells  by  the 
traces  of  their  feet  or  of  their  carriages."  They  had  more  con- 
fidence in  the  receipts  of  a  wise  woman,  in  holy  water  in  which 
the  relics  had  been  dipped,  than  in  doctors,  whom  they  only  re- 
garded as  another  variety  of  sorcerers.  Nothing  was  more 
difficult  and  dangerous  than  the  early  exercise  of  this  profession. 
If  the  doctor  did  not  succeed  in  curing  his  patient,  he  was  pun- 
ished as  a  malicious  magician.  One  of  these  unfortunate  peo- 
ple, a  Jew,  was  executed  under  Ivan  III.  in  a  public  place  for 
having  allowed  a  TzareVitch  to  die.  Anthony,  another,  a  Ger- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

man  by  nation,  was  accused  of  having  put  a  Tatar  prince  to 
death,  and  delivered  to  his  relatives  to  suffer  by  the  lex  talionis. 
He  was  stabbed.  Towards  the  end  of  the  i6th  century  the 
situation  of  doctors  was  somewhat  ameliorated  ;  but  when  a 
Tzarina  or  a  great  lady  had  to  be  attended,  whose  face  they  were 
never  allowed  to  see,  and  whose  pulse  they  might  only  touch 
through  a  muslin  covering,  what  proper  means  had  they  of  tak- 
ing a  diagnosis  ? 

Such  was  ancient  Russia, — that  European  China  discovered 
and  described  by  the  European  travellers  of  the  i6th  and  lyih 
centuries,  by  Herberstein,  Mayerberg,  Cobenzel,  envoys  of  Aus- 
tria ;  Chancellor,  Jenkinson,  and  Fletcher,  envoys  of  England  ; 
the  Venetians  Contarini  and  Marco  Foscarini ;  the  Roman 
merchant  Barberini ;  Ulfeld  the  Dane  ;  Petre'i  the  Swede  ;  the 
Germans  Heidenstein,  Eric  Lassota,  Olearius;  Possevino  the 
Jesuit ;  the  French  captain  Jacques  Margeret ;  the  English  doc- 
tor Collins,  &c.  It  now  remains  to  speak  of  literature  and  the 
arts. 


THE    RENAISSANCE  :    LITERATURE,    POPULAR    SONGS,     AND    CATHE- 
DRALS— MOSCOW    IN     THE    l6tll  CENTURY. 

Ecclesiastical  literature  was  chiefly  composed  of  a  collection 
of  ideas  borrowed  from  the  Fathers  of  '  Readings  for  Every 
Day  in  the  Year,'  called  '  Waves  of  Gold,'  '  Months  of  Gold,' 
'Emeralds,'  &c. ;  or  of  collections  of  Lives  of  the  Saints  of  the 
Greek  or  Russian  Churches.  The  most  considerable  monument 
belonging  to  this  last  group  is  the  '  Tchetiminei','  a  vast  compil- 
ation of  the  Metropolitan  Macarius,  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
conscience  of  Ivan  the  Terrible.  The  chronicles  are  still  pro- 
duced, among  others  the  '  Stepenny'ia  knigi,'  a  history  of  the 
Russian  princes  after  Vladimir.  Besides  the  great  legal  collec- 
tion of  the  'Code'  and  of  the  '  Stoglaf,'  we  must  mention  the 
'  Domostroi'  of  the  Pope  Silvester,  Minister  of  Ivan  IV.  This  is 
a  collection  of  precepts  instructing  readers  in  the  arts  of  keep- 
ing house  and  securing  salvation.  It  enumerates  the  days  on 
which  swans,  cranes,  capons,  egg-pasties,  and  cheese  are  to  be 
eaten.  It  gives  receipts  for  making  hydromel,  kvass,  beer  gruel, 
and  sweetmeats.  It  gives  bills  of  fare,  and  at  the  same  time 
teaches  the  master  of  the  house  how  he  ought  to  govern  his 
wife,  his  children,  and  his  servants  ;  avoid  the  sin  of  wicked  con- 
versation ;  please  God,  honor  the  Tzar,  the  princes,  and  all  per- 
sons of  rank  ;  how  he  should  conduct  himself  well  at  table,  "  to 
blow  his  nose,  and  to  spit  without  noise,  taking  care  to  turn 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

away  from  the  company,  and  put  his  foot  over  the  place."  The 
*  Domostro'  gives  the  characteristics  of  the  Russian  civilization, 
as  the  De  Re  Rustua  of  the  elder  Cato  gives  those  of  the  an- 
cient Roman  civilization.  From  Cato  to  Silvester  there  is  an 
evident  progress.  Whilst  the  Roman  advises  that  the  old  oxen, 
the  old  iron,  and  the  old  slaves  should  be  sold,  the  Pope  Silves- 
ter enjoins  that  "  the  old  servants  who  are  no  longer  good  for 
anything,  be  fed  and  clothed,  in  consideration  of  their  former 
services  :  this  ministers  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  and  we  must 
fear  the  anger  of  God."  "Masters,"  he  says  again,  "ought  to 
be  benevolent  towards  their  servants,  and  give  them  to  eat  and 
drink,  and  warm  them  properly  ;  for,  if  they  keep  their  dvonml 
by  force  around  them,  and  do  not  nourish  them  sufficiently, 
they  turn  them  into  bad  servants,  who  lie,  steal,  are  dissipated, 
spoil  everything,  and  get  drunk  at  the  tavern.  These  foolish 
masters  sin  against  God,  are  despised  by  their  slaves,  and  con- 
temned by  their  neighbors." 

"  When  a  man  sends  his  servant  to  honest  people,  he  should 
knock  softly  at  the  great  door ;  when  the  slave  comes  to  ask 
him  what  he  wants,  he  should  reply,  '  I  have  nothing  to  do  with 
thee,  but  with  him  to  whom  I  am  sent.'  He  should  only  say 
from  whom  he  comes,  so  that  the  other  may  tell  his  master.  On 
the  threshold  of  the  chamber  he  will  wipe  his  feet  in  the  straw ; 
before  entering  he  will  blow  his  nose,  spit,  and  say  a  prayer.  If 
no  one  says  amen  to  him,  he  will  say  a  second  prayer;  if  they 
still  keep  silence,  a  third  prayer,  in  a  louder  voice  than  the  pre- 
ceding ones.  If  they  still  do  not  speak,  he  will  knock  at  the 
door.  On  entering,  he  must  bow  before  the  holy  images ;  then 
he  will  explain  his  mission  to  the  master,  and  during  this  time 
he  must  take  care  not  to  touch  his  nose,  nor  to  cough,  nor  spit ; 
he  must  conduct  himself  with  propriety,  without  looking  to  the 
right  or  the  left.  If  he  is  left  alone,  he  must  examine  nothing 
belonging  to  the  master  of  the  house  and  touch  nothing 
neither  to  eat  nor  drink.  If  he  is  sent  to  carry  anything,  he 
must  not  look  to  see  what  it  is ;  and  if  it  should  be  eatable, 
neither  his  tongue  nor  his  fingers  are  to  know  it." 

At  the  head  of  the  literary  movement  of  the  time,  Ivan  the 
Terrible  and  his  enemy  Kourbski  occupy  a  place  of  honor. 
They  exchanged  many  letters,  in  which  the  one  displayed  a  great 
knowledge  of  sacred  and  profane  literature,  close  reasoning,  and 
bitter  irony ;  the  other  an  indignant  and  tragic  eloquence. 
Besides  these  letters,  Ivan  addressed  an  admonition  to  the  monks 
of  St.  Cyril,  full  of  vigor  and  mocking  gravity.  The  same 
Kourbski  has  written,  in  eight  books,  a  passionate  history  of  the 
Tzar  who  persecuted  "  the  strong  ones  of  Israel,  the  high-bora 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  425 

heroes  of  Russia  " ;  in  his  exile  in  Lithuania  he  defended 
orthodoxy  against  the  encroachments  of  Jesuitism  and  Protes- 
tantism, compiled  the  '  History  of  the  Council  of  Florence,'  and 
learnt  Latin  in  order  to  translate  into  Russian  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church. 

Like  his  rival  Louis  XI.  in  France,  Ivan  the  Terrible  was  in 
Russia  the  protector  of  printing,  abhorred  by  the  people  as  an 
impious  art.  Mstislavets  and  the  deacon  Feodorof  printed  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  a  '  Book  of  Hours  ;  '  but  later  they  were 
obliged  to  fly  into  Lithuania  to  escape  from  accusations  of 
heresy  and  the  hate  of  the  people. 

There  existed  a  literature  which  could  do  without  the  art  of 
Gutenberg,  and  which  at  this  time  attained  its  most  splendid 
development.  This  was  the  literature  which  from  the  earliest 
centuries  of  Russian  history  had  been  kept  alive  on  the  lips  of 
the  people,  in  the  memory  of  the  peasants,  and  which,  perpet- 
uated by  oral  tradition,  has  at  last  been  collected  in  our  own 
day  by  Rybnikof,  Afanasiei,  Schein,  Sakharof  Kirie'evski, 
Bezsonof,  Hilferding,  Kostomarof,  Koulich,  Tchoubinski,  and 
Dragomanof.  The  people  had  their  lyric  poetry,  marriage-songs, 
funeral  dirges,  rural  dance-songs,  hymns  for  Christmas  (koliadkf), 
Epiphany,  Easter,  and  the  Feasts  of  St.  George  and  St.  John, — 
hymns  in  which  they  celebrated  the  death  of  winter,  the  birth  of 
spring,  the  harvest,  and  preserved  the  recollections  of  the  ancient 
religions  and  ancient  Slav  gods.  There  were  epic  songs  which 
glorified  the  legendary  exploits  of  the  early  heroes  of  Russia,  the 
demi-gods  of  primitive  paganism  :  Volga  Vseslavitch,  Sviatogor, 
Mikoula  Selianinovitch,  Polkane,  Douna'i,  &c.  In  these  songs 
Vladimir,  the  "  Beautiful  Sun  "  of  Kief,  groups  around  him,  like 
the  Charlemagne  of  the  chansons  de  gestes  and  the  King  Arthur 
of  the  Breton  romances,  a  whole  pleiad  of  bogatyrs.  They  have 
immortalized  Ilia  of  Mourom,  the  hero-peasant ;  Dobryna 
Nikititch,  the  hero-boyard  ;  Alecha  Popovitch,  conqueror  of  the 
gigantic  dragon,  Tougarine  ;  Solove'i  Boudimirovitch,  navigator 
of  the  falcon-ship  Potyk,  whom  the  perfidy  of  an  enchantress 
caused  to  descend  alive  into  the  tomb  ;  Diouk  Stepanovitch,  who 
crossed  the  Dnieper  at  one  leap  of  his  horse  ;  Stavre  Goclino- 
vitch,  the  warrior-musician,  released  by  a  ruse  of  his  wife  from 
the  prisons  of  Vladimir;  Thomas  Ivanovitch,  whom  the  Princess 
Apraxie  calumniated  like  another  Joseph,  but  for  whom  God 
worked  a  miracle  ;  Vassili,  the  hero-drunkard,  who  went  from  a 
tavern  to  save  Russia  ;  Sadko,  the  rich  merchant  of  Novgorod, 
whose  maritime  adventures  form  an  Odyssey ;  the  Princess 
Apraxie,  who  is  seated  on  the  throne  by  the  side  of  Vladimir  her 
husband ;  the  heroines  Nastasia  and  Marina,  the  Penelope  and 


2  2  6  JfIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

Circe  of  the  Russian  epopee;  Maria  the  White  Swan,  who 
belongs  to  the  cycle  of  bird-women  ;  and  Vassilissa,  who  passed 
herself  off  as  a  bogatyr,  and  beat  all  the  athletes  of  Vladimir 
Such  were  the  heroes  of  Kief  and  Novgorod. 

Historical  heroes  belong  to  the  cycle  of  Moscow :  Dmitri, 
the  vanquisher  of  the  Tatars;  Michael  of  Tchernigof,  Alexandei 
Nevski,  and  Ivan  the  Terrible,  around  whom  are  grouped  the 
songs  of  the  taking  of  Kazan,  the  conquest  of  Siberia,  and  the 
famous  by-lines  entitled  '  The  Tzar  wishes  to  kill  his  Son,'  '  The 
Tzar  sends  the  Tzarina  to  a  Convent,'  and  '  How  Treason  was 
introduced  into  Russia.'  This  epic  current  flows  on  up  to  the 
iQth  century ;  and  others,  born  of  the  shock  of  events  on  the 
popular  imagination,  celebrate  the  deeds  of  Skopine  Choui.sk i, 
the  wars  of  Peter  the  Great,  the  victories  of  Elizabeth  and 
Catherine  II.,  the  campaigns  of  Souvorof,  and  even  the  invasion 
of  Russia  by  the  "  King  Napoleon." 

Narratives,  sometimes  in  prose  and  sometimes  in  poetry, 
glorify  the  heroes  of  the  Eastern  epopee  :  Akir  of  Nineveh, 
Solomon  the  Wise,  Alexander  of  Maceclon,  and  Rousslan 
LazareVitch.  Wonderful  stories  are  told  by  the  peasants  of 
Helen  the  Fair,  of  the  Tzar  of  the  Sea,  and  of  Vassilissa  the 
Wise  ;  of  the  Seven  Simeons ;  of  the  adventures  of  Ivan,  Son  of 
the  King,  and  of  the  lovely  Nastasia ;  of  the  Baba-Yaga,  and  of 
the  King  of  the  Serpents.  There  were  religious  verses,  which 
were  carried  by  the  blind  kalicki,  who  sang  the  praises  of  the 
Russian  saints  from  village  to  village — St.  George  the  Brave, 
and  St.  Dmitri  of  Solun,  vanquishers  of  dragons  and  infidels  ; 
Boris  and  Gleb,  sons  of  Vladimir  the  Baptist  ;  St.  Theodosius, 
founder  of  the  catacombs  of  Kief  ;  Daniel  the  Pilgrim,  who 
visited  Jerusalem  ;  and  others  who  belong  almost  as  much  to  the 
Slav  mythology  as  to  the  Christian  hagiography.  Lastly,  there 
are  satirical  tales,  light  and  biting  as  French  fables,  turning  into 
ridicule  the  greed  of  the  popes,  and  the  interested  calculations 
of  their  wives. 

Thanks  to  the  Greeks  who  fled  from  Constantinople,  and 
their  pupils  the  Italians,  Russia  had  a  sort  of  artistic  Renaissance 
from  the  i5th  to  the  iyth  century,  under  the  same  influences  as 
the  West.  The  revolution  was,  however,  less  complete  in  Mus- 
covy than  in  Russia  ;  there  was  no  need  to  substitute  the  round 
for  the  pointed  arch,  since  Russia  had  no  Gothic  churches,  and 
the  Roman  Byzantine  style,  borrowed  in  the  i  ith  century  by  St. 
Sophia  at  Novgorod  and  St.  Sophia  at  Kief  from  St.  Sophia  at 
Constantinople,  was  perpetuated,  under  the  influence  of  religious 
ideas  and  unbroken  traditions,  as  a  l-^ary  from  By/antium. 
There  was  no  sort  of  change  in  painting ;  and  even  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


22? 


present  day,  in  the  Russian  convents,  the  hieratic  usage  causes 
the  saints  and  the  Mother  of  God  to  be  painted  as  they  might 
have  been  painted  by  Pansdlinos  in  the  loth  century  in  the 
churches  of  Mount  Athos.  The  Renaissance  chiefly  manifests 
itself  by  the  number  and  magnificence  of  the  orthodox  churches 
with  which  Italian  artists  then  "  illuminated  "  Old  Russia,  and 
by  the  greater  perfection  of  their  modes  of  building.  It  was  then 
that  Moscow  became  worthy  by  her  new  monumental  splendors 
to  be  the  capital  of  a  great  empire  ;  it  was  then  that  she  became 
the  "  Holy  City,"  with  forty  times  forty  churches,  with  innumer- 
able cupolas  of  gold,  of  silver,  and  of  blue,  which  the  Russian 
pilgrim,  kneeling  on  the  Hill  of  Prostrations,  salutes  from  afar 
off. 

Moscow  was  at  that  time  composed  :  i.  Of  the  Kreml  or 
Kremlin,  a  fortified  enclosure  in  the  form  of  a  triangle,  of  which 
the  smallest  side  rests  on  the  Moskowa,  and  the  apex  is  turned 
towards  the  north.  2.  Of  the  Kita'i-gorod,  not,  as  so  many 
travellers  translate  it,  the  China  City,  but  perhaps  derived  from 
Kita'i-gorod  in  Podolia,  the  birthplace  of  Helena,  mother  of  Ivan 
IV.,  foundress  of  the  Kita'i-gorod  of  Moscow,  which  encloses 
the  bazaars  and  the  palaces  of  the  nobles,  and  is  separated  from 
the  Kremlin  by  a  vast  space  that  they  call  the  Red  Place  or 
Beautiful  Place.  3.  Of  the  Bie'lyi-gorod,  or  White  City,  which 
surrounds  this  double  centre  of  the  Kremlin  and  the  Kita'i-gorod 
as  the  outer  skin  of  an  almond  encloses  the  two  cotyledons. 
4.  Of  the  Zemlianyi-gorod,  or  City  of  the  Earthen  Ramparts, 
enveloping  in  its  turn  the  White  City,  enclosing  the  faubourgs, 
gardens,  woods,  lakes,  and  vast  unbuilt-on  spaces,  then  occupied 
by  the  slobodes  of  the  streltsi.  5.  On  the  outer  circle  of  Moscow, 
like  detached  forts,  stood  the  fortified  convents  with  white  walls, 
which  more  than  once  sustained  the  assault  of  the  Poles  and  the 
Tatars.  This  huge  Asiatic  town  was  a  city  of  contrasts.  The 
buildings  grouped  themselves  almost  by  accident  along  the 
wide,  marshy,  tortuous,  hardly  marked-out  streets.  Isbas  of 
pine,  like  those  of  the  Russian  villages,  stood  by  the  side  of  the 
palaces  of  the  nobles.  The  people  either  chose  them  ready 
made  from  the  yards,  or  ordered  them  according  to  their  meas- 
ure. The  carpenters  built  them  in  two  days  on  the  place  pointed 
out :  they  only  cost  a  few  roubles. 

Moscow  is  situated  in  that  part  of  Russia  which  is  totally 
lacking  in  stone,  and  where  the  forests  were  formerly  thickest. 
In  point  of  fact,  it  is  a  city  of  wood,  which  a  spark  might  set  on 
fire.  It  had  been  burned  almost  entirely  under  Dmitri  Donskoi, 
and  twice  under  Ivan  the  Terrible ;  it  was  to  burn  again  during 
the  Polish  invasion  of  1612,  and  the  French  invasion  of  1812. 


2  28  HISTOR  Y  OF  KUSSfA. 

The  oukazes  of  the  Tzars  ordered  certain  precautions  under 
the  most  severe  penalties  :  all  the  fires  had  to  be  put  out  at 
nightfall ;  in  summer  it  was  absolutely  forbidden  to  have  lights 
in  the  houses,  and  cooking  had  to  be  done  in  the  open  air 
There  were  no  means  of  extinguishing  the  fires,  and,  when  one 
broke  out,  the  Muscovites  showed  themselves  as  passively  fatal- 
istic as  the  people  of  the  East. 

It  was  chiefly  the  Kremlin  that  profited  by  the  embellish- 
ments undertaken  by  the  two  Ivans  and  their  successors.  The 
enclosure — of  wood  before  the  burning  of  Tokhtamych — was 
now  of  solid  white  stones,  cut  in  facets  (thence  was  derived  the 
poetical  name  of  "  Holy  mother  Moscow  with  the  white  walls  ")  ; 
it  was  surmounted  by  high  and  narrow  battlements  in  the  form 
of  teeth.  Eighteen  towers  protected  it,  and  five  gates  led  into 
the  interior.  These  five  gates  present  much  originality  and 
variety.  That  of  the  Saviour  was  built  in  1491  by  Pietro  So- 
lario  of  Milan.  It  is  the  sacred  gate,  that  cannot  be  entered 
covered  ;  formerly  obstinate  people  were  forced  to  kneel  down 
before  it  fifty  times.  Criminals  were  allowed  to  make  their  last 
prayer  before  the  image  of  the  Saviour,  and  the  new  Emperor 
always  made  his  entrance  through  it  on  his  way  to  his  corona- 
tion at  the  Assumption.  Another  Italian  built  at  the  same  date 
the  gate  of  St.  Nicholas  of  Mojalsk,  avenger  of  perjury,  before 
whose  image  the  suitors  made  oath.  That  of  the  Trinity  was 
built  in  the  iyth  century  by  Christopher  Galloway. 

The  wall  of  the  Kremlin,  like  that  of  the  old  imperial  palace 
of  Byzantium,  encloses  a  quantity  of  churches,  palaces,  and 
monasteries.  The  most  celebrated  of  these  churches  is  the 
Onspienski  Sober,  or  the  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption,  in  which 
since  the  iijth  century  the  Tzars  have  always  made  a  point  of 
being  crowned  It  is  their  Cathedral  of  Rheims.  Its  architect 
was  Aristotele  Fioraventi,  who  had  already  worked  for  Cosmo 
de  Medici,  Francis  I.,  Gian  Galeazzo  of  Milan,  Matthias  Cor- 
vinus,  and  the  Pope  Sixtus  IV.,  and  whom  Tolbousine,  am- 
bassador of  Ivan  III.,  met  at  Venice,  and  engaged  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Tzar.  One  can  hardly  believe  that  the  Assumption 
is  of  the  same  date  as  the  luminous  churches  of  the  Renaissance. 
The  architect,  or  those  who  inspired  him,  has  here  tried  to  re- 
produce the  mysterious  obscurity  of  the  old  temples  of  Egypt 
and  the  East.  The  cathedral  has  no  windows,  but  only  close- 
barred  shot-holes  in  the  walls,  which  admit  into  the  interior  a 
doubtful  light,  like  that  which  filters  through  the  hole  of  a  dun- 
geon. This  pale  glow  touches  the  massive  pillars  covered  with 
a  tawny  gold ;  on  the  tarnished  background  stand  out,  severe 
and  grave,  the  faces  of  the  saints  and  doctors  ;  it  dwells  here 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


229 


and  there  on  the  relief  'of  the  golden  iconostase,  covered  by  mirac- 
ulous images,  sprinkled  with  diamonds  and  jewels ;  it  hardly 
lights  the  representations  of  the  '  Last  Judgment '  and  the  '  End 
of  the  World,'  painted  on  the  walls  of  the  church.  All  the  upper 
part  of  the  temple  is  partly  enveloped  in  shadows,  like  the  crypts 
of  the  Pharaohs  ;  the  pictures  which  cover  the  vault  can  hardly 
be  distinguished.  The  artist  has  evidently  made  them  for  the 
eye  of  God,  not  for  that  of  man ;  for  the  eye  of  man  can  only 
contemplate  them  on  the  rare  occasions,  such  as  the  Feast  of 
the  Assumption  or  a  coronation-day,  when  the  whole  cathedral 
is  illumined  to  its  furthest  corners  by  innumerable  wax  tapers. 
It  seems  that  Aristotele  built  this  church  according  to  a  former 
plan  of  some  other  architect,  only  it  is  said  that,  finding  the 
constructions  already  begun  not  sufficiently  solid,  he  with  a  bat- 
tering-ram, perfected  by  himself,  overthrew  the  walls ;  that  he 
caused  new  foundations  to  be  dug ;  finally,  that  he  taught  the 
Russians  a  better  way  of  baking  bricks.  At  the  Assumption  is 
the  tomb  of  St.  Peter,  the  first  Metropolitan  of  Moscow,  and 
people  come  here  to  worship  before  the  holy  images  of  Vladi- 
mir and  laroslavl.  The  Cathedral  of  St.  Michael  the  Archangel, 
built  in  1505,  is  the  St.  Denys  of  the  Tzars  of  Russia  :  here,  in  a 
coffin  of  pine  covered  with  red  cloth,  sleep  Ivan  the  Terrible 
and  his  two  sons.  In  the  Church  of  the  Annunciation  with  the 
agate  pavement,  the  marriages  of  the  princes  are  celebrated. 
In  that  of  the  Ascension  are  the  tombs  of  the  sovereigns.  The 
Tower  of  Ivan  the  Great,  325  feet  high,  surmounted  with  a 
golden  cupola,  with  Slavonic  inscriptions  in  letters  of  gold  which 
may  be  distinguished  from  afar,  with  thirty-four  bells  in  the 
carillon,  was  built  in  1600  by  Boris  Godounof. 

Of  the  imperial  palace  built  in  1487,  only  a  few  fragments 
still  remain  :  the  little  "  Golden  Palace,"  where  the  Tzarinas  re- 
ceived the  members  of  the  clergy  ;  the  "  Palace  of  Facets," 
where  the  solemn  audiences  of  ambassadors  were  held  ;  the 
"  Red  Staircase,"  from  the  top  of  which  the  Tzar  allowed  the 
people  to  contemplate  "  The  light  of  his  eyes ;  "  finally  the 
"Terem,"  with  the  painted  roof,  where  we  still  find  the  dining- 
hall,  the  hall  of  council,  and  that  of  the  oratory — vaulted  halls 
still  complete,  where  shine  on  golden  backgrounds  the  images 
of  the  saints  who  protect  the  Tzar.  The  Palace  of  Facets  was 
begun  in  1487  by  the  Italian  Mario,  and  finished  by  Pietro  An- 
tonio. The  other  palaces  are  the  work  of  the  Milanese  Aleviso. 
In  the  Tzarian  apartments,  rarities  imported  from  the  West  al- 
ready mixed  with  the  ancient  Russian  furniture.  In  1594  the 
German  ambassador  presented  the  Tzar  Feodor  with  a  gilt 
clock,  on  which  were  marked  the  planets  and  the  calendar  ;  and 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

in  1597  with  another  clock,  where  little  figures  played  on  trum- 
pets, Jews'  harps,  and  tambourines  each  time  the  hour  struck. 

The  most  curious  edifice  in  Moscow  is  perhaps  the  Church 
of  Vassili  the  Blessed,  on  the  Red  Place.  It  was  built  by  Ivan 
the  Terrible  in  1554,  in  memory  of  the  taking  of  Kazan,  and  is 
the  work  of  an  Italian  artist.  The  legend  insists  that  Ivan  put 
out  the  eyes  of  the  artist,  to  prevent  his  building  a  similar  mar- 
vel for  others.  We  must  imagine  a  church  surmounted  by  six 
or  eight  round  cupolas,  all  of  different  heights  and  forms,  "  some 
beaten  into  facets,  others  cut;  these  carved  into  diamond  points, 
like  the  ananas,  those  in  spirals  ;  others,  again,  marked  with 
scales,  lozenge-shaped,  or  celled  like  a  honeycomb."*  A  power- 
ful imagination  has  defied  all  symmetry.  From  the  base  to  the 
summit  the  church  is  covered  with  colors,  which  are  glaring,  and 
even  crude.  This  many-colored  monster  has  the  gift  of  stupefy- 
ing the  most  bias/  traveller.  "  You  might  take  it,"  says  Hax- 
thausen,  "for  an  immense  dragon,  with  shining  scales,  crouch- 
ing and  sleeping."  Conceive  the  most  brilliant  bird  of  tropical 
forests  suddenly  taking  the  shape  of  a  cathedral,  and  you  have 
Vassili-Blagennoi. 

It  was  not  only  architects  that  Russia  owed  to  Italy.  Aris- 
totele  Fioraventi  coined  money  for  Ivan  III.,  built  him  a  bridge 
of  boats  over  the  Volkhof  during  the  expedition  to  Novgorod, 
cast  the  cannons  which  thundered  against  Kazan,  and  organized 
his  artillery.  Paolo  Bossio  of  Genoa  cast  for  him  the  Tzar- 
pouchka,  the  king  of  guns,  the  giant  piece  of  the  Kremlin.  Pietro 
of  Milan  made  him  arquebuses.  The  art  of  the  founder  shed 
its  greatest  brilliancy  under  Boris  Godounof,  whose  effigy  adorns 
the  queen  of  bells  (Tzar-kolokol),  subsequently  re-cast  under 
Alexis  and  Anne  Ivanovna,  the  bronze  Titan  whose  weight  of 
288,000  pounds  could  be  contained  in  no  belfry,  which  broke 
every  scaffolding,  and  rests  voiceless  like  a  pyramid  of  bronze 
on  its  pedestal  of  masonry,  constructed  in  the  beginning  of 
this  century  by  Montferrand. 

*  The"ophile  Gautier, '  Voyage  en  Russie.' 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


231 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE     SUCCESSORS   OF    IVAN   THE   TERRIBLE  :     FEODOR   IVANOVITCH 
AND   BORIS   GODOUNOF  (1584-1605). 

Feodor  Ivanovitch  (1584-1598) — The  peasant  attached  to  the  glebe — The 
patriarchate — Boris  Godounof  (1598-1605) — Appearance  of  the  false 
Dmitri. 


FEODOR   IVANOVITCH  (1584-1598) — THE     PEASANT  ATTACHED    TO 
THE  GLEBE — THE   PATRIARCHATE. 

FEODOR,  son  of  Ivan  IV.  and  of  Anastasla  Romanof,  resem- 
bled his  father  in  nothing.  He  had  neither  his  instinctive  love 
of  cruelty  and  debauchery,  nor  his  lively  intelligence,  nor  his 
iron  will.  The  throne  of  the  Terrible  was  occupied  by  a  saint — 
a  monk.  The  power  passed  naturally  to  the  chamber  of  the 
boyards.  Five  among  them  had  special  influence  over  the 
government — Prince  Ivan  Mstislavski,  a  descendant  of  Gedemin  ; 
Prince  Ivan  Choui'ski,  a  descendant  of  Rurik,  a  member  of  a 
family  disgraced  in  the  early  years  of  Ivan  IV.,  but  himself  cele- 
brated as  the  defender  of  Pskof ;  and  Prince  Bogdan  Belski, 
another  descendant  of  Rurik.  After  these  three  heads  of 
princely  families  came  two  chiefs  of  boyard  families.  Both  be- 
came sovereigns,  and  both  owed  their  elevation  to  their  wives. 
The  importance  of  Nikita  Romanof  came  from  his  sister,  the 
first  wife  of  Ivan  IV. ;  Boris  Godounof  owed  his  to  his  sister 
Irene,  wife  of  the  Tzar  Feodor.  Minister  of  Ivan  IV.,  brother 
of  the  reigning  Tzar,  Godounof  was  devoured  by  an  insatiable 
ambition.  Sorcerers  who  had  escaped  from  Ivan  the  Terrible 
are  said  to  have  prophesied  that  he  should  become  Tzar,  but 
that  his  reign  was  only  to  last  for  seven  years.  From  that  time 
his  policy  consisted  in  putting  aside  all  rivals — in  overcoming 
all  the  obstacles  that  lay  between  him  and  the  throne. 

The  Tzar  Feodor  had  a  brother,  Dmitri,  son  of  Ivan's 
seventh  wife.  The  douma  of  boyards  feared  the  intrigues  of 
which  this  infant  might  be  made  the  centre,  and,  by  the  advice 
of  Godounof,  sent  him  to  his  appanage  Ouglitch,  with  his 


23,  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

mother  and  her  relations,  the  Nagoi's.  Belski,  another  de- 
scendant of  Gedemin,  an  intelligent  and  ambitious  man,  irri- 
tated the  people,  who  besieged  the  Kremlin,  and  demanded  his 
head.  Boris  took  advantage  of  such  a  good  opportunity,  and 
despatched  this  rival  to  Nijni-Novgorod.  When  Feodor  at  his 
coronation  had  placed  on  his  head  the  crowns  of  Russia,  Kazan 
Astrakhan,  and  Siberia,  it  was  his  maternal  uncle,  Nikita  Ro- 
manof,  who  governed  in  his  name  ;  but  at  his  death  the  power 
passed  to  the  natural  chief  of  a  new  vrtmia,  Boris  Godounof. 
There  still  remained  in  the  council  two  rivals  to  Boris.  Mstis* 
lavski  allowed  himself  to  be  implicated  in  a  plot,  and  was  forced 
to  become  a  monk;  Prince  Chouiski,  who  had  tried  to  make 
himself  a  party  among  the  merchants,  was  accused  of  treason, 
arrested  with  all  his  family,  and  all  were  banished  to  different 
distant  towns.  The  Metropolitan  Dionysius,  who  had  taken  his 
part,  was  deposed,  and  replaced  by  Job,  a  man  completely  at 
the  disposal  of  Godounof,  who  was  now  supreme.  He  induced 
his  brother-in-law  to  grant  him  the  title  of  Allied  Chief  Boyard, 
the  viceroyalties  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan,  and  immense  terri- 
tories on  the  Dwina  and  the  Moskowa.  His  revenues  were 
enormous,  and  he  is  said  to  have  been  able  to  put  a  hundred 
thousand  men  in  the  field.  Nothing  could  be  obtained  from  the 
sovereign  except  through  Boris  ;  more  powerful  than  even  Ada- 
chef  had  been,  he  had  an  army  of  clients.  It  was  he  who  replied 
to  the  ambassadors,  and  who  received  the  presents  of  the  Empe- 
ror, of  the  Queen  of  England,  and  of  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea. 
His  enemies  were  the  enemies  of  the  prince.  He  lacked  noth- 
ing that  is  royal  but  the  title. 

In  foreign  affairs,  the  regency  of  Godounof  strengthened  the 
prestige  of  Russia.  Batory,  who  had  never  ceased  to  threaten 
revenge,  died  in  1586.  A  new  danger  appeared  in  this  quarter. 
Sigismond,  son  of  the  King  of  Sweden,  had  schemed  successfully 
for  the  suffrages  of  the  Polish  electors.  It  was  to  be  feared  that 
he  would  one  day  unite  under  the  same  sceptre  the  two  nations 
whom  Russia  had  most  cause  to  dread  in  Europe.  Rodolph  of 
Austria,  the  other  candidate,  was  less  dangerous.  Austria  and 
Russia  had  the  same  interests  with  regard  to  Turks  and  Tatars, 
and  this  identity  was  one  day  to  result  in  the  almost  perpetual 
alliance  between  the  two  Powers.  Boris  put  forward  Feodor  as 
a  candidate  for  the  crown  of  Poland,  and  the  idea  of  the  union 
of  the  two  Slav  monarchies  under  one  prince.  The  Poles 
refused  to  obey  any  prince  who  was  not  a  Catholic;  they  feared 
that,  instead  of  a  fraternal  union,  the  Muscovite  would  only 
"  join  their  monarchy  to  that  of  Moscow,  like  a  sleeve  to  a 
coat"  The  interests  of  caste  were  added  to  national  and  relig- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  233 

ious  prejudices  ;  the  nobles,  who  only  had  in  view  the  weakening 
of  the  royal  power,  were  not  likely  to  give  themselves  as  master 
a  sovereign  as  absolute  as  the  Tzar  of  Muscovy.  Finally,  nothing 
could  be  done  without  money  in  the  Polish  diets  ;  Boris  was  so 
mistaken  as  to  spare  it.  The  negotiations  fell  to  the  ground, 
and  the  prince  of  Sweden  was  elected. 

The  war  with  Sweden  began  again  vigorously  ;  Russia 
recaptured  what  had  been  taken  from  Ivan  the  Terrible — lam, 
Ivangorod,  and  Koporie.  The  Poles,  who,  since  they  had  a 
Swedish  king,  did  not  care  to  augment  the  Swedish  power,  gave 
no  assistance.  Sigismond  Vasa,  on  his  father's  death  in  1592, 
did  indeed  see  himself  for  a  moment  king  of  both  countries  ;  but 
his  zeal  for  Catholicism,  which  made  him  dear  to  the  Poles, 
caused  him  to  be  detested  by  the  Swedes.  The  latter  wished 
for  a  separate  government,  under  the  regency  of  Charles  Vasa, 
and  they  soon  after  offered  him  the  crown.  This  union,  so 
much  dreaded  by  the  Russians,  soon  ended  in  a  rupture.  The 
Poles  and  Swedes  had  never  before  been  such  bitter  enemies, 
and  the  hatred  of  the  two  peoples  and  the  two  religions  was 
complicated  still  further  by  that  of  the  two  kings.  The  occasion 
was  favorable  for  Russia  to  undertake  the  conquest  of  Livonia. 
Boris  Godounof  had  never  abandoned  this  great  scheme  of  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  only  he  failed  to  take  the  proper  means  for  realizing 
it.  Instead  of  openly  allying  himself  with  Sweden  against 
Poland,  or  with  Poland  against  Sweden,  he  negotiated  with  both, 
tried  to  play  off  one  against  the  other,  and  ended  by  alienating 
both  equally.  The  former  minister  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  the 
intriguing  Grand  Boyard,  was  too  fond  of  hidden  paths. 

To  clear  his  way  to  the  throne,  it  was  not  sufficient  for  him 
to  be  master  of  the  palace  and  the  Court ;  he  must  create  him- 
self a  strong  party  in  the  nation.  Boris,  who  felt  himself  to  be 
hated  by  the  princes  and  boyards,  sought  the  support  of  the 
small  noblesse  and  the  clergy.  Hence  resulted  two  of  the  most 
important  actions  of  the  reign  of  Feodor — the  binding  of  the 
peasant  to  the  soil,  and  the  institution  of  the  patriarchate. 

The  Russian  peasant  was  in  fact  delivered  over  to  the  will 
of  -his  master.  In  law,  he  remained  a  free  man,  as  he  was 
allowed  to  pass  from  the  service  of  one  proprietor  to  that  of 
another.  This  right  brought  with  it  an  abuse.  The  large  pro- 
prietors, who,  being  the  richest,  could  also  be  the  most  generous, 
tried  to  attract  to  their  lands  the  peasants  of  the  smaller  land- 
owners, by  insuring  them  privileges  and  immunities.  We  must 
remember  that  at  this  epoch  the  population  was  very  scanty,  and 
land  had  of  itself  no  value.  It  was  precious  according  to  the 
number  of  laborers  who  could  be  induced  to  settle  on  it.  Thus 


2<34  HISTORY  OF  RUSSJA. 

the  lands  of  the  smaller  proprietors  ran  the  risk  of  beincj  depop- 
ulated for  the  benefit  of  the  great  lords  ;  if  they  k»t  their 
laborers,  the  value  of  the  land  became  proportionately  depre- 
ciated. Now  the  class  of  small  landowners  was  at  this  period 
almost  the  only  military  class  of  Russia  ;  the  national  cavalry 
was  recruited  almost  entirely  from  it  alone.  If  the  source  of 
their  revenues  were  cut  off,  where  would  they  get  the  money  to 
equip  themselves,  to  answer  to  the  call  of  the  Tzar,  according 
to  the  text  of  the  ordinances,  "  mounted,  armed,  and  accom- 
panied ''  ?  Their  interest  thus  became  confounded  with  that  of 
the  empire,  which  was  soon  to  become  unable  to  support  its 
armies.  Boris  Godounof  found  means  to  save  the  rights  of  the 
State,  and  gain  for  himself  the  gratitude  of  a  numerous  and 
powerful  class.  The  comfort  of  the  peasant  did  not  trouble 
any  one  at  this  epoch.  He  was  an  instrument  of  agriculture,  a 
force — nothing  more.  An  edict  of  Feodor  forbade  the  peasants 
henceforth  to  go  from  one  estate  to  another.  The  free  Russian 
krcstianine  was  now  attached  to  the  glebe,  like  the  Western  serf. 
In  the  name  of  the  interest  of  the  State  and  that  of  the  military 
nobles,  an  immemorial  right  was  extinguished.  We  must  not 
think  that  these  silent  masses  were  insensible.  The  day  of  the 
"  St.  George,"  when  the  ancient  laws  permitted  the  peasant  to 
pass  yearly  from  one  domain  to  another,  remained  for  centuries 
a  day  of  bitter  regret.  He  cursed  for  long  the  authors  of  this 
oukase,  and  even  protested  when  he  had  the  opportunity  ;  but 
his  protestation  took  more  the  form  of  flight  than  of  revolt. 
The  development  of  Cossack  life  has  a  close  relation  to  the 
change  in  the  rural  regime;  and  the  more  men  sought  to  bind 
the  peasant  to  the  soil,  the  more  his  spirit  revolted,  and  the 
more  the  camps  of  the  Don  and  the  Dniester  \\ere  filled.  The 
Russian  peasant  never  allowed  the  prescription  of  this  new 
form  of  slavery  to  be  established ;  in  one  way  or  another  he  has 
constantly  resisted  it.  Boris  Godounof  afterwards  partially 
repealed  this  oukase  :  while  still  forbidding  them  to  pass  from 
the  service  of  the  small  to  the  great  proprietor,  they  were 
allowed  to  change  the  mastership  of  one  small  landowner  for 
that  of  another.  The  feeling  of  the  time  was  not  in  favor  of 
liberty ;  the  more  Russia  tended  to  become  a  modern  State,  the 
more  her  expenses  increased,  and  the  more  the  Government  was 
conscious  of  the  need  of  assuring  the  icvenues  by  fixing  to  the 
soil  the  population  which  was  subject  to  the  tax  and  con>Je.  It 
was  the  crushed  peasant  \\lio  bore  the  weight  of  the  reform, 
awaiting  the  day,  still  very  distant,  when  he  also  would  profit  by 
the  progress  accomplished. 

The  other  innovation  made  in   the   name  of  Feodor  was  th« 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


235 


establishment  of  the  patriarchate.  The  Russian  ecclesiastics 
complained  with  reason  of  having  to  obey  patriarchs  who  were 
themselves  only  slaves  of  the  infidels.  Ancient  Rome  was  pol- 
luted by  the  Pope  ;  Constantinople,  the  second  Rome,  was  pro- 
faned by  the  Turk :  had  not  Moscow,  the  third  Rome,  a  right 
at  least  to  independence  ?  Boris  encouraged  these  murmurs  : 
it  was  his  interest  that  at  the  death  of  the  Tzar  there  should  be 
a  great  ecclesiastical  authority  standing  alone,  and  that  this 
great  authority  should  owe  all  to  him.  He  profited  by  the  ar- 
rival at  Moscow  of  Jeremiah,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  to  in- 
duce him  to  found  the  Russian  patriarchate  and  consecrate 
Archbishop  Job,  who  was  a  tool  of  Boris.  The  latter  had  now 
a  powerful  friend. 

Boris  had  need  to  create  for  himself  a  strong  party.  Manj 
eyes  began  to  turn  towards  Ivan's  second  son,  Dmitri.  His 
mother's  kindred,  the  Nagois,  from  their  exile  at  Ouglitch, 
watched  carefully  all  the  variations  in  the  health  of  the  Tzar, 
and  the  movements  of  Boris.  The  death  of  Feodor  would  give 
the  throne  to  Dmitri,  and  power  to  his  relatives — power  to  avenge 
themselves  for  all.  It  would  deliver  Boris  up  to  the  reprisals  of 
his  enemies.  He  knew  this  only  too  well.  In  1591,  it  was  sud- 
denly announced  that  the  young  Dmitri  had  been  slain.  The 
public  voice  denounced  Boris.  To  stifle  suspicion  he  ordered 
an  inquest,  and  his  emissaries  had  the  audacity  to  declare  that 
the  young  prince  cut  his  own  throat  in  a  fit  of  madness,  and 
that  the  Nagois  and  the  people  of  Ouglitch  had  put  to  death  in- 
nocent men  as  murderers.  The  result  of  the  inquiry  was  the 
extermination  of  the  Nagois  and  the  depopulation  of  Ouglitch. 
Seven  years  after,  the  pious  Feodor  died,  and  in  the  person  of 
this  vague  and  virtuous  sovereign  the  race  of  bloody  and  vio- 
lent men  of  prey  who  had  created  Russia  was  extinguished. 
The  dynasty  of  Andrew  Bogolioubski  had  accomplished  its  mis- 
sion— it  had  founded  the  Russian  unity.  The  task  of  obtaining 
the  entrance  of  this  semi-Asiatic  State  into  the  bosom  of  civ- 
ilized Europe  was  reserved  for  another  dynasty. 


BORIS   GODOUNOF    (1598-1605) — APPEARANCE   OF   THE    FALSE 
DMITRI. 

Boris  Godounof  had  reached  the  aim  of  his  desires — but  at 
what  a  price  !  The  murder  of  Dmitri,  the  last  offshoot  of  St. 
Vladimir,  of  Monomachus,  of  George  and  the  Ivans,  was  no  or- 
dinary crime.  Russia  had  seen  many  horrors,  but  never  one 
like  this.  The  Tzar  might  have  put  the  Russian  princes  to 


236  HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSTA. 

death,  but  they  were  his  enemies,  they  were  often  guilty,  and 
then  he  was  the  Tzar.  Now  a  simple  boyard  sacrificed  to  his 
own  ambition  the  son  of  his  benefactor,  the  heir  of  his  master, 
the  last  descendant  of  the  founders  of  Russia.  It  was  one  of 
those  crimes  that  ever  deeply  agitate  the  people.  Boris  believed 
vainly  he  had  buried  all  in  the  earth  with  the  corpse  of  the 
Tzardvitch. 

After  the  death  of  Feodor,  his  widow  Irene  entered  the 
Dicvitchi  Afonastyr,  and  took  the  veil  there,  mourning  her  ster- 
ility, and  lamenting  that  "  by  her  the  sovereign  race  had  per- 
ished." The  nobles  and  the  people  took  the  oaths  to  her,  so 
that  there  should  be  no  interregnum.  A  woman  had  the  crown 
at  her  disposal,  and  that  woman  was  the  sister  of  Godounof. 
As  she  refused  to  govern,  the  douma  had  to  discharge  affairs 
under  the  presidency  of  the  Patriarch  Job,  who  owed  every- 
thing to  Godounof.  It  was  impossible  that  the  throne  should 
escape  Godounof ;  yet  it  seemed  strange  that  a  simple  boyard, 
a  creature  of  Ivan  IV.,  should  take  precedence  of  all  the  princes 
descended  in  direct  line  from  Rurik.  However,  the  Patriarch 
and  his  clergy,  the  boyards  and  citizens  of  Moscow,  appeared 
before  the  Dicvitchi  Monastyr,  in  which  Godounof  was  shut  up 
with  his  sister.  Job  entreated  him  to  accept  the  crown.  Go- 
dounof refused,  apparently  from  an  excess  of  modesty — in  reality, 
because  he  wished  to  receive  it  from  the  hands  of  the  nation. 
The  States-general  were  then  assembled  ;  the  lesser  nobility 
and  the  clergy,  that  is,  the  friends  of  Boris,  formed  the  majority. 
After  the  despotism  of  Ivan,  it  was  a  strange  sight  to  see  this 
assembly  dispose  of  the  crown.  The  Russia  of  the  Terrible 
had,  like  Poland,  her  elective  diet,  but  the  lesson  of  obedience 
had  been  so  well  learnt,  that  there  was  no  fear  of  anarchy.  They 
were  told  that  Ivan  IV.  on  his  death-bed  had  confided  to  Boris 
his  family  and  his  empire,  and  that  Feodor  had  put  around  his 
neck  a  chain  of  gold.  Men  made  the  most  of  the  experience  of 
government  that  he  had  acquired  under  two  reigns;  they 
boasted  of  his  skilful  dealings  with  Sweden,  Poland,  and  the 
Crimea.  The  national  voice  decreed  to  him  the  crown,  and  the 
States  sent  him  a  deputation.  He  still  feigned  to  hold  back, 
and  cast  out  "  the  tempters";  but  his  sister  "  blessed  him  for 
the  throne,"  and  thus  consecrated  the  wish  of  the  people. 
Boris  reigned. 

His  reign  was  not  without  glory.  He  took  up  the  designs  of 
his  master,  Ivan  IV.,  on  Livonia;  and  as  the  Terrible  had  his 
puppet  king  Magnus,  Boris  sought  first  a  Swedish  prince  Gustaf, 
and  then  a  Danish  prince  John,  to  play  the  part  of  King  of 
Livonia.  John  was  to  marry  Xenia,  daughter  of  the  new  Tzar, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


237 


when  he  died  suddenly.  Denmark  declared  that  he  was  pois- 
oned ;  and  in  the  Russia  of  that  date  everything  is  conceivable. 
The  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  who  had  vainly  tried  to  make  two  in- 
cursions,, and  who  had  then  a  quarrel  with  the  Turks,  sought 
the  friendship  of  Boris.  Affairs  in  the  Caucasus  were  less 
happy.  Alexander,  prince  of  Kachetia,  who  had  acknowledged 
himself  vassal  of  Boris,  was  assassinated,  and  succeeded  by  his 
son,  who  was  on  the  side  of  the  King  of  Persia  (Shah  Abbas), 
and  Islamism.  In  Daghestan  a  body  of  Russians  sent  to  occupy 
the  country  were  exterminated  by  the  Turks.  Russia  had  not 
yet  approached  near  enough  to  the  Black  Sea  to  be  able  to  take 
the  field  with  assurance  in  those  distant  regions.  In  Siberia, 
Koutchoum,  the  dethroned  khan,  was  vanquished  ;  the  battle 
was  decisive,  though  the  Russian  voi'evodes  only  had  400  men, 
and  Koutchoum  500 ;  but  none  the  less  did  it  decide  the  fate 
of  Asia. 

Boris  continued  to  be  sought  by  the  Powers  of  the  West,  be- 
ginning with  Austria.  In  1600  he  sent  Gregory  Mikouline  to 
Queen  Elizabeth.  "He  had  learnt,"  says  the  letter  of  the  Tzar, 
"  that  the  Queen  had  furnished  help  to  the  Turks  against  the 
Kaiser  of  Germany.  We  are  astonished  at  it,  as  to  act  thus 
is  not  proper  for  Christian  sovereigns ;  and  you,  our  well-be- 
loved sister,  you  ought  not  for  the  future  to  enter  into  relation- 
ships of  friendship  with  Bousourman  (Mussulman)  princes,  nor 
to  help  them  in  any  way,  whether  by  men  or  silver ;  but  on  the 
contrary  should  desire  and  insist  that  all  the  great  Christian  po- 
tentates should  have  a  good  understanding,  union,  and  strong 
friendship,  and  make  one  against  the  Mussulmans,  till  the  hand 
of  the  Christians  rise,  and  that  of  the  Mussulmans  is  abased." 

Mikouline  was  received  in  London  with  great  honors.  In  the 
audience  given  him  by  the  Queen,  "  she  arose  from  her  throne 
and  advanced  some  distance "  to  listen  to  his  compliments ; 
after  which  she  bowed  her  head  and  asked  for  news  of  the  health 
of  the  Tzar,  the  Tzarina,  Maria  Gregorievna,  and  of  the  Tzar 
eVitch  Feodor  Borissovitch.  She  received  "  with  great  joy  "  the 
credentials,  and,  being  seated,  listened  to  the  message  of  Mi- 
kouline. She  replied  to  the  passage  touching  on  her  relations 
with  Turkey  by  protestations  of  friendship  and  union  with  all 
the  Christian  princes,  gave  her  hand  to  be  kissed  by  the  envoy 
and  also  by  the  secretary  of  the  embassy,  Ivan  Zinovief,  and 
sent  them  to  talk  over  their  affairs  with  Lord  Robert  Cecil.  The 
commercial  interests  of  the  two  peoples  were  guaranteed  anew. 
During  his  visit  to  London,  Mikouline  was  present  at  the  revolt 
of  1601,  led  by  Essex,  and  saw  the  citizens  rush  through  the 
streets  with  armed  cuirasses  and  arquebuses  to  defend  the  Queen. 


23g  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

He  gives  in  his  account  many  curious  details  of  the  Court  of 
Mn^iand  at  this  epoch — the  most  brilliant  of  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth,— quitted  London  in  May  1601,  and  arrived  at  Arkhangel 
in  July. 

The  firm  government  of  Boris  gave  confidence,  and  he  con- 
tinued to  be  sought  by  the  Powers  of  the  West,  especially  by 
Austria  and  England.  Sweden  and  Poland  could  do  him  no 
hurt.  He  surrounded  himself  with  soldiers,  learned  men,  and 
artists.  With  their  help  he  raised  monuments,  built  the  tower 
of  Ivan  the  Great  at  the  Kremlin,  and  had  the  "  queen  of  bells" 
cast.  It  was  he  who  first  sent  young  Russians  to  Liibeck,%Eng- 
land,  France,  and  Austria,  to  study  European  arts.  The  fashions 
of  the  West  penetrated  to  Moscow,  and  some  of  the  nobles 
began  to  shave  their  beards. 

This  prosperity  was  all  unreal.  His  services — even  his  char- 
ities— turned  against  him.  "  He  presented  to  the  poor,"  says  a 
contemporary,  "  in  a  vase  of  gold,  the  blood  of  the  innocents. 
He  fed  them  with  unholy  alms."  The  oligarchic  party,  ashamed 
of  obeying  a  simple  boyard,  began  to  agitate.  After  having  par- 
doned his  ancient  rival  Belski,  Boris  was  obliged  to  throw  him 
into  prison.  He  acted  with  severity  towards  the  Romanofs, 
who  were  exiled,  many  of  them  having  been  previously  tortured. 
Feodor,  the  eldest,  was  forced  to  become  a  monk  under  the  name 
of  Philarete,  and  his  wife  took  the  veil  under  the  name  of  Marfa. 
From  the  son  of  this  monk  and  this  nun,  emperors  were  to  spring. 

Feeling  himself  surrounded  by  plots,  Boris  Godounof  did  not 
hesitate  before  any  means  of  security,  and  received  the  denun- 
ciations of  slaves  against  their  masters.  From  1601  to  1604  a 
frightful  famine  devastated  Russia,  and  was  followed  by  a  pest- 
ilence. The  famished  peasants  joined  the  servants  of  the  dis- 
graced nobles,  and  formed  themselves  into  bands  of  brigands 
who  infested  the  southern  provinces,  and  even  insulted  the 
environs  of  Moscow.  It  was  necessary  to  send  a  regular  army 
against  them.  To  these  calamities  was  added  the  universal  pre- 
sentiment of  others  yet  greater.  The  term  of  seven  years 
assigned  by  the  astrologers  to  the  reign  of  Boris  was  approach- 
ing. The  crime  of  Ouglitch,  still  unexpiated,  had  left  a  strange 
uneasiness  throughout  Russia.  Suddenly  there  arose  a  rumor 
that  the  murdered  Dmitri  was  living,  and  with  arms  in  his  hands 
was  making  ready  to  reconquer  the  empire. 

At  the  Monastery  of  the  Miracle  a  young  monk,  Gregory  Otre'- 
pief,  had  brought  himself  into  notice.  After  having  for  a  long 
while  wandered  from  convent  to  convent  at  his  own  pleasure,  he 
finally  reached  the  Monastery  of  the  Miracle  ;  and  the  Patriarch 
Job  discerning  his  intelligence,  made  him  his  secretary.  In  dis« 


ff.  STORY  OF  RUSSIA.  339 

cnarge  of  thes<*  functions,  he  bec^'ne  acquainted  with  more  than 
one  State  secret.  "  Do  you  know,"  he  used  to  say  to  the  other 
monks,  "  that  I  shall  be  one  day  Tzar  of  Moscow  ?  "  They 
spat  in  his  face,  and  the  Tzar  Boris  Goduonof  ordered  him  to 
be  confined  in  the  Monastery  of  the  White  Lake.  He  succeeded 
in  escaping ;  again  became  a  wandering  monk,  and,  being  well 
received  at  Novgorod-Severski,  had  the  temerity  to  write  to  the 
inhabitants  :  "  I  am  the  Tzarevitch  Dmitri,  and  I  will  not  forget 
your  kindness."  Then  he  threw  his  frock  to  the  winds,  enrolled 
himself  among  the  Zaporogues,  and  became  a  bold  rider  and  a 
brave  Cossack.  He  passed  into  the  service  of  Adam  Vichnev- 
etski,  a  Polish  pan  ;  he  fell  ill,  or  feigned  to  do  so,  summoned  a 
priest,  and  revealed  to  him,  under  the  seal  of  confession,  that  he 
was  the  Tzarevitch  Dmitri,  who  had  escaped  from  the  hands  oi 
the  assassins  at  Ouglitch,  by  another  child  being  substituted  in 
his  place.  He  showed  a  cross,  set  with  jewels,  that  hung  round 
his  neck,  given  him  by  Mstislavski,  godfather  of  the  Tzarevitch. 
The  Jesuit  did  not  dare  to  keep  such  a  secret  to  himself.  Otre*- 
pief  was  recognized  by  his  master,  Vichnevetski,  as  the  son  of 
the  Terrible.  Mniszek,  palatine  of  Sandomir,  promised  him  his 
support  and  the  hand  of  his  daughter,  Marina,  who  consented 
with  joy  to  be  Tzarina  of  Moscow.  The  strange  news  spread 
throughout  the  kingdom.  The  Pope's  nuncio  took  the  Tzarevitch 
under  his  protection,  and  presented  him  to  King  Sigismond. 
Were  they  really  deceived  ?  It  is  more  probable  that  they  saw 
in  him  a  formidable  instrument  of  agitation,  which  the  king 
flattered  himself  he  would  be  able  to  use  against  Russia,  and  the 
Jesuits  against  orthodoxy.  Sigismond  feared  to  take  on  himself 
the  rupture  of  the  truce  he  had  concluded  with  Boris,  and  expose 
himself  to  Russian  vengeance.  He  treated  Otrepief  as  Tzare'- 
vitch,  but  only  in  private  ;  he  refused  to  put  the  royal  troops  at 
his  disposal,  but  he  authorized  the  nobles,  who  were  touched  by 
the  misfortune  of  the  prince,  to  help  him  if  they  wished.  The 
pans  did  not  need  the  royal  authority;  many  of  them,  with  the 
levity  and  love  of  adventure  which  characterized  the  Polish 
nobility,  took  up  arms  in  favor  of  the  Tzarevitch.  Then  Boris 
recognized,  says  Leveque,  that  the  weakest  enemy  can  make  a 
usurper  tremble. 

No  revolution,  even  if  it  were  the  wisest  and  most  necessary, 
could  be  accomplished  without  putting  in  motion  the  dregs  of 
society — without  the  clashing  of  a  mass  of  interests,  and  the 
creation  of  a  multitude  who  are  outcasts  from  all  classes.  The 
transformation  which  was  then  taking  place  in  Russia  for  the 
formation  of  the  modern  united  Scate,  had  engendered  all  these 
elements  of  disorder.  The  peasant  whom  the  laws  of  Boris  had 


240  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

attached  to  the  glebe,  was  everywhere  sullenly  hostile.  The 
smaller  nobility,  for  whose  profit  this  law  had  been  made,  were 
scarcely  able  to  live  on  their  lands  ;  the  service  of  the  Tzar  had 
become  ruinous,  and  many  were  inclined  to  supplement  the  in- 
sufficiency of  their  revenues  by  brigandage.  The  boyards  and 
the  great  nobility  were  profoundly  demoralized — they  were  ready 
for  any  treason.  The  warlike  republics  of  the  Cossacks  of  the 
Don  and  the  Dnieper,  the  bands  of  serfs,  of  fugitive  peasants, 
who  infested  the  Russian  territory,  only  waited  for  an  opportunity 
to  lay  waste  the  country.  The  ignorance  of  the  masses  was  pro- 
found, and  their  minds  greedy  of  wonders  and  change  ;  no  other 
nation  has  allowed  itself  to  be  deceived  so  often  by  the  same 
fable,  the  sudden  apparition  of  a  prince  whom  all  believed  dead. 
Adventures  like  those  of  Otrdpief  the  false  Dmitri,  and  of  Pouga- 
tchef  the  false  Peter  III.,  could  not  be  reproduced  in  any  other 
European  country.  These  two  adventurers  rendered  themselves 
particularly  famous,  but  the  secret  archives  show  us  that  in 
the  Russia  of  the  jyth  and  i8th  centuries  there  were  hundreds 
of  impostors,  of  false  Dmitri's,  false  Alexis,  false  Peters  II.,  and 
false  Peters  III.  We  might  almost  think  that  the  Russians,  the 
most  Asiatic  of  all  European  nations,  had  not  renounced  the 
Oriental  dogma  of  re-incarnations  and  avatars.  The  Govern- 
ment was  powerless,  in  a  country  so  utterly  without  commu- 
nication, to  put  a  stop  to  the  most  absurd  rumors.  Besides,  the 
ignorant  and  superstitious  masses  were  hostile  to  it,  and  delighted 
to  allow  themselves  to  be  deceived.  So  many  elements  of  rebel- 
lion only  required  to  be  set  in  motion  by  the  hand  of  a  skilful 
agitator.  The  entrance  of  the  impostor  into  Russia  was  the 
signal  of  dissolution. 

As  long  as  the  power  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  clever  and 
energetic  Godounof,  he  was  able  to  maintain  order,  to  restrain 
the  authors  of  revolt,  and  to  discourage  the  false  Dmitri.  The 
Patriarch  Job  and  Vassili  Chou'iski,  who  had  conducted  the 
inquest  at  Ouglitch,  made  proclamations  to  the  people  affirm- 
ing that  Dmitri  was  really  dead,  and  that  the  impostor  was 
none  other  than  Otre'pief.  Similar  declarations  were  sent  to 
the  King  and  the  Diet  of  Poland.  Finally,  troops  were  put  in 
marching  order,  and  a  line  of  communications  established  with 
the  Western  frontier.  But  already  the  towns  of  Severia  revolted 
at  the  approach  of  the  TzareVitch,  and  the  boyards  publicly  an- 
nounced "  that  it  was  hard  to  bear  arms  against  your  lawful 
sovereign."  At  Moscow  the  health  of  the  Tzar  Dmitri  was 
drunk  at  feasts.  In  October  1604,  the  impostor  crossed  the 
frontier  with  an  army  of  Poles,  ,of  Russians  banished  in  the  pre- 
ceding reign,  and  German  mercenaries.  Severia  at  once  rose, 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  2 *  i 

and  Novgorod-Severski  opened  her  gates  to  him.  Prince  Mstis- 
lavski  tried  to  check  his  progress  by  a  battle,  but  the  soldie's 
were  struck  by  the  idea  that  the  man  whom  they  fought  was  the 
real  Dmitri.  "  They  had  no  hands  to  fight,  but  only  feet  to  fly." 
Vassili  Chouiiski,  Mstislavski's  successor,  did  his  best  to  rally 
their  courage,  and  this  time,  in  spite  of  his  intrepidity,  the  im- 
postor was  defeated  at  Dobrynitchi.  Boris  believed  the  war 
finished ;  but  in  reality  it  had  only  begun.  After  Severia  the 
Ukraine  rebelled,  and  4000  Cossacks  of  the  Don  came  to  rejoin 
"  the  brigand."  The  inaction  of  the  Muscovite  voievodes  proved 
that  the  spirit  of  treason  had  already  penetrated  the  nobility. 

In  1605  Boris  died,  commending  his  innocent  son  to  the  care 
of  Basmanof,  the  boyards,  the  Patriarch,  and  the  people  of 
Moscow.  But  hardly  had  Basmanof  taken  the  command  of  the 
army  of  Severia,  than  he  understood  that  neither  the  soldiers 
nor  the  leaders  were  going  to  fight  for  a  Godounof.  Rather 
than  be  the  victim  of  treason,  he  preferred  being  the  author  of 
it.  The  man  in  whom  the  dying  Boris  had  placed  all  his  confi- 
dence united  with  Galitsyne  and  Soltykof,  secret  adherents  of 
the  impostor.  He  solemnly  announced  to  the  troops  that 
Dmitri  was  in  truth  the  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  and  the  lawful 
master  of  Russia,  and  was  the  first  to  throw  himself  at  the  feet 
of  the  Pretender,  who  was  at  once  proclaimed  by  the  troops. 
Dmitri  marched  to  Moscow  ;  at  his  approach  his  partisans  rose, 
and  the  wife  and  son  of  Godounof  were  massacred.  Such  was 
the  end  of  the  dynasty  which  Boris  had  thought  to  found  in  the 
blood  of  a  Tzar^vitch  I 


HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  TIME   OF   THE  TROUBLES   (1605-1613). 

Murder  of  the  false  Dmitri — Vassill  Chouiski — The  brigand  of  Touchino— 
Vladislas  of  Poland — The  Poles  at  the  Kremlin — National  rising — Minine 
and  Pojarski — Election  of  Michael  Romanof. 


MURDER   OF   THE    FALSE    DMITRI — VASSILI    CHOUISKI THE     BRIG 

AND   OF   TOUCHINO. 

THE  event  that  had  taken  place  in  Russia  is  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  A  runaway  monk 
entered  Moscow  in  triumph  as  her  Tzar,  among  the  joyful 
tears  of  the  people,  who  thought  they  beheld  a  descendant  of 
their  long  line  of  princes.  Only  one  man  had  the  courage  to 
affirm  that  he  had  seen  Dmitri  assassinated,  and  that  the  new 
Tzar  was  an  impostor.  This  was  Vassili  Chor.i'ski,  one  of  those 
who  had  directed  the  inquest  at  Ouglitch,  and  who  had  defeated 
the  Pretender  at  the  battle  of  Dobrynitchi.  Denounced  by  Bas- 
manof,  he  was  condemned  to  death  by  an  assembly  of  the  three 
orders,  and  his  head  was  actually  on  the  block,  when  he  received 
a  pardon  from  the  Tzar.  Men  did  not  recognize  the  son  of 
Ivan  the  Terrible  in  this  act  of  clemency,  and  Otre'pief  had 
afterwards  cause  to  repent  of  it.  Job,  the  tool  of  Godounof, 
was  replaced  in  the  patriarchate  by  a  favorite  of  the  new  prince, 
the  Greek  Ignatius.  The  Tzar  had  an  interview  with  his  pre- 
tended mother,  Maria  NagoK,  widow  of  Ivan  IV.  Whether  be- 
cause she  wished  to  avenge  her  injuries,  or  merely  to  recover 
her  honors,  Maria  recognized  Otre'pief  as  her  son,  and  publicly 
embraced  him.  He  loaded  the  Nagoi's,  \vhom  he  regarded  as 
his  maternal  relations,  with  favors;  the  Romanofs  were  likewise 
recalled  from  exile,  and  Philarete  made  Metropolitan  of  Rostof. 
The  Tzar  presided  regularly  at  the  doutna,  where  the  boyards 
admired  the  clearness  of  his  apprehension  and  the  variety  of  his 
knowledge.  As  a  monk  he  was  a  man  of  letters,  and  as  a  pupil  of 
the  Zaporogues  an  accomplished  horseman,  bold  and  skilful  in 
all  bodily  exercises.  He  was  fond  of  foreigners,  and  even  spoke 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


«43 


of  sending  the  Russian  nobles  to  be  educated  in  the  West.  This 
taste  for  strangers  went  hand  in  hand  with  a  certain  contempt 
for  the  national  ignorance  and  grossness.  He  offended  the 
boyards  by  his  raillery,  and  alienated  the  people  and  the  clergy 
by  his  disdain  of  Russian  customs  and  religious  rites.  He  ate 
veal,  never  slept  after  dinner,  did  not  take  baths,  borrowed 
money  from  the  convents,  turned  the  monks  into  ridicule,  fought 
with  bears,  visited  jewellers  and  foreign  artisans  familiarly,  and 
took  no  heed  of  the  severe  Court  etiquette.  He  pointed  cannons 
with  his  own  hand  ;  organized  sham  fights  between  the  national 
troops  and  the  foreign  mercenaries ;  was  pleased  to  see  the 
Russians  beaten  by  the  Germans  ;  and  surrounded  himself  by  a 
European  guard,  with  Marge  ret,  Knutsen,  and  Van  Dennen  at 
its  head.  On  his  entry  into  Moscow  a  struggle  took  place 
between  the  clergy  and  the  papal  legate,  and  two  bishops  were 
exiled.  He  got  no  thanks  for  resisting  the  legate  and  Poland — 
for  declining  to  help  the  one  to  effect  the  union  of  the  two 
Churches,  and  refusing  to  cede  to  the  other  an  inch  of  Russian 
land.  The  arrival  of  his  wife,  the  Catholic  Marina,  with  a  suite 
of  Polish  gentlemen,  who  assumed  an  insolent  demeanor  towards 
the  Russians,  completed  the  irritation  of  the  Muscovites.  Less 
than  thirty  days  after  his  entrance  into  the  Kremlin,  men  were 
ripe  for  a  revolution. 

Vassili  Chouiski,  pardoned  by  Otrdpief,  was  the  head  of  the 
conspirators.  The  extreme  confidence  of  the  Tzar  was  his  ruin. 
One  night  the  boyards  attacked  the  Kremlin,  which  had  been 
left  unguarded.  Otrepief  was  thrown  out  of  a  window,  and 
stabbed  in  the  court  of  the  palace  ;  Basmanof,  who  defended  him, 
being  killed  by  his  side.  They  took  the  two  corpses,  put  ribald 
masks  on  their  faces,  and  exposed  them  on  the  place  of  execu- 
tions between  a  flute  and  a  bag-pipe.  The  widow  of  Otrepief, 
and  the  Polish  envoys  sent  to  assist  at  the  wedding,  were  spared, 
but  kept  prisoners  by  the  boyards.  The  corpse  of  the  "  sorcerer  " 
was  burned,  and  a  cannon  was  charged  with  his  ashes,  which 
were  blown  to  the  winds  (1606). 

It  was  now  necessary  to  elect  a  new  Tzar.  Two  candidates, 
two  chiefs  of  princely  families,  presented  themselves,  Vassili 
Chouiski  and  Vassili  Galitsyne.  Chouiski  had  signalized  him 
self  by  his  hatred  of  the  usurper,  had  defeated  him  in  battle,  had 
been  condemned  by  him  to  death,  and  had  been  foremost  in  the 
conspiracy.  The  boyards  would  have  preferred  assembling  the 
States-general,  as  in  1598,  but  Vassili  would  not  await  their 
decision.  More  impatient  and  less  wise  than  Boris  Godounof, 
he  chose  to  owe  his  crown  to  the  Muscovites  alone,  and  not  to 
the  delegates  of  the  whole  nation.  It  was  the  original  sin  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

new  administration.  Vassili  had  on  his  side  neither  hereditary 
right,  like  the  ancient  Tzars,  nor  the  vote  of  the  three  orders, 
like  Boris.  His  claim  to  the  throne  thus  remained  dubious  in 
times  of  the  greatest  disturbance.  The  Patriarch  Ignatius,  the 
nominee  of  the  impostor,  was  replaced  by  Hermogenes.  Thus, 
at  each  change  in  the  government,  a  corresponding  change  took 
place  in  the  first  dignity  of  the  Church. 

On  ascending  the  throne,  Vassili  swore  a  solemn  oath  to  put 
no  boyard  to  death  without  trial,  not  to  confiscate  the  goods  of 
criminals,  and  to  chastise  calumniators.  True  Russians  felt  pro- 
found sorrow  when  they  saw  the  Tzar  thus  despoil  himself  of  his 
sovereign  rights,  and  alienate  part  of  his  autocratic  power  for  the 
benefit  of  the  boyards.  He  was  entering,  indeed,  on  the  path 
of  the  pacta  convcnta,  which,  at  every  new  election  in  Poland,  de- 
prived the  king  of  some  of  his  attributes,  and  led  to  the  enfee- 
bling of  the  crown,  and  the  triumph  of  the  aristocratic  anarchy 
of  the  nobles. 

The  provinces  were  discontented  at  not  being  consulted  in 
the  Choice  of  a  sovereign.  They  learnt  almost  at  the  same 
moment  that  Dmitri  had  regained  the  throne  of  his  forefathers  ; 
then  that  Dmitri  was  an  impostor,  who  had  usurped  the  throne 
by  the  aid  of  the  devil  ;  finally,  that  a  new  Tzar  reigned  over 
Russia.  They  did  not  know  what  to  believe,  or  in  whom  to  trust ; 
everything  seemed  doubtful.  The  Russian  conscience  was  greatly 
troubled,  and,  in  the  universal  demoralization,  adventurers  found 
an  easy  road  to  success. 

Vassili,  who  was  fifty  years  old,  wanted  both  energy  and 
prestige.  He  had  specially  distinguished  himself  by  his  talents 
for  intrigue,  and  even  his  partisans  reproached  him  with  avarice. 
The  elements  of  disorder  put  in  motion  by  the  last  two  revolu- 
tions, were  not  yet  appeased.  Neither  ambitious  boyards,  nor 
felonious  nobles,  nor  insurgent  peasants,  nor  brigands,  nor  the 
Cossacks  and  Zaporogues,  nor  the  companies,  nor  the  foreign 
mercenaries  were  satisfied.  In  such  a  situation  it  was  inevitable 
that  a  new  impostor  should  take  the  place  of  the  former,  and 
again  furnish  the  worst  passions  with  an  outlet.  Instead  of  one, 
there  were  two  Pretenders  :  on  one  side  a  Cossack  of  Terek 
gave  himself  out  to  be  the  Tzare'vitch  Peter,  a  pretended  son  of 
the  chaste  Feodor;  on  the  other,  it  was  announced  that  Dmitri 
had,  for  the  second  time,  escaped  his  murderers.  The  same 
transparent  fable  was  always  received  with  the  same  credulity, 
real  or  feigned.  At  Moscow  the  people  recalled  the  fact  that 
the  face  of  the  corpse  exposed  on  the  Red  Place  was  covered 
with  a  mask.  Vassili  tried  in  vain  to  disabuse  the  people  ;  he 
was  not  more  successful  than  Boris.  Had  not  Boris  overwhelmed 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


245 


the  Muscovites  and  the  King  of  Poland  with  evidence  ?  Severia 
and  the  turbulent  cities  of  the  South  again  rose  ;  the  discon- 
tented masses  armed  again  for  a  new  Otrepief  against  a  new 
Godounof.  In  the  South,  a  certain  Bolotnikof,  by  birth  a  serf, 
called  all  the  brigands,  all  slaves  and  peasants  to  his  standard, 
and  began  a  servile  war.  By  his  side,  Prince  Chakovsko'i 
Pachkof,  one  of  the  die'ti-boyarskie,  the  voievode  Soundoulof,  and 
the  aristocratic  Procopius  Lapounof,  organized  the  war  of  the 
nobles.  On  the  banks  of  the  Volga,  the  Tatars  and  P'innish 
tribes,  under  pretext  of  sustaining  the  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible, 
proclaimed  their  national  independence.  The  empire  was 
menaced  with  total  dissolution  by  the  reaction  of  all  the  forces 
till  then  repressed  by  the  strong  hand  of  the  Tzars. 

The  reappearance  of  the  false  Dmitri  was  announced  through- 
out Russia.  In  reality  no  one  had  dared  to  take  up  this  role ; 
but  the  impostor  was  so  universally  necessary  that  he  was  every- 
where recognized  even  before  he  existed.  Bolotnikof  and  his 
peasants  threatened  the  capital,  and  agitated  the  lower  classes 
of  Moscow.  The  Tzar  Chou'iski  seemed  lost,  when  he  was  saved 
by  the  military  talents  of  his  nephew,  Skopine  Chou'iski.  La- 
pounof and  two  other  leaders  took  fright,  and  were  disgusted 
with  their  popular  allies  ;  they  separated  from  Bolotnikof,  offered 
to  submit  to  the  Tzar,  and  were  received  at  Moscow  with  caresses. 
Bolotnikof,  left  alone,  fell  back  on  Toula,  and  was  so  closely 
pressed  that  he  wrote  to  Mniszek  that  all  was  lost  if  he  could 
not  produce  the  false  Dmitri.  At  last  the  desired  one,  expected 
by  all  the  rebels,  appeared.  His  real  name  is  undivulged;  hi» 
origin  is  uncertain  ;  he  is  only  mentioned  by  the  title  of  the 
"  second  false  Dmitri."  All  we  know  of  him  is  that  he  was  a 
clever,  intelligent  man,  tolerably  educated,  and  very  brutal.  He 
came  too  late  to  save  Toula.  Bolotnikof  was  drowned,  and  the 
false  Peter  hanged. 

Lissovski  and  Rojinski,  two  Polish  nobles  of  great  repute, 
soon  came  to  the  aid  of  the  false  Dmitri.  The  Zaporogues  and 
the  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  under  Zaroutski,  hastened  to  take  part 
in  the  expected  booty.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  there  were  in 
their  ranks  five  or  six  impostors,  who  all  gave  themselves  out  as 
being  sons  or  grandsons  of  Ivan  the  Terrible.  With  all  these 
forces  the  impostor  inarched  on  Moscow,  defeated  the  detach- 
ments of  the  Tzar's  army,  and  established  himself  twelve  versts 
from  the  capital,  at  the  village  of  Touchino.  This  encampment 
has  remained  celebrated  in  the  history  of  the  troubles ;  it  has 
gained  for  this  second  impostor  the  surname  of  the  brigand  of 
Touchino,  and  for  his  Russian  partisans  the  designation  of 
Touchinists.  Thus  in  face  of  the  Tzar  of  Moscow — the  nominee 


246  HISTOR  V  OF 

of  the  Muscovites,  who  hardly  seemed  the  Tzar  of  Russia — 
stood  the  Tzar  of  Touchino.  He,  like  his  rival,  had  his  Court, 
his  army,  his  administration.  He  distributed  titles  and  digni- 
ties ;  and — evidence  of  profound  popular  degradation — an  am- 
bitious crowd  was  to  be  seen  passing  from  one  court  to  the 
other,  falling  at  the  feet  of  both  Tzars,  receiving  double  pay, 
and,  loaded  with  honors  by  Vassili,  flying  to  Dmitri,  to  return 
again  to  Vassili.  A  sobriquet  was  invented  to  designate  these 
refugees.  They  were  called  "birds  of  passage  "  {p£r£Uti), 

Whilst  Touchino  menaced  and  braved  Moscow,  Polish  rein- 
forcements flocked  to  the  camp  of  the  brigand,  in  spite  of  the 
promises  and  assurances  of  the  perfidious  Sigismond.  The 
celebrated  vo'ievode,  John  Sapieha,  came  to  join  Lissovski,  and 
they  both  tried  to  capture  the  Troitsa  monastery.  This  famous 
convent  tempted  them  by  its  riches.  With  its  ramparts  and 
towers,  it  was  a  strong  place  of  arms  for  the  partisans  of  the 
T/;ir  ;  its  monks  were  convinced  that  they  knew  how  the  country 
was  to  be  saved,  and  did  not  cease  to  call  all  the  neighboring 
cities  to  take  up  arms  "  for  faith  and  the  Tzar."  These  warlike 
monks,  who  were  like  the  "  Church  militant "  of  the  French 
League — though  they,  to  be  sure,  defended  at  once  the  national 
and  the  orthodox  cause — repelled  all  the  assaults  of  the  Catholic 
adventurers.  After  a  siege  of  sixteen  months,  Sapieha  had  to 
acknowledge  himself  beaten.  Abraham  Palitsyne,  treasurer  of 
the  convent,  has  narrated  the  exploits  of  his  brethren.  Souzdal, 
Vladimir,  Pere'iaslaf,  Rostof,  and  eighteen  other  northern  towns, 
not  being  able  to  decide  which  was  the  legitimate  sovereign, 
opened  their  gates  to  the  Touchinists.  Choui'ski  was  still  dis- 
liked at  Moscow,  but  they  knew  what  they  had  to  expect  from 
the  second  false  Dmitri.  Honest  people  who  did  not  look  for- 
ward to  the  triumph  of  the  brigand,  and  who  saw  no  possible 
Tzar  but  Vassili,  forced  themselves  to  support  him.  What 
saved  the  capital  was  the  bad  discipline  that  reigned  in  the 
enemy's  camp ;  new  rebellions  broke  out  against  the  rebel. 
Serfs  and  mougiks  threatened  their  masters  and  ravaged  t he- 
country,  and  the  brigand  was  forced  to  employ  part  of  his  forces 
to  suppress  this  brigandage. 

About  this  time  the  TzarChouTski  turned  tor  help  to 
Sweden  ;  he  ceded  the  town  of  Karela  to  Charles  IX.,  contracted 
with  him  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  against  Poland, 
and  received  in  return  a  body  of  5000  Swedes,  under  the  com- 
mand of  De  la  Gardie.  With  this  reinforcement,  Skopine 
ChouYski  expelled  the  Touchinists  from  the  cities  of  the  North, 
advanced  on  Moscow,  and  obliged  the  brigand  to  evacuate 
Touchino.  The  perfidious  policy  of  the  Polish  government, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSfA. 


247 


which  armed  the  impostors  against  the  Tzar  and  allowed  their 
vo'ievodes  to  attack  a  friendly  country,  amply  justified  Choui'ski 
in  seeking  an  ally  in  Sweden.  But  this  foreign  intervention 
gave  rise  to  another :  the  King  of  Poland,  affecting  to  think 
himself  endangered  by  the  Tzar's  alliance  with  his  worst  enemy, 
decided  to  drop  the  mask  and  openly  interfere.  It  was  thus 
that  under  the  most  fatal  auspices  the  long  rivalry  began  be- 
tween these  two  Slav  nations,  whom  statesmanship  had  once 
tried  to  unite  under  the  same  sceptre.  Poland,  governed  by  an 
instrument  of  the  Jesuits,  inflicted  on  Russia  a  frightful  wrong. 
Sigismond  disloyally  affected  zeal  for  a  pretender  whom  he 
knew  to  be  an  impostor ;  he  violated  treaties  and  all  the  rights 
of  nations;  allowing  Russia  to  be  attacked  by  his  armies,  all  the 
while  that  he  was  asserting  his  peaceful  disposition.  His  inva- 
sion of  Russia  filled  up  the  measure  of  his  iniquities.  This 
conduct  necessarily  left  ineffaceable  memories  in  the  hearts  of 
the  Russians. 

By  taking  up  arms,  Sigismond  intended  to  assure  to  his  son 
the  throne  of  Russia,  and  restore  to  Poland  the  places  she  had 
lost  in  the  i5th  century.  He  besieged  Smolensk,  and  wrote  to 
announce  to  the  inhabitants  that  he  did  not  come  to  shed  the 
blood  of  the  Russians,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  protect  them  ; 
and  that  he  was  prepared  to  guarantee  to  them  the  maintenance 
of  their  worship  and  liberties.  The  people  of  Smolensk,  who 
knew  the  ardor  with  which  Sigismond  persecuted  orthodoxy  in 
his  own  dominions,  repelled  all  his  advances,  and  the  voi'evode 
Che'in  made  ready  to  defend  the  town  to  the  last.  Sigismond 
wrote  from  his  camp  at  Smolensk  to  the  Polish  voievodes  who 
were  serving  under  the  impostor,  with  orders  to  abandon  him. 
The  Polish  Touchinists  obeyed  with  regret,  complaining  that  the 
king  would  appropriate  the  reward  of  their  toils  ;  the  Russian 
Touchinists,  not  knowing  what  to  do,  followed  their  allies,  and, 
already  accustomed  to  every  sort  of  treason,  made  their  submis- 
sion to  the  king,  and  offered  to  recognize  his  son  Vladislas  as 
Tzar  of  Russia.  At  the  head  of  these  refugees  were  the  boyard 
Michael  Soltykof  and  the  currier  Andronof. 

Choui'ski  had  now  two  enemies  equally  formidable — the  King 
of  Poland  and  the  false  Dmitri,  who,  himself  threatened  by  the 
ambition  of  his  royal  rival,  had  to  retreat  to  the  South.  Vassili's 
nephew,  Skopine,  who  had  saved  him  by  his  victories,  and  won 
him  popularity  by  his  frank  manners,  died  in  the  midst  of  his 
successes.  The  people  then  revived  their  old  dislike  of  the 
Tzar,  and  accused  him  of  poisoning  his  nephew.  Another  of 
the  Chouiskis,  the  ambitious  Dmitri,  was  also  involved  in  the 
accusation.  Dmitri  Choui'ski,  as  unpopular  with  the  army  as  he 


2 48  HTSTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

A 

was  with  the  capital,  was  betrayed  in  battle  by  the  foreign  regi- 
ments, and  this  defeat  completed  the  ruin  of  Vassili.  The  peo- 
ple rose  in  Moscow  ;  a  great  assembly  of  the  populace  and  the 
boyards  was  held  in  the  plains  of  Serpoukhof.  The  Tzar  was 
"  humbly  requested  "  to  vacate  the  throne,  because  he  caused 
Christian  blood  to  be  shed,  and  was  not  successful  in  his  gov- 
ernment. The  southern  frontier  towns  also  refused  to  obey  him. 
Vassili  Chouiski  yielded,  and  abdicated  ;  a  short  time  afterwards 
he  was  forced  to  become  a  monk. 


VLADISLAS  OF  POLAND — THB  POLES  AT  THE  KREMLIN. 

Everyone  was  obliged  to  take  an  oath  of  obedience  to  the 
douma  of  boyards,  who  naturally  seized  the  executive  power 
during  the  interval  before  the  election  of  a  new  Tzar.  There 
were  two  candidates  for  the  vacant  throne — Vlaclislas,  son  of 
the  King  of  Poland,  and  the  false  Dmitri.  Now  the  latter  was 
evidently  an  impostor.  He  ruled  the  upper  and  middle  classes 
by  terror  alone,  and  had  only  the  populace  on  his  side.  As  they 
could  not  at  once  get  rid  of  both  the  Poles  and  the  brigand  of 
Touchino,  they  chose  the  lesser  of  the  two  evils. 

A  Polish  army,  under  the  hetman  Zolkiewski,  had  arrived  at 
Mojalsk :  the  impostor  occupied  Kolomenskoe'.  The  boyards 
invited  Zolkiewski  to  approach  Moscow,  and  they  began  to  nego- 
tiate. The  hetman  promised  in  the  name  of  the  young  prince  to 
maintain  orthodoxy,  the  liberties  and  privileges  of  the  orders,  the 
partition  of  legislative  power  between  the  king  and  the  douma.  No 
one  was  to  be  executed  without  a  trial,  nor  deprived  of  his 
dignities  without  a  reason ;  all  Muscovites  might  go,  if  they 
wished,  to  be  educated  abroad.  The  Russians  began  to  like  the 
Polish  system  of  the  pacta  conventa.  The  inhabitants  of  Moscow 
vowed  fealty  to  the  Tzar  Vladislas.  One  point  still  remained  to 
be  decided — the  Russians  desired  that  Vladislas  should  embrace 
orthodoxy.  Zolkiewski  reserved  the  decision  to  the  King  of 
Poland.  He  induced  the  boyards  to  send  ambassadors  to  Sigis- 
mond,  and  Prince  Vassili  Galitsyne  and  the  Metropolitan  Phila- 
rete  Romanof  left  immediately  for  the  camp  at  Smolensk.  This 
terrible  crisis  seemed  at  the  point  of  disentangling  itself  in  a  way 
that  was  tolerably  advantageous  for  Russia.  She  was  to  have  a 
foreign  sovereign,  but  one  already  acquainted  with  Slav  man- 
ners, and  his  being  a  foreigner  was  even  a  gage  for  the  parti- 
sans of  reforms  and  Western  civilization.  Poland  and  Russia, 
which  might  have  united  under  Ivan  and  under  Feodor,  had 
another  chance  of  doing  so  under  a  Polish  prince.  Such  was 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSTA.  2  40 

• 

the  confidence  of  the  boyards,  that,  finding  the  security  of  Mos- 
cow troubled  by  the  neighborhood  of  the  impostor,  they  pro- 
posed to  Zolkiewski  to  enter  into  the  town  and  even  the  Kremlin. 
This  unpatriotic  resolution,  dictated  to  the  nobles  by  their 
mistrust  of  the  lower  classes,  was  to  bring  fatal  consequences  on 
Moscow.  Zolkiewski  wished  to  take  his  guarantees  against  the 
chiefs  of  the  nation  :  Galitsyne  and  Philarete  were  already  under 
Smolensk  at  the  discretion  of  the  king ;  he  sent  for  the  fallen 
Tzar  also  and  his  two  brothers  as  hostages. 

Sigismond  meditated  a  new  treachery  against  Russia.  His 
object  was  to  conquer  Muscovy,  not  for  his  son,  but  for  himself. 
He  stipulated  with  the  ambassadors  that  Smolensk  should  be 
ceded  to  Poland,  but  they  courageously  repelled  this  proposi- 
tion. They  demanded  on  their  own  part  that  Vladislas  should 
leave  immediately  for  Moscow,  as  being  the  only  means  for  allay- 
ing the  suspicions  to  which  the  conduct  of  the  king  had  given 
rise.  Sigismond  refused.  He  wished  to  be  Tzar  himself.  In 
despair  of  conquering  the  scruples  of  the  two  chief  ambas- 
sadors, he  addressed  himself  to  their  inferior  colleagues.  The 
Secretary  Tomila,  on  being  asked  to  open  the  gates  of  Smolensk, 
replied  :  "  If  I  were  to  do  it,  not  only  would  God  and  the  Mus- 
covites curse  me,  but  the  earth  would  open  and  swallow  me.  We 
are  sent  to  negotiate  in  the  interests  of  our  country,  not  of  our- 
selves." All  the  Russians  did  not  show  this  probity.  The  dis- 
gusting spectacle  of  the  camp  of  Touchino  was  repeated  at 
Smolensk.  Men  crowded  round  the  king,  as  formerly  around 
the  brigand,  to  wring  from  him  dignities,  land,  and  money. 
Soltykof,  Mstislavski,  and  the  currier  Andronof  especially  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  baseness.  At  Moscow  the  boy- 
ards denounced  each  other  to  the  commandant  of  the  Polish 
garrison.  By  the  suggestion  of  Soltykof  they  wrote  to  the  king 
to  beg  him  to  make  his  entry  into  Moscow.  The  Patriarch  Her- 
mogenes  refused  to  sign  the  letter,  and  the  people,  more  patri- 
otic than  the  boyards,  supported  the  Patriarch.  Some  few 
nobles,  like  Andrew  Galitsyne  and  Ivan  Vorotinski  had  the  honor 
of  being  suspected  by  the  Poles,  and  were  arrested  by  Leo 
Sapieha,  successor  of  Zolkiewski.  By  permitting  the  Poles  to 
enter  the  towns,  the  oligarchs  had  put  Russia  in  the  power  of 
the  King  of  Poland. 

About  this  time  the  second  impostor  died,  assassinated  by 
one  of  his  private  enemies.  His  death  had  grave  consequences. 
It  healed  misunderstandings,  as,  since  the  false  Dmitri  was  dead, 
Sigismond  had  no  longer  any  pretext  for  keeping  his  troops  in 
Russia.  The  nobles  had  now  no  motive  for  distrusting  the 
people,  and  could  unite  with  them  against  the  strangers.  Whis. 


25° 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


pers  were  heard  in  the  streets  of  Moscow  that  it  was  necessary 
to  combine  against  the  Lithuanians.  Soltykof  and  Andronof  de- 
nounced these  generous  intentions  to  the  enemy.  The  Patriarch 
Hermogenes,  suspected  of  patriotism,  was  thrown  into  prison, 
where  he  afterwards  died  of  hunger.  The  provinces  were  agi- 
tated, and  the  inhabitants  of  Smolensk  and  Moscow  wrote  to  all 
the  towns  entreating  them  not  to  accept  the  perfidious  enemy  of 
orthodoxy  as  their  prince.  The  citizens  did  their  part,  the 
Jit'ti-boyarskiS  made  their  preparations  for  war,  and  Lapounof 
collected  an  army  at  Riazan.  At  his  approach  Moscow  began  to 
fill  with  reinforcements,  and  the  Poles  fortified  the  rampart  of 
the  Kremlin.  Suddenly  a  quarrel  broke  out  between  the  people 
and  the  soldiers.  In  the  first  heat  the  Poles  and  Germans  are 
said  to  have  massacred  7000  men ;  but  resistance  was  organized 
in  the  streets  of  the  Bie'lyi-gorocl,  and  the  foreigners,  repulsed  by 
Prince  Pojarski,  had  to  intrench  themselves  in  the  Kremlin  and 
the  Kital-gorod.  To  clear  the  neighborhood,  the  Poles  set  fire 
to  the  neighboring  streets.  Moscow  was  almost  entirely  in 
flames. 

On  hearing  of  the  preparations  of  Lapounof  and  the  revolt 
of  Moscow,  Sigismond  caused  the  Muscovite  ambassadors, 
Galitsyne  and  Philarete,  to  be  arrested,  and  sent  them  prisoners 
to  Marienburg,  in  Prussia.  A  short  time  afterwards  Smolensk 
fell,  after  a  resistance  compared  by  the  Poles  themselves  to  that 
of  Saguntum,  though  the  king  was  not  ashamed  to  torture  the 
brave  voievode  Chel'n,  who  had  dared  to  resist  him.  He  entered 
Warsaw  in  triumph,  and  the  unhappy  Vassili  Chou'iski,  a  Tzar 
of  Russia,  was  dragged  a  prisoner  through  the  streets  in  triumph. 
Lapounof  was  now  reinforced  by  Prince  Troubetsko'i  and  Ivan 
Zaroutski,  at  the  head  of  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don.  A  hundred 
thousand  men  besieged  the  Poles,  who  were  shut  up  in  the 
Kremlin,  but  the  elements  composing  this  large  army  were  too 
conflicting  and  corrupt  for  the  enterprise  to  succeed.  The  three 
leaders  were  mutually  jealous  of  each  other.  Lapounof  had 
committed  more  than  one  treason,  Zaroutski  had  been  one  of 
the  first  to  declare  for  Otrdpief,  and  the  others  were  hardly  more 
loyal.  The  soldiers  of  Lapounof  hated  the  Cossacks,  who  on 
their  part  only  sought  occasions  for  pillage.  The  Poles  man- 
aged to  raise  the  men  of  the  Don,  by  inventing  a  pretended  letter 
of  Lapounof,  saying,  "  Wherever  you  take  them,  slay  them  or 
drown  them."  A  revolt  broke  out  in  the  camp  :  Lapounof  was 
assassinated,  many  of  his  adherents  were  murdered,  and  this 
great  army  was  miserably  dispersed. 

Russia,  a  prey  to  civil  war,  as  was  France  of  the  i6th  cen- 
tury to  tae  wars  of  religion,  suffered,  like  her,  from  foreign  ir> 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


25' 


tervention.  In  France,  English  and  Spaniards  watched  the  tides 
of  party  success,  and  profited  by  them  all  to  gain  some  place  or 
some  province.  Russia  became  the  theatre  of  war  for  two  rival 
Powers,  Catholic  Poland  and  Lutheran  Sweden.  When  Vladis- 
las  was  proclaimed  Tzar,  Sweden  considered  herself  offended, 
and  acted  as  an  enemy.  De  la  Gardie  took  the  ports  of  the 
Baltic  ;  and  the  boyards  of  Novgorod  the  Great,  imitating  those 
of  Moscow,  opened  the  gates  to  the  foreigners.  It  was  under 
the  protection  of  Poland  that  the  first  two  impostors  had  arisen 
in  the  west  and  south ;  under  the  protection  of  Sweden  a  third 
false  Dmitri  started  up  in  the  country  of  Pskof.  Marina 
Mniszek  on  her  side,  who  after  the  death  of  Otrdpief  had  thrown 
herself  into  the  arms  of  the  brigand  Touchino,  acknowledged 
the  Cossack  Zaroutski  as  guardian  of  her  son. 


NATIONAL  RISING MININE  AND  POJARSKI — ELECTION  OF 

MICHAEL   ROMANOF. 

The  situation  of  Russia,  like  that  of  France  during  the  Eng- 
lish wars,  or  the  wars  of  the  League,  was  frightful.  The  Tzar 
was  prisoner,  the  Patriarch  captive,  the  Swedes  at  Novgorod  the 
Great,  the  Poles  at  the  Kremlin,  and  the  higher  nobility  bought 
by  the  strangers.  Everywhere  bands  of  brigands  and  highway- 
men pillaged  towns,  tortured  peasants,  and  desecrated  churches. 
Famine  increased :  in  certain  districts  men  were  driven  to  eat 
human  flesh.  This  country,  accustomed  to  be  governed  auto- 
cratically, had  no  longer  any  government.  In  her  supreme  need, 
who  was  to  save  Russia  ?  It  was  the  people,  by  a  movement 
similar  to  that  which  in  France  produced  Joan  of  Arc ;  it  was 
the  people,  in  the  largest  acceptation  of  the  word,  including  the 
honest  nobility  and  the  patriotic  clergy.  Already  miraculous 
rumors  showed  the  excitement  that  possessed  all  minds.  At 
Nijni-Novgorod,  at  Vladimir,  apparitions  were  seen.  The  monks 
of  Troitsa,  with  the  hegumene  Dionysius  and  treasurer-historian 
Palitsyne  at  their  head,  sent  letters  to  all  the  Russian  cities. 
The  citizens  of  Kazan  raised  the  distant  Russia  of  the  Kama. 
When  the  despatches  from  Troitsa  reached  Nijni,  and  the  pro- 
topope  read  them  to  the  assembled  people,  a  citizen  of  the  town, 
the  butcher  Kouzma  Minine,  rose.  "  If  we  wish,"  he  said  "  to 
save  the  Muscovite  Empire,  we  must  spare  neither  our  lands  nor 
our  goods  ;  let  us  sell  our  houses,  and  put  our  wives  and  children 
to  service ;  let  us  seek  a  man  who  will  fight  for  the  orthodox 
faith,  and  march  under  his  banner."  To  give  up  all,  and  to  arm 
themselves,  such  was  the  word  that  was  handed  round.  Minine 


25 2  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

and  others  gave  the  third  of  their  possessions  ;  one  woman  who 
had  12,000  roubles  gave  10,000  of  them.  Those  who  hesitated 
to  contribute  had  to  do  it  by  force.  Minine  only  accepted  the 
office  of  treasurer  of  the  insurrection  on  condition  that  his  fel- 
low-citizens should  place  themselves  absolutely  at  his  discretion. 
A  chief  was  necessary ;  the  people  saw  that  he  must  be  a  noble. 
Now  at  Starodoub  lived  Prince  Dmitri  Pojarski,  still  weak  from 
wounds  he  had  received  in  the  revolt  of  Moscow.  Minine  went 
to  seek  him,  and  besought  him  to  take  the  command  of  the 
army.  Their  preparations  then  began,  and  they  fasted  and 
prayed.  Russia  felt  herself  in  a  state  of  sin  ;  she  had  taken  and 
violated  so  many  oaths — to  Godounof,  to  his  son  Feodor,  to 
Otre'pief,  to  Choui'ski,  to  Vladislas.  Three  days  of  fast  were 
commanded.  Everyone  took  part  in  it,  even  the  infants  at  the 
breast.  With  the  money  collected  they  organized  the  streltsiy 
and  equipped  the  dieti-boyarskit ;  but  they  refused  to  admit  those 
impure  elements  which  had  imperilled  the  national  cause.  They 
would  have  none  of  the  help  of  Margeret,  the  mercenary  who 
had  perjured  himself  so  many  times,  nor  of  the  pillaging  and 
murdering  Cossacks.  They  remembered  the  assassination  of 
Lapounof. 

With  the  army  marched  the  bishops  'and  monks ;  the  holy 
images  were  borne  at  the  head  of  the  columns.  This  enthusiasm 
did  not  exclude  political  wisdom  ;  they  wished  at  least  to  secure 
the  support  of  Sweden  against  Poland,  so  they  amused  de  la  Gar- 
die  by  negotiating  for  the  election  of  a  Swedish  prince.  When 
the  troops  had  completely  assembled  at  laroslavl,  they  marched 
on  Moscow.  The  Cossacks  of  Zaroutski  and  Troubetskoi  were 
still  encamped  under  its  walls;  but  these  two  armies,  though 
fighting  for  the  same  object,  could  not  act  together.  An  attempt 
to  murder  Pojarski  had  increased  the  mistrust  of  the  men  of  the 
Don.  When,  however,  the  hetman  Chodkiewitz  tried  to  throw  a 
detachment  into  Moscow,  he  was  defeated  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Moskowa  by  Pojarski,  on  the  right  bank  by  the  Cossacks. 
It  is  true  that  the  latter,  at  the  decisive  moment,  refused  to 
fight ;  it  needed  the  prayers  of  Abraham  Palitsyne  to  bring  them 
into  line,  and  the  intervention  of  Minine  and  his  troops  to  de- 
cide the  victory.  The  Polish  garrison  of  the  Kremlin  were  then 
pressed  so  close  that  they  were  reduced  to  eat  human  flesh. 
They  capitulated,  on  condition  that  they  were  to  have  their  lives. 
They  gave  up  their  prisoners,  among  whom  was  young  Michael 
Romanof. 

The  Kremlin  and  the  Kital-gorod  had  opened  their  gates, 
when  men  learned  that  Sigismond  was  advancing  to  the  help  of 
the  Polish  garrison.  It  was  too  late.  At  the  news  of  these 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


253 


events  he  had  to  retrace  his  steps ;  the  devotion  of  the  people 
of  Russia  had  freed  their  country.  This  year  of  1612  remained 
for  long  in  the  memory  oi  the  nation  ;  and  when  the  invasion  of 
1812  came  to  refresh  their  recollections,  they  raised  on  the  Red 
Place  a  colossal  monument  to  the  two  liberators,  the  butcher 
Minine  and  the  Prince  Pojarski. 

Russia,  once  more  herself,  could  proceed  freely  to  the  election 
of  a  Tzar.  A  great  National  Assembly  gathered  at  Moscow. 
It  was  composed  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  dignitaries,  of  dele- 
gates nominated  by  the  nobles,  by  the  dieti-boyarskie\  the  mer- 
chants, the  towns  and  districts.  The  delegates  had  to  be  fur- 
nished with  special  powers.  They  all  agreed  they  would  have 
no  stranger,  neither  Pole  nor  Swede.  When  it  became  a  ques- 
tion of  choosing  among  the  Russians,  scheming  and  rivalry 
commenced ;  but  one  name  was  pronounced  which  gained  all 
the  votes,  that  of  Michael  Romanof.  He  was  elected  not  for 
his  own  sake,  for  he  was  only  fifteen  years  old,  but  for  that  of 
his  ancestors  the  Romanofs,  and  his  father,  the  Metropolitan 
Philarete,  then  prisoner  at  Marienburg.  The  name  of  Romanof, 
of  the  kin  of  Ivan  IV.,  was  the  highest  expression  of  the  national 
feeling  (1613). 

The  new  dynasty  had  better  chances  of  stability  than  that  of 
Godounof  or  that  of  Choui'ski.  There  were  no  crimes  to  reproach 
it  with;  it  had  its  origin  in  a  national  movement,  it  dated  from 
the  liberation,  and  had  only  glorious  memories.  No  phantom,  no 
recollection,  no  regret  of  the  past,  stood  before  it.  The  house 
of  Ivan  the  Terrible  had  been  the  cause  or  the  occasion  of  too 
much  suffering  to  Russia ;  the  false  Dmitris  had  stifled  the  re- 
grets for  the  true.  The  accession  of  the  Romanofs  coincided 
with  a  powerful  awakening  of  patriotism,  with  the  passion  for 
unity,  with  universal  longing  for  order  and  peace.  Already 
they  inspired  the  same  devotion  as  the  oldest  dynasty.  It  is 
said  that  the  Poles,  on  hearing  of  the  election  of  Michael,  sent 
armed  men  to  seize  him  in  Kostroma.  A  peasant,  Ivan  Sous- 
sanine,  misled  the  Poles  through  deep  woods  in  the  darkness 
of  the  night,  and  died  under  their  blows.  This  is  the  subject 
of  the  beautiful  opera  by  Glinka,  of  '  Life  for  the  Tzar.'  The 
time  of  troubles  had  ended. 


2  54  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    ROMANOFS  :    MICHAEL    FEODOROVITCH    AND    THE   PATRIARCH 
PHILARETE    (1613-1645). 

Restorative  measures — End  of  the  Polish  war — Relations  with  Europe — The 
States-general. 


RESTORATIVE  MEASURES — END  OF  THE  POLISH  WAR. 

RUSSIA  had  at  last  a  sovereign,  but  she  was  in  the  situation 
in  which  Henry  IV.  found  France  at  his  accession.  The  great 
civil  and  foreign  war  was  finished,  but  it  had  left  everywhere  its 
evil  traces.  Henry  IV.,  when  he  became  king,  had  been  obliged 
to  reconquer  all  his  kingdom,  province  by  province,  town  by 
town,  half  by  arms  and  half  by  negotiations,  to  win  it  from 
chiefs  of  the  bands,  leaguers,  great  governors  who  had  become 
independent,  and  foreigners.  In  the  same  way,  in  Russia,  Zar- 
outski,  leader  of  the  Don  Cossacks,  ruled  in  Astrakhan,  with 
Marina  and  the  son  she  had  borne  to  the  brigand  of  Touchino  ; 
the  Polish  partisan  Lissovski  ravaged  the  country  of  the  south- 
west ;  the  Zaporogian  Cossacks  infested  the  regions  of  the  Dwina: 
scarce  a  province  but  was  a  prey  to  some  robber-band.  No  doubt 
the  Poles  had  been  expelled  from  the  Kremlin  as  the  Spaniards 
were  expelled  from  reconquered  Paris,  but  an  offensive  move- 
ment of  the  enemy  might  be  expected ;  moreover  they  still 
retained  many  places,  notably  the  important  town  of  Smolensk. 
Sweden  had  profited  by  the  state  of  Russia  to  lay  hands  on  the 
cities  of  Carelia  and  on  Novgorod  the  Great.  In  the  interior  of 
the  country,  the  towns  and  cities  were  in  ruins,  the  population 
diminished  and  impoverished,  and  brigandage  had  become  a 
habit.  At  the  Court,  the  Russian  lords  had  learned  to  disobey, 
and  were  not  less  turbulent  than  the  Leaguers  who  surrounded 
Henry  IV.  What  Russia  needed  was  a  reign  of  restoration. 

Michael  Romanof  had  not  the  genius  of  the  restorer  of 
France.  He  was  almost  a  child,  and  the  boyards  turned  his  au- 
thority against  himself :  the  silent  and  bloody  intrigues  that  Ivan 
IV.  had  only  restrained  by  capital  punishment  broke  forth  again, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA, 


255 


and  the  ferocious  depravity  of  the  nobles  was  the  shame  of  Russia. 
Quiet  men  and  foreigners  regretted  Ivan  the  Terrible.  "  Oh 
that  God  would  open  the  eyes  of  the  Tzar  as  he  opened  those 
of  Ivan  ! "  wrote  a  Dutchman  at  this  time,  "  otherwise  Muscovy 
is  lost."  Happily  the  good  will  of  the  nation  was  equal  to  every 
emergency.  The  day  of  the  coronation  the  men-at-arms  pre- 
sented a  request  for  pay,  as  their  devastated  fiefs  no  longer  gave 
them  any  revenue.  The  Tzar  and  the  clergy  sent  letters  to  the 
Russian  towns  to  entreat  them  to  help  the  State  to  pay  the  troops, 
and  to  aid  her  with  men  and  money  against  the  foes  within  and 
without.  Zaroutski  was  the  first  who  was  attacked.  The  inhab- 
itants of  Astrakhan,  outraged  by  his  barbarities,  had  rebelled 
and  imprisoned  him  in  the  Kremlin,  whence  he  attempted  to 
escape  at  the  approach  of  the  Russian  voi'evodes.  He  was  capt- 
ured, and  condemned  to  be  impaled ;  the  son  of  the  brigand  of 
Touchino,  in  spite  of  his  youth,  was  hung,  and  his  mother,  Marina 
the  Pole,  died  in  prison.  By  the  advice  of  the  clergy  and  the 
•boyards,  the  Tzar  tried  to  negotiate  with  Baloven.  another  brig- 
and chief,  who,  by  way  of  answer,  attacked  Moscow,  but  was 
defeated  and  his  band  destroyed.  The  people  of  the  Dwina 
themselves  executed  justice  on  the  Zaporogues.  Lissovski  was 
eagerly  pursued  by  Pojarski,  but  this  clever  partisan  outwitted 
all  the  efforts  of  the  liberator.  Peace  with  Poland  had  to  be 
concluded  before  he  could  be  quieted. 

In  1615  a  Congress  assembled  beneath  the  walls  of  Smolensk 
under  the  mediation  of  Erasmus  Handelius,  envoy  of  the 
Emperor  of  Germany.  It  was  impossible  to  come  to  an  under- 
standing :  the  Poles  refused  to  admit  the  election  of  Michael 
Romanof,  and  wished  to  recognize  Vladislas  as  Tzar  of  Russia. 
"  You  might  as  well,"  said  Handelius,  "try  to  reconcile  fire  and 
water.*'  The  negotiations  were  broken  off.  With  Sweden,  how- 
ever, they  were  more  successful ;  here  the  mediators,  England 
and  Holland,  showed  more  zeal  and  energy  than  the  house  of 
Austria  had  done.  The  troubles  and  the  impoverished  state  of 
Muscovy  reacted  on  their  commerce.  By  pacifying  the  North, 
they  hoped  to  re-open  Russia  to  their  merchants,  and  secure  for 
themselves  greater  advantages. 

In  May  1614,  Ouchakof  and  Zaborovski  had  been  sent  to  ask 
help  from  Holland  in  men  and  money.  The  Dutch  gave  them 
a  thousand  gulden,  but  said  that  they  had  themselves  only 
lately  ended  a  great  war,  that  they  could  give  the  Tzar  no 
substantial  aid,  but  would  do  their  utmost  to  induce  the  King  of 
Sweden  to  make  peace.  Alexis  Ziousine  had  been  despatched 
to  London  in  June  1613  ;  he  was  ordered  to  narrate  all  the  ex- 
cesses committed  by  the  Poles  in  Moscow,  and  to  say  to  King 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

James,  "  After  the  destruction  of  Moscow,  the  Lithuanians  seized 
your  merchants — Mark  the  Englishman,  and  all  the  others — 
took  away  all  their  wares,  subjected  them  to  a  rigorous  imprison- 
ment, and  ended  by  massacring  them."  If  by  chance  he  dis- 
covered that  the  English  were  aware  that  it  was  not  the  Poles, 
but  the  Cossacks  and  the  lower  classes  who  had  put  Mark  to 
death  and  seized  on  the  merchandise,  he  was  to  have  other  ex- 
cuses ready.  The  Tzar  entreated  help  in  money  to  pay  the  men- 
at-arms,  and  not  in  soldiers,  as  he  could  give  them  no  pay. 
They  would  think  themselves  happy  if  the  King  of  England 
would  send  the  Tzar  money,  provisions,  powder,  lead,  sulphur, 
and  other  munitions,  to  the  value  of  about  100,000  roubles ;  but 
would  content  themselves  with  70,000  roubles'  worth,  or  in  case 
of  absolute  necessity  with  50,000.  James  received  the  envoy 
and  his  suite  courteously,  informed  them  that  he  was  aware  of 
the  wrongs  the  Poles  and  the  Swedes  had  inflicted  on  them,  and 
ordered  them  three  times  following  to  cover  themselves.  The 
Russians  declined  to  do  this.  "  When  we  see  thy  fraternal  love- 
and  lively  friendship  for  our  sovereign,  when  we  hear  thy  royal 
words  which  glorify  our  prince,  and  contemplate  thine  eyes  thus 
close  at  hand,  how  can  we,  kJiolopys  as  we  are,  put  our  hats  on 
our  heads  at  such  a  moment  ?  "  In  August  1614,  the  year  follow- 
ing this  embassy,  there  appeared  at  Moscow  John  Merrick,  who 
had  for  long  traded  with  the  holy  city,  but  who  came  this  time 
as  ambassador  from  James  I.,  qualified  with  full  powers,  as 
prince,  knight,  and  gentleman  of  the  bedchamber.  In  an  inter- 
view with  Prince  Ivan  Kourakine  he  began  by  demanding,  on 
the  part  of  the  English  merchants,  a  direct  communication  with 
India  by  the  Obi,  and  with  Persia  by  the  Volga  and  Astrakhan. 
Kourakine  alleged  that  this  route  was  unsafe,  that  Astrakhan 
had  only  lately  been  delivered  from  Zaroutski,  and  that  numerous 
brigands  still  infested  the  Volga.  When  security  should  be 
established,  they  would  open  the  question  with  King  James. 
They  then  passed  to  the  subject  of  mediation.  John  Merrick 
declared  that  the  King  of  England  had  assembled  his  Parliament 
to  consider  the  best  means  of  helping  the  Tzar,  but  that  the 
Parliament  had  as  yet  decided  nothing,  and  that  he  had  no  in- 
structions on  this  head.  "  But,"  said  Kourakine,  "  can  you  not 
assure  us  that  your  sovereign  will  send  us  help  in  the  spring?" 
"  How  can  I  guarantee  it  ?  The  journey  is  long,  and  there  is  no 

way  save  that  by  Sweden I  believe,  however,  he  will  give 

you  aid."  Merrick,  having  contented  himself  with  causing  the 
Russians  to  hope,  returned  to  commercial  matters :  liberty  of 
trade  by  the  Obi  and  the  Volga,  concessions  of  iron  and  jet 
mines  on  the  Soukhona,  concessions  of  territory  about  Vologda, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


*57 


for  new  establishments,  &c.  The  Russian  boyards  continued  to 
expatiate  on  the  difficulty  of  the  situation,  and  John  Merrick  went 
to  Novgorod  to  negotiate  with  the  Swedes,  where  he  was  joined 
by  the  envoys  of  Holland.  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden, 
had  obtained  some  successes  over  the  vo'ievodes,  but  he  had  not 
contented  the  Novgorodians,  nor  been  able  to  take  Pskof.  The 
kings  of  Denmark  and  Poland  were  his  enemies,  and  he  may 
have  felt  a  presentiment  of  the  splendid  career  that  awaited  hiro 
in  Germany.  He  consented  to  open  a  congress,  and  in  1617 
concluded  with  Russia  the  Peace  of  Stolbovo,  by  which  he  re 
ceived  an  indemnity  of  20,000  roubles,  and  kept  Ivangorod,  lam 
Koporie,  and  Orechek  (Schliisselburg),  but  ceded  Novgorod, 
Roussa,  Ladoga,  and  some  smaller  places. 

Russia  was  now  able  to  concentrate  all  her  forces  against  hei 
worst  enemy — the  instigator  of  all  her  troubles.  The  Poles  took 
the  offensive,  under  the  command  of  Vladislas  and  the  hetman 
Khodke'vitch.  Dorogobouge  and  Viasma  were  surrendered  by 
the  treachery  or  weakness  of  their  voievodes  ;  but  Mojai'sk  and 
Kalouga  (which  was  defended  by  Pojarski)  resisted  and  arrested 
the  progress  of  the  enemy.  Vladislas,  who  had  all  the  instincts 
of  a  soldier,  resolved  in  1618  to  march  on  Moscow.  Michael 
Romanof  dreaded  treason  more  than  the  arms  of  the  enemy, 
and  determined  to  exact  a  new  oath  of  allegiance  from  his  sub- 
jects. He  assembled  the  Estates,  and  informed  them  that  he 
was  ready  once  more  to  suffer  hunger  in  besieged  Moscow,  and 
to  fight  Lithuania,  but  he  asked  in  return  that  the  nobles  should 
do  as  much  for  him,  and  that  they  should  resist  the  seductions 
of  "  the  king's  son."  Everyone  made  the  required  promise,  and 
fresh  letters  went  out  from  Moscow,  calling  all  the  towns  to  a 
holy  war.  Vladislas,  however,  had  stopped  at  Touchino,  where 
the  hetman  of  Little  Russia,  after  having  ravaged  the  frontiers  of 
the  south-west,  had  joined  him  with  his  Cossacks.  The  days  of 
the  second  impostor  and  of  Touchinism  seemed  to  have  come 
back.  The  Poles  having  been  defeated  in  an  attack  on  Moscow 
proposed  a  congress,  which  met  at  Devulino,  not  far  from  the 
Troi'tsa  monastery,  lately  the  victim  of  a  new  siege.  A  truce  of 
fourteen  years  and  six  months  was  agreed  on.  Poland  kept 
Smolensk  and  Severia,  and  Vladislas  did  not  even  renounce  the 
title  of  Tzar  of  Russia,  leaving  this  difficulty  to  be  solved  by  the 
judgment  of  God.  Such  a  peace  was  only  an  armistice  (1618)  ; 
there  was,  however,  an  exchange  of  prisoners  :  the  brave  voi'e- 
vode  Che'in  and  the  Metropolitan  Philarete  returned  to  Russia, 
and  the  latter  was  at  once  made  Patriarch. 

By  the  return  of  his  father  the  young  Tzar  obtained  the 
counsellor  his  inexperience  had  hitherto  needed,  and  even  more 


258  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

than  a  counsellor — a  colleague,  and  almost  a  master.  PhilareU 
was  in  some  sort  associated  with  the  throne.  The  empire  had 
two  chief  nobles,  two  sovereigns,  the  Tzar  of  all  the  Russias 
and  the  Patriarch  of  all  the  Russias.  They  figured  together 
in  all  public  acts,  and  together  received  the  reports  of  the  boy- 
ards  and  foreign  ambassadors.  It  was  time  that  a  master  was 
given  to  the  boyards.  The  Soltykofs,  Michael's  favorites,  had 
distributed  the  empire  among  their  partisans,  and  plundered 
the  treasury  and  the  nation.  They  were  charged  with  having 
falsely  accused  Michael's  first  bride,  who  was  expelled  from  the 
palace,  and  having  poisoned  the  second.  This  was  a  common 
practice  with  the  nobles  of  Muscovy,  those  who  were  in  favor 
fearing  a  new  Tzarina  above  everything.  They  shrank  from  no 
means  of  removing  her  from  their  path  ;  and  their  reputation  on 
this  head  was  so  firmly  established  that  the  King  of  Denmark 
had  refused  Michael  the  hand  of  his  niece,  because,  "  in  the 
reign  of  Boris  Godounof,  his  brother,y?<7//<r/of  the  Princess  Xenia, 
had  been  poisoned ;  and  this  would  also  be  the  fate  of  this 
young  girl."  Philarete  made  the  boyards  feel  the  weight  of  the 
Tzar's  hand,  and  exiled  the  most  guilty. 


RELATIONS   WITH    EUROPE — THE   STATES-GENERAL. 

Russia  had  begun  at  last  to  be  a  European  nation.  Every- 
where her  political  or  commercial  alliance  was  sought.  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  who  was  making  preparations  to  play  his  part  as  the 
champion  of  Protestantism  in  Germany,  wished  to  assure  him- 
self of  the  friendship  of  Russia  against  Poland.  He  represented 
to  Michael,  with  much  truth,  that  the  Catholic  League  of  the 
Pope,  the  King  of  Poland,  and  the  house  of  Hapsburg  were  as 
dangerous  to  Russia  as  to  Sweden  ;  that  if  Protestantism  suc- 
cumbed it  would  be  the  turn  of  orthodoxy,  and  that  the  Swedish 
army  was  the  outpost  of  Russian  security.  *'  When  your  neigh- 
bor's house  is  on  fire,"  writes  the  King,  "you  must  bring  water 
and  try  to  extinguish  it,  to  guarantee  your  own  safety.  May 
your  Tzarian  majesty  help  your  neighbors  to  protect  yourself." 
The  terrible  events  of  late  years  had  only  too  well  justified 
these  remarks.  The  intrigues  of  the  Jesuits  with  the  false 
Dmitri,  and  the  burning  of  Moscow  by  the  Poles,  were  always 
present  to  the  memory  of  the  Russians.  A  treaty  of  peace  and 
commerce  was  concluded  with  Sweden,  and  a  Swedish  ambas- 
sador appeared  at  the  Court. 

England  had  rendered  more  than  one  service  to  Russia.  In 
her  pressing  need  James  I.  had  lent  her  20,000  roubles,  and 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


2S9 


British  mediation  had  led  to  the  Peace  of  Stolbovo.  John  Mer- 
rick  considered  he  had  the  right  to  demand  that  Russia  should 
open  to  English  commerce  the  route  to  Persia  by  the  Volga, 
and  to  Hindostan  by  Siberia.  The  Tzar  consulted  the  merch- 
ants of  Moscow.  They  unanimously  replied  that  such  a  con- 
cession would  be  their  ruin,  for  they  could  never  hope  to  rival 
the  wealthier  and  more  enterprising  English.  They  were,  how- 
ever, ready  to  sacrifice  their  interests  to  those  of  the  empire,  if 
the  dues  paid  by  the  foreigners  were  essential  to  the  treasury. 
John  Merrick  declined  to  pay  any  dues,  and  the  negotiation  was 
broken  off.  They  paid  him,  however,  the  20,000  roubles,  as  he 
assured  them  the  King  had  need  of  them  for  the  help  of  his  son- 
in-law,  the  Elector  Palatine. 

In  1615  the  Tzar  sent  an  envoy  into  France,  to  announce  to 
Louis  XIII.  his  accession  to  the  throne,  and  to  ask  his  aid 
against  Poland  and  Sweden.  In  1629  there  appeared  at  Mos- 
cow the  ambassador  Duguay  Cormenin,  who  was  commissioned 
to  solicit  for  French  commerce  what  had  been  refused  to  Eng- 
lish trade — free  passage  into  Persia.  He  also  spoke  of  a  politi- 
cal alliance.  "  His  Tzarian  majesty,"  he  said,  "  is  the  head  of 
Eastern  countries  and  the  orthodox  faith  ;  Louis,  King  of  France, 
is  the  head  of  Southern  countries ;  and  the  Tzar,  by  contracting 
a  friendship  and  alliance  with  him,  will  get  the  better  of  his 
enemies.  As  the  Emperor  is  closely  allied  to  the  King  of  Po- 
land, the  Tzar  must  be  allied  to  the  King  of  France.  These  two 
princes  are  everywhere  glorious ;  they  have  no  equals  either  in 
strength  or  power ;  their  subjects  obey  them  blindly,  while  the 
English  and  Brabancons  are  only  obedient  when  they  choose. 
The  latter  buy  their  wares  in  Spain,  and  sell  them  to  the  Rus- 
sians at  a  high  price,  but  the  French  will  furnish  them  with 
everything  at  a  reasonable  rate."  This  negotiation  for  the  first 
Franco-Russian  treaty  spoken  of  in  history  had  no  result.  As 
to  the  route  to  Persia,  it  was  refused  by  the  boyards,  who  said 
that  the  French  might  buy  the  Persian  merchandise  from  the 
Russians. 

Another  ally  against  Poland  offered  itself  to  Muscovy.  The 
Sultan  Osman  sent  to  Moscow  the  Prince  Thomas  Cantacuzene, 
to  announce  that  Turkey  had  already  declared  war  against  the 
king.  The  Russians  asked  no  more  than  to  help  him,  and  Phil- 
arete  and  Michael  assembled  the  States-general.  The  deputies 
"  beat  their  foreheads  "  to  the  sovereigns,  beseeching  them  to 
"  hold  themselves  firm  for  the  holy  churches  of  God,  for  their 
Tzarian  honor,  and  for  their  own  country  against  the  enemy. 
The  men-at-arms  were  ready  to  fight,  and  the  merchants  to  give 
money."  The  troops  were  already  assembling  when  news  was 


26o  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

received  that  Turkey  had  been  defeated,  and  war  was  post- 
poned. The  preparations  had  revealed  certain  faults  existing 
in  the  national  army,  and  it  was  decided  to  enlist  foreign  mer- 
cenaries, and  instruct  the  native  soldiers  in  Western  tactics. 
Orders  were  accordingly  given  to  buy  arms,  and  to  attract  into 
Russia  gun-founders  and  artillerymen.  The  Russia  of  Michael 
and  Philarete  already  announced  the  Russia  of  Peter  the  Great ; 
the  era  of  reform  had  begun.  Each  day  Muscovy  strengthened 
herself  against  her  European  enemies,  by  turning  against  them 
the  weapon  of  their  own  civilization. 

She  remained  quiet  for  eight  years.  In  1632  Sigismond  III. 
died,  and  the  Elective  Diet  assembled  at  Warsaw.  Michael 
was  determined  not  to  let  this  opportunity  slip,  and  the  second 
war  with  Poland  began.  It  did  not  turn  out  as  well  as  had  been 
hoped.  The  vices  of  the  old  organization  and  institutions 
showed  themselves  anew.  The  two  volevodes  commanding  the 
army  suddenly  became  possessed  with  the  old  mania  of  disput- 
ing precedence.  They  were  deprived  of  their  command,  and 
replaced  by  Che'in  and  Ismailof,  who  crossed  the  frontier  with 
32,000  men  and  158  guns.  Twenty-three  towns  surrendered  to 
the  Muscovites,  but  Smolensk  held  out  for  eight  months,  and, 
just  as  it  showed  signs  of  capitulating,  the  Polish  army  under 
Vladislas,  now  King  of  Poland,  made  its  appearance.  On  the 
rumor  of  a  Tatar  invasion  in  the  south,  part  of  the  Russian 
nobles  at  once  hastened  to  the  defence  of  their  own  lands,  and 
Cheln,  thus  enfeebled,  was  attacked  by  the  king,  and  his  com- 
munications cut.  Famine  obliged  him  to  surrender  in  the  open 
field,  and  he  obtained  leave  to  retreat,  though  forced  to  abandon 
both  his  baggage  and  his  artillery.  His  only  fault  lay  in  not 
understanding  as  well  as  his  Western  adversaries  the  strategy 
of  modern  warfare.  He  was  only  guilty  of  being  a  Russian  of 
unreformed  Russia.  His  enemies,  however,  accused  him  of  trea- 
son in  a  council  of  war,  and  he  was  condemned  with  his  col- 
league to  be  beheaded.  Philarete  was  no  longer  there  to  force 
the  boyards  to  live  at  peace  with  each  other.  He  died  in  1633. 
Vladislas,  successful  at  Smolensk,  was  defeated  at  Biela'ia,  and 
a  congress  was  held  on  the  Polianka.  The  conditions  of  the 
truce  of  Devulino  were  confirmed.  The  Russians  paid  20,000 
roubles,  and  Vladislas  renounced  all  claim  to  the  throne  of  Mos- 
cow, and  recognized  for  the  first  time  the  Tzarian  title. 

Shortly  after  there  arose  a  new  occasion  for  war.  In  spite 
of  the  treaties  of  peace  concluded  by  Poland  and  Russia  with 
Turkey,  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,  who  were  subjects  of  Po- 
land, and  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  who  were  subjects  of  Russia, 
still  continued  to  fight  against  Islam.  To  them,  besides  being 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  2  6 1 

a  h,jly  war,  it  was  the  means  of  procuring  zipouns, — wide  trou- 
sers, of  a  beautiful  scarlet  cloth.  Determined  partisans  and 
pirates,  both  on  land  and  sea,  they  were  thorns  in  the  sides  of 
the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Grand  Turk,  attacking  with 
their  light  boats  the  heavy  Ottoman  galteys,  and  insulting  the 
coasts  of  the  Bosphorus  and  Anatolia.  They  were  disavowed  by 
their  respective  governments,  and  were  the  subjects  of  perpetual 
recrimination  between  the  Porte  and  the  two  Slav  States.  They 
were  the  brigands  and  corsairs  of  Christianity,  as  the  Tatars 
were  of  Islamism. 

In  1627,  4400  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  aided  by  1000  Zapo- 
rogues  of  the  Dnieper,  surprised  Azof,  and  offered  to  make  a  gift 
of  it  to  the  Tzar  of  Moscow.  The  acquisition  of  such  an  impor- 
tant place,  which  would  secure  the  command  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Don  and  access  to  the  Black  Sea,  was  very  tempting  to  Russia. 
Again  Michael  Romanof  assembled  his  Estates.  We  must  observe 
that  since  Ivan  IV.  first  assembled  them  the  meetings  had  become 
more  and  more  frequent.  The  parliamentary  history  of  Russia 
dates  from  the  reign  of  "  the  Terrible."  This  time  the  nobles 
declared  themselves  ready  to  fight  if  they  had  money  given  them 
for  their  equipment,  and  begged  the  Tzar  to  exact  it  from  the 
clergy  and  merchants.  The  latter  alleged  that  the  robberies  of 
the  public  functionaries,  the  prolongation  of  the  wars,  and  the 
rivalries  with  the  Germans  and  Persians,  had  ruined  them.  The 
officers  sent  by  the  Tzar  to  Azof  reported  that  it  was  in  too  bad 
a  state  for  defence.  In  fact  the  conquest  of  Azof,  like  that  of 
the  Crimea  in  the  time  of  Ivan,  was  premature,  Russian  coloni- 
zation not  having  as  yet  extended  itself  sufficiently  towards  the 
South.  The  Tzar  gave  orders  accordingly  to  the  Dontsi  for  its 
evacuation,  and  they  did  not  leave  one  stone  upon  another. 

Western  influence  made  considerable  progress  during  this 
reign.  The  merchants  entreated  that  access  into  the  interior 
might  be  forbidden  to  those  strangers  whose  rivalry  was  their 
ruin  ;  but  the  latter  were,  on  the  contrary,  so  necessary  to  the 
State  and  to  the  general  progress  that  they  had  to  be  invited 
into  the  country  by  all  possible  means.  Under  Michael,  more 
foreigners  than  ever  came  into  Russia.  Vinius  the  Dutchman 
established  foundries  at  Toula  for  guns,  bullets,  and  other  iron 
weapons.  Marselein  the  German  opened  similar  ones  on  the 
Vaga,  the  Kostroma,  and  the  Cheksna.  Privileges  were  granted 
to  other  foreign  merchants  or  artisans,  and  the  only  condition 
imposed  on  them  was  not  to  conceal  the  secrets  of  their  indus- 
tries from  the  inhabitants  of  the  countries.  This  is  another 
point  of  resemblance  between  this  reign  of  reform  and  that  of 
Henri  IV.,  who  also  summoned  to  his  kingdom  Flemish,  Eng- 


26i  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

lish,  and  Venetian  artisans.  One  European  import  did  not 
however,  find  favor  in  Russia — the  usage  of  tobacco  was  for" 
bidden,  and  snuff-takers  had  their  noses  cut  off. 

Learned  men  were  also  sought  from  Europe.  Adam  Olea- 
rius  of  Holstein,  a  celebrated  astronomer,  geographer,  and 
geometer,  was  invited  to  Moscow.  Already  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  Peter  the  Great  was  foreshadowed.  A  cosmographi- 
cal  treatise  was  translated  from  Latin  into  Russian.  The  Patri- 
arch Philarete  had  established  at  Moscow  an  academy  where 
Greek  and  Latin,  the  languages  of  the  Renaissance,  were  taught. 
The  Archimandrite  Dionysius  of  Troi'tsa,  who  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  struggle  with  the  Poles,  undertook  to  correct  the 
text  of  the  Slavonian  books — a  hazardous  enterprise,  which  cost 
Dionysius  himself  a  short  period  of  persecution.  Native  histori- 
ans continued  to  re-edit  their  chronicles,  and  Abraham  Palit- 
syne,  cellarer  of  Troitsa,  narrated  the  famous  siege  of  the 
convent. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

WESTERN   RUSSIA   IN   THE    I7TH   CENTURY. 

The  political  union  of  Lublin  (1509),  and  the  religious  union  (1595) — Com- 
plaints of  White  Russia — Risings  in  Little  Russia. 


POLITICAL   UNION    OF    LUBLIN    (1509),    AND   THE    RELIGIOUS 

UNION    (1595). 

SPAIN  in  the  i6th  century  had  taken  a  large  share  in  the 
troubles  of  France  ;  France  in  the  lyth  century  dismembered  the 
Spanish  Empire.  In  like  manner  Poland  expiated  her  part  in 
the  civil  wars  of  Russia.  After  the  reforming  reign  of  Michael 
Romanof,  his  son  Alexis  was  to  inaugurate  the  era  of  reprisals. 
Russia  had  almost  fallen  before  Poland,  like  France  before  Bur- 
gundy or  Austria,  but  she  grew  strong  at  Poland's  expense,  and 
on  the  ruins  of  Poland  founded  her  own  greatness.  A  glance  at 
the  constitution  of  the  Polish  Empire  will  show  us  what  internal 
difficulties  prepared  the  way  for  the  external  enemy — the  Mus- 
covite, the  Moskal,  as  he  was  called  by  the  men  of  the  West. 

White  Russia  and  Little  Russia  had  been  conquered  by  the 
Lithuanians,  and  formed  with  them  part  of  the  Polo-Lithuanian 
State.  They  kept  for  a  long  while  Russian  manners  and  habits. 
The  Russian  language  was  used  in  the  acts  of  legislation  till 
the  i6th,  and  even  till  the  i;th  century.  For  a  short  time, 
under  the  early  Jagellons,  it  had  even  been  the  language  of  the 
Court.  Soon,  however,  Polish  influence  predominated  in  the 
ruling  class.  The  Russo-Lithuanian  nobility  were  divided,  like 
the  Polish  nobility,  into  magnates,  who  possessed  large  territories 
and  occupied  the  high  offices,  schliachtas  or  lesser  nobles,  who 
formed  the  retainers  and  almost  the  servants  of  the  magnates. 
The  military  class  assembled  in  the  diets  and  dittines.  The 
king's  officers  bore  the  titles  of  vo'ievodes,  castellans,  and  starosts. 
The  Russo-Lithuanian  towns,  like  those  of  Poland,  received 
what  was  called  "  the  law  of  Magdeburg."  They  were  governed 
by  a  vogt  of  the  king,  who  administered  justice,  assisted  by  the 
burgomaster  and  by  rathmdnner.  The  trading  classes  organized 


254  HISTOR  Y  01'  RUSSIA. 

themselves,  after  the  German  fashion,  into  ztche,  tribes  or  cor- 
porations. 

Up  to  that  time  Russo-Lithuania  and  Poland  had  formed 
two  States,  distinct  in  law;  and  at  the  extinction  of  the  Jagel- 
lons,  who  had  always  maintained  them  in  a  personal  union,  it 
was  feared  they  would  again  separate.  Ivan  IV.  founded  great 
hopes  on  this  expected  separation,  but  the  Poles  in  the  reign 
of  Sigismond  made  a  great  effort  to  accomplish  a  definite  union. 
A  diet  was  held  at  Lublin.  The  Russo-Lithuanian  aristocracy 
were  much  averse  to  the  union ;  difference  of  religion,  national 
self-love,  and  corporate  interests  created  a  barrier  between  them 
and  Poland.  The  Government  shrank  from  no  means  of  over- 
coming their  resistance.  It  threatened  not  to  defend  Lithuania 
against  the  incursions  of  the  Tzar,  and  to  resume  the  Crown  lands 
held  by  the  refractory  nobles.  Notwithstanding,  the  Polish 
party  were  almost  checkmated  ;  rather  than  yield,  the  Lithuanian 
deputies  left  the  diet  in  a  body.  At  last  the  king  contrived  to 
gain  two  of  the  most  influential  members — Constantine  Ostrojski, 
vofevode  of  Kief,  and  Alexander  Czartoryski,  voievode  of  Vol- 
hynia.  Nicholas  Radziwill,  who  had  so  long  held  the  Polish 
tendencies  in  check,  and  who  was  the  last  representative  of  in- 
dependent Lithuania,  was  dead.  The  king  managed  also  to  win 
over  the  Little  Russian  nobility,  less  hostile  to  Catholic  Poland 
than  the  Protestant  nobility  of  Lithuania.  The  Union  of  Lublin 
provided  that  the  two  crowns  should  be  united  on  the  same 
head,  with  equal  rights ;  that  there  should  be  only  one  general 
diet  and  one  senate ;  that  they  should  sit  at  Warsaw,  a  Mazo- 
vian  town,  which  was  to  become  the  capital  of  the  new  State  ; 
and  that  Poland  and  Lithuania  should  preserve  each  its  great  dig- 
nitaries— chancellor,  vice-chancellor,  marshals,  and  hetmans — 
their  own  army  and  their  laws.  The  Russian  countries,  prop- 
erly so  called,  underwent  a  fresh  dismemberment.  Little  Russia 
was  specially  united  to  Poland. 

The  natural  result  of  the  Union  of  Lublin  was  the  growth 
of  Polish  influence  in  the  Russian  territory.  On  one  side,  the 
Polish  nobles  had  obtained  the  right  of  acquiring  lands  and 
holding  offices  in  Lithuania  ;  on  the  other,  the  Russian  nobility, 
by  mingling  more  completely  with  the  nobility  of  the  neighbor- 
ing country,  adopted  its  ideas,  habits,  fashions,  and  even  its 
language.  It  began  to  be  Folonized,  thus  widening  the  breach 
that  separated  it  from  the  masses  of  the  people,  profoundly  at- 
tached to  their  tongue  and  their  nationality.  The  division  be- 
'tween  the  aristocracy  and  the  people  increased  still  further,  when 
the  Catholic  propaganda  penetrated  among  the  nobility  of  the 
Russian  territory. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  2<5S 

A  special  article  of  the  Union  of  Lublin  ensured  respect  to 
the  orthodox  religion.  Poland  and  Lithuania  had  not,  however, 
been  able  to  escape  from  the  great  religious  struggles  that  then 
divided  Western  Europe,  and  which  sent  a  wave  even  into  Po» 
land.  A  certain  number  of  lords  had  embraced  Protestantism 
(Lutheranism,  Calvinism,  and  Socinianism).  The  Jesuits,  who 
were  everywhere  at  the  head  of  the  reaction  against  reform,  and 
whose  hand  may  be  traced  in  all  the  civil  wars  of  the  i6th  and 
i yth  centuries,  soon  made  their  appearance  in  Poland.  Prot- 
estantism only  took  a  feeble  root  in  the  country,  and  did  not 
occupy  them  long  ;  they  then  turned  their  attention  to  orthodoxy, 
the  real  national  religion  of  the  Russo-Lithuanian  provinces. 
They  employed  the  same  means  by  which  they  had  hitherto 
succeeded  everywhere  in  Europe  :  founded  colleges,  obtained  a 
hold  on  the  young  people,  insinuated  themselves  into  the  con- 
fidence of  the  women,  gained  the  ear  of  the  kings,  and  reckoned 
yet  more  surely  on  their  worldly  cleverness  than  on  the  purely 
ecclesiastical  means  of  preaching,  confession,  and  pilgrimages. 
The  brave  Batory,  who  specially  occupied  himself  with  all  that 
concerned  the  public  peace  and  national  greatness,  kept  them 
at  a  distance.  They  found  a  monarch  more  to  their  taste  in 
Sigismond  III.,  a  feeble  copy  of  vhe  Philips  of  Spain  and  the 
Ferdinands  of  Austria,  and  well  fiVed  to  draw  on  the  East  the 
calamities  that  desolated  Germany  and  the  West.  He  protected 
the  Jesuits,  and  exhausted  all  the  influence  and  seductions  that 
the  throne  put  at  his  disposal,  to  convert  the  orthodox  nobility 
of  his  oriental  provinces  to  Catholicism  In  order  to  enlarge 
the  field  of  conversions,  the  Jesuits  invented  a  compromise, 
which  was  to  obtain  from  the  Russian  cleijy  and  people  their 
submission  to  the  Holy  See,  while  their  Slavonic  liturgy  and 
special  usages  were  guaranteed  them  ;  this  is  what  is  called  the 
Union  of  the  two  Churches.  In  fact,  the  union  once  obtained, 
they  thought  it  but  a  step  to  unity,  and  even  uniformity.  Peter 
Skarga  the  Jesuit,  who  published  the  book  of  '  The  Unity  of  the 
Church  of  God,'  wished  to  exclude  the  teaching  tf  Slavonic, 
and  only  admit  that  of  Greek  and  Latin.  In  order  to  make 
their  plan  more  easily  accepted  by  Government,  they  represented 
to  it  that  the  effect  of  their  religious  "  union  "  wou'rd  be  con- 
solidation of  the  political  union  of  Lublin,  and  that  a  true  Polish 
Estate  would  not  exist  till  the  subjects  held  the  same  faith  as 
their  prince. 

Now  orthodoxy,  menaced  by  the  King  of  Poland,  found  a 
powerful  support  in  the  Russian  princes  descended  from  Rurik 
and  Gedimin.  We  have  seen  Prince  Kourbski,  in  the  time  of 
Ivan  IV.,  and  later,  Constantine  Ostrojski,  defend  by  their 


2  66  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

pen,  their  word  and  their  influence,  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  and 
translate,  compile,  and  disseminate  books  in  favor  of  orthodoxy. 
Little  by  little  the  nobles  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  Court ; 
fn  their  struggle  with  the  Roman  religion,  the  people  saw  them- 
selves abandoned  almost  entirely  by  their  natural  chiefs,  and 
even  by  their  bishops.  The  king  filled  the  Lithuanian  sees 
with  prelates  who  were  great  princes,  wholly  indifferent  to  theo- 
logical questions,  and  proud  of  their  immense  riches,  of  their 
numerous  villages,  and  their  strong  castles  bristling  with  artillery. 
Still  the  people  did  not  give  up  all  hope.  From  Novgorod  the 
Great,  from  Pskof,  from  Germany,  the  principle  of  association 
had  spread  widely  among  the  cities  of  Western  Russia.  Socie- 
ties were  formed  for  mutual  assistance,  which  had  their  roots  in 
the  most  distant  Slavonic,  German,  or  Scandinavian  past ;  they 
were  at  the  same  time  religious  confraternities,  and  took  an 
energetic  part  in  the  strife  with  the  Jesuits.  They  had  their 
elected  chiefs,  their  common  treasury,  and  they  began  to  found 
schools,  to  set  up  printing-presses,  and  to  disseminate  polemical 
or  pious  books.  They  entered  into  mutual  relations,  and  formed 
ties  with  the  patriarchs  of  the  East ;  to  the  royal  bishops  they 
opposed  a  democratic  force,  watching  them,  reprimanding  them, 
and  denouncing  the  carelessness  of  their  religion  or  manners  to 
orthodox  Christendom.  The  most  celebrated  of  these  confra- 
ternities were  those  of  Lemberg  in  Gallicia,  of  Wilna  in  Lithua- 
nia, and  of  Loutsk  in  Volhynia  ;  that  of  Kief  founded  the  great 
ecclesiastical  academy  of  Little  Russia. 

Under  the  stimulus  of  these  popular  societies,  the  bishops 
could  no  longer  remain  indifferent.  It  was  necessary  to  take  up 
a  position  at  the  head  of  the  believers,  or  pass  over  to  the  ranks 
of  the  enemy.  The  orthodox  prelates  were  in  a  very  difficult 
position  ;  they  were  in  disgrace  with  the  Government  as  the  de- 
fenders of  orthodoxy,  and  at  the  same  time  were  harassed  as 
lukewarm  by  the  orthodox  demagogy.  Terletski,  Bishop  of 
Loutsk,  was  in  this  trying  situation — the  starost  of  Lout'sk,  a 
convert  to  Catholicism,  directed  a  fierce  persecution  against  his 
ancient  bishop.  Terletski  was  taken,  imprisoned,  and  starved 
in  his  dungeon  ;  he  'complained,  but  an  orthodox  bishop  could 
expect  no  justice.  He  saw  only  one  means  of  escaping  from 
this  humiliation,  to  disarm  the  violence  of  the  Catholic  nobles, 
and  to  enjoy  in  peace  his  episcopal  revenues  :  this  was  to  pass 
over  to  the  Union.  His  neighbor,  Ignatius  Potiei,  Bishop  of 
Vladimir  in  Volhynia,  and  Michael  Ragoza,  Metropolitan  of 
Kief,  Primate  of  Western  Russia,  who  was  discontented  with  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  followed  his  example.  Sigismond 
III.  received  these  first  defections  with  joy ;  Terletski  and  Potie; 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  267 

left  for  Rome  ;  and  placed  the  Russian  Church  at  the  feet  of 
Clement  VIII.  The  Pope  celebrated  this  success  by  pompous 
solemnities(i595)  ,  but  the  projected  union  could  not  be  realized 
without  the  consent  of  all  the  Russian  bishops,  of  whom  only 
three,  the  Metropolitan  and  the  two  Volhynians,  were  as  yet 
gained  over.  Balaba,  Bishop  of  Lemberg — who,  although  he 
was  always  at  war  with  the  confraternity,  had  not  sacrificed  the 
national  cause  to  his  private  enmity — remained  with  a  layman, 
Constantine  Ostrojski,  the  soul  of  orthodoxy.  A  council  was 
held  at  Brest,  in  Lithuania  (1596),  under  the  presidency  of  Ni- 
cephorus,  envoy  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  The  three 
dissidents  refused  to  attend.  Then  the  bishops  formulated  the 
anathema  and  the  sentence  of  deposition.  The  Uniates  hastened 
to  retaliate  by  an  excommunication,  but  their  attempt  in  favor 
of  the  cause  of  Rome  failed  piteously.  The  people  everywhere 
declared  against  them.  At  Wilna  Bishop  Potieii  was  assassi- 
nated by  the  citizens.  At  Vitepsk,  Bishop  KountseVitch,  who, 
from  a  renegade,  had  become  a  persecutor,  gave  occasion  for  a 
terrible  riot ;  he  was  stabbed  and  thrown  into  the  Dwina. 
Many  of  the  citizens  were  punished,  and  the  city  deprived  of 
"  the  law  of  Magdeburg."  The  Uniates  fished  out  of  the 
D\vina  the  body  of  the  prelate,  and  his  tomb  shortly  became 
famous  for  its  reputed  miracles.  At  Kief,  Veniamine  Routski, 
a  successor  of  Ragoza,  re-organized  the  convents  on  the  model 
of  Latin  monasteries :  the  monks  took  the  name  of  Basilians. 
They  did  not  gain  in  popularity.  A  Little  Russian  saying  at- 
tributes to  them  the  following  catechism  : — "  Wherefore  did 
God  create  thee  and  put  thee  in  the  world  ?  "  "  To  do  the 
seigneurs'  dirty  work." 

The  Eastern  Church  did  not  allow  itself  to  be  defeated  so 
easily  as  the  Jesuits  had  hoped.  It  opposed  schools  with 
schools,  propaganda  with  propaganda  ;  it  preached  and  it  printed. 
The  Uniate  Routed  was  replaced  even  at  Kief  by  Peter  Mohila, 
a  zealous  partisan  of  orthodoxy.  He  was  a  rough  prelate,  such 
as  was  needed  in  those  hard  times,  and  an  old  soldier,  ready  to 
meet  force  with  force.  A  monastery  of  the  diocese  resisted  his 
authority  ;  he  marched  to  it  instantly  with  troops  and  guns,  and 
chastised  the  rebels.  He  made  the  school  founded  by  the  con- 
fraternity into  a  college,  like  those  of  the  Jesuits;  instituted 
professors  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  philosophy,  and  made  it  the  in- 
tellectual centre  of  Western  Russia,  and  one  of  the  points  of  de- 
parture of  the  Russian  Renaissance  (1633). 


2 68  HISTOR  Y  OF  KL'SSIA. 


COMPLAINTS  OF  WHITE  RUSSIA — RISINGS  IN  LITTLE  RUSSIA. 

In  the  diets  of  Warsaw,  the  complaints  of  the  orthodox 
clergy,  and  of  the  country  people,  more  completely  enslaved, 
more  cruelly  oppressed  since  they  no  longer  held  the  religion  of 
their  masters,  did  not  remain  without  an  echo.  A  deputy  from 
Volhynia,  Lawrence  Drevninski,  exclaimed  at  the  Diet  of  1620  : 
"  When  your  Majesty  makes  war  on  Turkey,  from  whom  do  you 
obtain  the  greater  part  of  your  troops  ?  From  the  Russian  na- 
tion, which  holds  the  orthodox  faith  ;  from  that  nation  which,  if 
it  does  not  receive  relief  from  its  sufferings  and  an  answer  to  its 
prayers,  can  no  longer  continue  to  make  itself  a  rampart  for  your 
kingdom.  How  can  you  beg  it  to  sacrifice  all  to  secure  for  the 
country  the  blessings  of  peace,  when  in  its  homes  there  is  no 
peace  ?  Everyone  sees  clearly  the  persecutions  that  the  old 
Russian  nation  suffers  for  its  religion.  In  the  large  towns  our 
churches  are  sealed  up,  and  our  goods  are  pillaged  ;  from  the 
monasteries  the  monks  have  departed,  and  cattle  are  shut  up  in 
them.  Children  die  without  baptism  ;  the  ashes  of  the  dead,  de- 
prived of  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  are  carried  out  of  the  city 
like  dead  beasts ;  men  and  women  live  together  without  the  ben- 
ediction of  the  priest ;  they  die  without  confession,  without  com- 
munion. Is  not  this  to  offend  God  himself,  and  will  not  God 
avenge  His  people  ?  At  Lemberg  no  one,  not  a  Uniate,  can  live 
in  the  city,  trade  freely,  and  enter  into  the  ztchc  of  artisans.  .  .  . 
For  twenty  years  in  each  dtftine,  in  each  diet,  we  have  asked  for 
our  rights  and  liberties  with  bitter  tears,  and  for  twenty  years 
we  have  not  been  able  to  obtain  them.  We  shall  have  to  cry 
with  the  prophet,  '  O  God,  judge  me,  and  judge  my  actions.' " 
The  situation  of  the  serfs  had  become  specially  intolerable  : 
to  the  Polish  or  Polonized  lord,  to  the  Latin  missionary,  was 
added  a  third  scourge,  the  Jew,  whom  the  noble  had  made  stew- 
ard of  his  lands,  and  to  whom  he  had  given  the  right  of  life 
and  death  over  his  subjects,  and  farmed  out  the  fishing  and  hunt- 
ing, the  roads  and  taverns,  even  the  orthodox  Church,  so  com- 
pletely, that  the  peasant  could  neither  marry  nor  baptize  his 
child  without  having  bought  from  this  miscreant  the  access  to 
the  sanctuary. 

The  populations  of  White  Russia  had  suffered,  and  were 
still  to  suffer  long,  without  rebellion.  It  was  not  the  same  with 
the  Little  Russian  populations  of  the  Ukraine.  They  had 
colonized  the  steppes  of  the  south,  and  reconquered  the  desert 
from  the  Tatars.  To  attract  emigrants  to  fill  the  royal  grants, 
the  Polish  lords  offered  twenty  or  thirty  years  of  absolute  lib- 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA.  2 69 

erty.  Thanks  to  this,  the  desert  was  peopled  with  unheard-of 
rapidity,  and  on  this  virgin  soil  a  nation  was  formed,  ignorant  of 
slavery,  that  spoke  not  of  thirty  years'  liberty,  but  perpetual 
freedom.  The  King  of  Poland  favored  this  race  of  hardy 
pioneers — these  intrepid  soldiers.  The  Ukraine  was  for  him  a 
sort  of  military  frontier,  a  strong  rampart  for  Poland  against  the 
Tatar  and  the  Turk. 

These  warlike  populations  were  organized  in  twenty  polk* 
of  Cossack — those  of  Perdiaslaf,  Tcherkask,  Mirgorod,  Pultowa, 
&c.  Each  polk  had  its  polkovnik  or  colonel  ;  all  obeyed  one 
supreme  chief,  the  hetman  of  Little  Russia  nominated  by  the 
king,  who  presided  over  the  starchina  *  or  council  of  elders.  In 
time  the  Cossacks  became  formidable  to  Poland  herself  ;  they 
incessantly  embroiled  her  with  her  formidable  neighbor,  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  Batory  was  forced  to  punish  with  death  more 
than  one  Cossack  chief  for  having  violated  a  truce  or  a  treaty 
of  peace,  and  he  also  limited  the  number  of  the  military  popula- 
tion, only  recognizing  as  Cossacks  those  who  were  inscribed  on 
the  register,  to  the  number  of  six  thousand,  condemning  the 
others  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil ;  that  is,  to  serfage.  But  the 
Cossacks  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  corvee  of  \hzpans, 
nor  admit  the  limitations  of  the  king.  Notwithstanding  the 
register,  they  remained  in  arms,  a  formidable  force,  who  in  the 
religious  struggle  were  all  enlisted  on  the  side  of  orthodoxy, 
and  who  caused  royalty  and  the  Uniate  hierarchy  and  aristocracy 
to  tremble. 

Besides  the  Cossacks  of  the  sedentary  populations  or  the 
Cossacks  of  the  towns,  there  were  also  the  Zaporogues  "  beyond 
the  porogs  "  or  cataracts  of  the  Dnieper.  They  stood  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  Little  Russian  Cossacks  as  those  did  to  the  Russo- 
Lithuanian  population  ;  they  were  the  vanguard  of  the  vanguard, 
the  forlorn  hope  of  the  Russian  nationality.  Entrenched  in  the 
"  Large  Meadow,"  a  fortified  island  of  the  Dnieper,  they  had 
built  a  fort  or  setcha  surrounded  by  a  palisade.  They  recog- 
nized no  authority  ;  like  the  Knights  of  Rhodes  and  Malta, 
they  encamped  on  the  land  wrested  from  the  Mussulmans,  and 
continued  the  holy  war  with  Turk  and  Tatar,  when  Chris- 
tendom was  at  peace  with  him.  They  neither  gave  nor  asked 
quarter,  existed  on  the  plunder  of  the  infidel,  courted  dangers 
and  "  martyrdom,"  and  received  no  women  in  their  camp.  They 

*  The  starchina  was  composed  of  the  oboznyi,  the  head  of  the  baggage 
department  ;  of  the  judge  ;  of  the  pisar,  or  chancellor  ;  of  the  esaoul ;  of  the 
standard-bearer  ;  of  the  polkovniks ;  of  the  stoniks,  or  centurions  ;  of  the 
atamans.  When  the  king  invested  the  hetman,  he  handed  to  him  the  bound- 
chouk  (or  banner),  like  a  horse's  tail,  the  stick  or  mace,  and  the  seal. 


270 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 


were  a  race  of  warrior-monks,  a  Church  militant,  the  Templars 
and  Hospitallers  of  the  Dnieper.  More  than  one  Polish  noble 
of  high  rank  came  to  join  them  in  their  life  of  adventure  and 
heroic  poverty,  and  learnt  from  them  lessons  of  courage  and 
chivalry.  All  were  equal,  .all  brothers,  and  ate  like  the  Spartans 
at  a  common  table  ;  the  offices  of  the  ataman  of  the  camp,  and 
of  the  ten  atamans  of  the  kourencs,  were  obtained  by  election. 
In  close  union  with  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  they  were  on  land 
and  sea  the  scourge  of  Islamism — the  Barbary  Christians  of 
the  Black  Sea. 

The  ill-feeling  between  the  aristocratic  government  of  Poland 
and  the  orthodox  population  of  Little  Russia  continued  to  in- 
crease. When  the  Polish  nobles  wished  to  treat  the  free  hus- 
bandmen as  serfs,  they  deserted  in  crowds  to  the  countries  of 
the  Ukraine  ;  the  boldest  went  to  reinforce  the  hordes  of  the 
Dnieper  Cossacks,  or  the  setcha  of  the  Zaporogues.  The  Kobzars 
(blind  bards)  hastened  from  village  to  village,  singing  the  song 
of  the  parvada  (justice)  :  "  In  this  world  there  is  no  justice, 
justice  is  not  to  be  found  here  ;  now  justice  lives  under  the  laws 
of  injustice.  To-day  justice  is  imprisoned  by  the  nobles  ;  in- 
justice is  seated  at  her  ease  by  the  pans  in  the  hall  of  honor. 
To-day  justice  stands  near  the  threshold,  and  injustice  is  throned 
with  ihe  pans,  and  hydromel  is  poured  out  into  cups  for  injustice. 

0  justice  1  our  mother  with  the  wings   of  an  eagle,  where  shall 
we  find  thee  ?     May  God  send  the  man  who  will  perform  justice 
— days   of  prosperity."      These   wandering  poets  sang  so  per- 
sistently, that  the  villages  were  emptied  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Cossack  camps,    and  justice   ended  by  spreading  her  "  eagle's 
wings,"  and  the  men  "  who   were  to  perform  justice  "  showed 
themselves  openly. 

The  orthodox  religion  persecuted  by  the  Uniates,  the  threat- 
ened serfage,  the  insolence  of  the  nobles,  the  robberies  of  the 
Jews,  the  register  and  its  limitation,  gave  rise  in  the  i6th  and 

1  yth  centuries  to  a  series  of  revolts,  in  which  the  Zaporogues, 
zealous  adherents  of    orthodoxy,  in  spite   of   their   brigandage, 
played  a  great  part.     Specially  distinguished  among  the  Cossack 
chiefs  were  Nalivaiko,  Pavliouk,   Ostranitsa,  and  many  others, 
whose  memory  has  been  retained  by  the   wandering  singers  of 
the  Ukraine.      The   Government   wished   after  each  victory  to 
give  satisfaction  to  the  Little  Russians,  but  their  authority  was 
not  sufficient  to  restrain  either    the  exigencies    of  the  pans   or 
the  intolerance  of  the  Jesuits.     To  the  horrible   atrocities   per- 
petrated on  the  insurgents,  the  latter  retaliated  at  each  insurrec- 
tion by  atrocities  still  greater.     Each  time  the  Government  was 
victorious,  and  after  each  defeat  the  yoke  pressed  more  heavily 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


271 


on  Little  R'ussia.  From  these  successes  sprang  a  new  danger 
for  Poland.  The  eyes  of  the  oppressed  turned  towards  an  ortho- 
dox sovereign — the  Tzar  of  Russia  \  the  democratic  populations 
of  the  Ukraine  surmounted  their  repugnance  to  authority,  on 
seeing  the  anarchic  violence  produced  by  Polish  liberties.  The 
Cossacks  imagined  they  could  conquer  if  they  had  an  ally,  and 
this  ally  was  only  to  be  found  at  Moscow. 


OP 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

ALEXIS  MIKHAILOVITCH  (1645-1676)  AND  HIS  SON   FEODOR. 

Early  years  of  Alexis — Seditions — Khmelnitski — Conquest  of  Smolensk  and 
the  Eastern  Ukraine — Stenko  Razine— Ecclesiastical  reforms  of  Nioon — 
The  precursors  of  Peter  the  Great — Reign  of  Feodor  Alexitfvitch  (1676- 
i6Ba> 


EARLY  YEARS  OF  ALEXIS — SEDITIONS. 

THE  reign  of  Alexis  Mikhaflovitch  may  be  summed  up  in 
three  facts  :  the  reaction  against  Poland  and  the  union  with  Little 
Russia ;  the  struggle  between  the  empire  and  the  Cossacks  ;  the 
first  attempt  at  religious  reform,  and  the  growth  of  European 
influence. 

The  new  Tzar,  the  son  of  Michael  and  Eudoxia  Strechnef, 
was  good  and  easy,  like  his  father.  In  his  most  violent  rages, 
say  the  contemporary  writers,  he  never  allowed  himself  to  go 
beyond  kicks  and  cuffs.  Though  his  mind  was  quicker  than  his 
father's,  he  gave  himself  up  to  anyone  who  took  the  trouble  to 
influence  him,  even  to  the  point  of  permitting  himself  to  be 
ruled  entirely ;  unlike  Ivan  the  Terrible,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
never  long  retained  the  same  favorites.  The  extreme  good- 
nature of  the  prince  towards  his  relations  had  grave  consequences. 
The  people  were  oppressed  with  impunity,  and  were  allowed  to 
make  no  complaint.  Alexis  gave  all  his  confidence  to  the  boy- 
r.rd  Morozof.  who  had  taken  charge  of  his  education,  and  for 
years  had  never  left  him.  Morozof  was  proud,  ambitious, 
•and  unscrupulous ;  but  learned,  intelligent,  and  full  of  finesse. 
He  excelled  above  all  in  disentangling  the  diplomatic  complica- 
tions bequeathed  to  him  by  the  last  reign.  When  Alexis  was 
about  to  marry,  Morozof  did  not  disturb  himself  at  seeing  the 
young  bride,  Maria  Ilmitchna  Miloslavski,  arrive  with  a  whole  new 
dynasty  of  relations  and  "  men  of  the  time."  Instead  of  con- 
spiring, as  was  usual,  against  the  health  or  beauty  of  the  Tzarina, 
he  preferred  to  associate  her  family  with  his  power,  and  take 
from  them  a  surety.  He  married  a  sister  of  Maria  Ilinitchna, 
and  became  the  brother-in-law  of  his  sovereign.  He  thus  added 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


273 


to  the  old  title  of  favorite  the  new  one  of  a  kinsman  by  his  wife 
and  was  strengthened  in  his  power  instead  of  being  ejected  from 
it.  His  influence  with  his  master  was  greater  than  Richelieu's 
with  Louis  XIII.,  and  he  had  the  honor  of  beginning  the  revenge 
for  the  civil  wars — the  war  with  Poland. 

Affairs  in  the  interior  were  always  too  complicated  for  Alexis 
to  be  able  to  act  very  energetically  in  his  relations  with  foreign 
Powers.  The  Russian  people  in  the  "  time  of  the  troubles  "  had 
unlearnt  the  passive  and  resigned  obedience  that  had  formerly 
distinguished  them  ;  they  knew  no  longer  how  to  suffer  uncom- 
plainingly, and  complaint  soon  led  to  revolt.  We  must  also  rec- 
ognize the  fact  that  they  suffered  more  than  formerly.  Russia 
had  come  exhausted  out  of  her  civil  wars,  her  agriculture  and 
commerce  were  ruined,  and  her  population  diminished  by  emi- 
grations and  flight  into  the  Cossack  country.  The  state,  which 
already  began  to  feel  the  heavy  expenses  of  a  modern  empire, 
which  had  to  keep  up  an  army,  foreign  troops,  all  the  machinery 
of  war,  diplomacy,  and  an  administration,  saw  itself  forced  to 
increase  the  taxes,  which  fell  more  heavily  than  ever  on  the 
thinned  population.  The  Russian  Government  united  the  vices 
of  the  past  with  those  of  modern  times  ;  the  corruption  of  its 
agents,  the  impunity  of  the  favorites  and  their  creatures,  and 
the  defective  organization  of  justice,  tried  to  the  utmost  the 
diminished  patience  of  the  people. 

The  year  1648,  which  saw  the  breaking-out  of  the  Fronde  in 
France,  witnessed  a  terrible  revolt  in  Moscow.  The  Tzar,  power- 
less to  stem  the  torrent,  had  to  deliver  the  judge  Plechtche'ef 
over  to  the  people,  who  dealt  him  summary  justice.  They  then 
demanded  the  okolnitchii  Trakhaniotes,  who  was  likewise  handed 
over  to  them  ;  finally,  their  fury  turned  against  Morozof,  but  the 
Tzar  aided  his  brother-in-law  to  escape  and  take  refuge  in  the 
convent  of  St.  Cyril,  whence  he  emerged  quietly,  like  another 
Mazarin,  when  the  public  emotion  was  appeased.  At  Pskof  the 
people  rose  on  pretence  that  the  Government  had  given  money 
and  corn  to  the  Niemtsi  (Germans) — that  is,  the  Swedes — in  ac- 
cordance with  the  last  treaty  with  this  Power.  Nummens,  the 
Swede,  was  maltreated  and  imprisoned  by  the  populace  ;  the 
vo'ievode  and  the  Prince  Volkonski,  envoy  of  Moscow,  expected 
to  be  put  to  death,  and  Archbishop  Macarius  was  twice  put  in 
chains.  From  Pskof  the  revolt  spread  to  Novgorod,  where  the 
Danish  ambassador  was  attacked  by  the  people,  and  left  for 
dead  in  the  streets.  Archbishop  Nicon,  who  tried  to  quell  the  re- 
bellion by  spiritual  arms,  was  met  by  blows,  and  the  streltsi  made 
common  cause  with  the  people.  Novgorod  only  submitted  at  the 
approach  of  Prince  Khovanski  at  the  head  of  his  troops.  These 


274 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


troops  were  insufficient  for  the  reduction  of  Pskof,  which,  be- 
hind her  tried  ramparts,  prepared  to  resist  the  Muscovites,  as 
she  had  resisted  the  Poles.  The  Pskovians  made  many  success- 
ful sorties,  and  only  capitulated  under  the  promise  of  a  general 
amnesty.  Khovanski's  troops  were  too  few  to  enable  him  to 
refuse  their  conditions,  and  it  was  time  to  turn  against  external 
enemies  the  spirit  of  turbulence  that  the  civil  war  had  left  in 
the  masses. 

Happily  for  Russia,  Poland  was  still  more  profoundly  agi- 
tated, and  a  revolt  more  considerable  than  those  of  Moscow, 
Pskof,  or  Novgorod,  was  to  open  to  the  Muscovite  armies  the 
entrance  into  the  Ukraine. 


KHMELNITSKI — CONQUEST  OF  SMOLENSK  AND  THE   EASTERN 
UKRAINE — STENKO   RAZINE. 

We  have  seen  that  Little  Russia,  after  many  partial  risings, 
only  awaited  a  chief  to  break  out  into  a  general  insurrection. 
This  chief  was  found  in  Bogdan  Khmelnitski, — a  brave,  clever, 
energetic,  and  even  educated  Cossack.  He  was  owner  of  Soub- 
botovo,  near  Tchigirine,  and  had  been  ill-treated  and  imprisoned 
by  one  of  his  neighbors,  the  Pole  Tchaplinski,  who  also  seized 
on  Khmelnitski's  son,  a  boy  of  ten  years,  and  had  him  whipped 
in  the  public  streets  by  his  men.  Khmelnitski  could  obtain  no 
redress,  either  for  himself  or  for  his  countrymen,  against  the 
Jews  and  the  taxes.  King  Vladislas  is  said  to  have  told  him 
that  the  senators  would  not  obey  him,  and,  drawing  a  sword  on 
paper,  he  handed  it  to  Bogdan,  observing,  "  This  is  the  sign 
royal :  if  you  have  arms  at  your  sides,  resist  those  who  insult 
and  rob  you ;  revenge  your  wrongs  with  your  swords,  and  when 
the  time  comes  you  will  help  me  against  the  pagans  and  the 
rebels  of  my  kingdom."  In  the  Polish  anarchy  of  that  date  it  is 
quite  possible  that  the  king  may  have  held  this  language,  and 
himself  placed  the  sword  in  the  hands  of  those  whom  he  could 
not  protect.  Vladislas  acknowledged  Bogdan  ataman  of  the 
Zaporogues,  and  in  return  Bogdan  promised  him  the  following 
year  a  body  of  12,000  men. 

Konetspolski,  the  gonfalonier  of  the  Crown,  and  Potoc.ki, 
tried  to  get  rid  of  Bogdan,  but  he  fled  to  the  Zaporogues,  and 
then  passed  over  to  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  and  returned  to 
the  heroes  of  the  Dnieper  with  a  Mussulman  army.  To  Tatars 
and  Zaporogues  were  soon  added  all  the  malcontents  of  Little 
Russia.  Cossacks  and  people  were  alike  determined  to  finish 
with  it.  Bogdan  defeated  the  Polish  generals  Potoc.ki  and 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  275 

Kalinovski;  first  at  the  "Yellow  Waters,"  where  the  registered 
Cossacks  abandoned  the  Polish  banners  after  having  stabbed 
their  hetman  Barabbas,  and  then  at  Korsoun,  where  the  Poles 
lost  8000  men  and  41  guns.  The  t\vo  generals  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Bogclan,  who  delivered  them  up  to  the  Khan  of  the 
Crimea.  This  double  victory  was  the  signal  of  a  general  insur- 
rection. The  orthodox  clergy  everywhere  preached  a  crusade 
against  the  Jesuits  and  Uniates,  and  everywhere  the  peasants 
rose  against  the  Polish  or  Polonized  pans.  The  castles  were 
demolished,  the  governors  put  to  death.  The  Jews  were  in  a 
sad  strait.  According  to  a  popular  song  they  only  asked  one 
thing — to  be  allowed  "to  escape  in  their  shirts  beyond  the  Vis- 
tula, abandoning  their  wealth  to  the  Cossacks,  and  promising  to 
teach  their  children  to  live  honestly,  and  to  covet  no  more  the 
land  of  the  Ukraine  "  (1648). 

At  this  critical  moment  for  Poland,  King  Vladislas  died,  and 
the  Diet  met  at  Warsaw  for  the  new  election,  with  all  its  accus- 
tomed turbulence.  At  this  news  the  revolt  in  Little  Russia  in- 
creased. Wherever  the  nobles  could  defend  themselves  they 
gave  back  cruelty  for  cruelty.  Jeremiah  Vichnevetski,  a  power- 
ful Polonized  Russian  lord,  took  a  town  belonging  to  him  by 
assault,  and  exercised  the  most  horrible  reprisals.  "  Make 
them  suffer,"  he  cried  to  the  executioners,  "they  must  be  made 
to  feel  death  ;  "  and  his  Cossack  prisoners  were  impaled.  The 
Cossacks,  who  in  the  absence  of  a  king  expected  justice  from 
no  one,  broke  out  more  violently  than  ever.  Khmelnitski  pur- 
sued his  course  of  success  ;  he  defeated  the  Poles  near  Pilava, 
and  penetrated  into  Gallicia  as  far  as  Lemberg,  a  rich,  half- 
Jewish  city,  which  had  to  pay  a  war  indemnity.  He  was  be- 
sieging Podmostie'  when  he  learned  that  John  Casimir  was 
elected  in  the  place  of  his  brother  Vladislas.  The  new  king  at 
once  sent  envoys  to  negotiate  his  submission.  The  commis- 
sioners promised  him  satisfaction  for  his  own  grievances  and 
those  of  the  Cossacks  on  condition  that  the  insurgents  were 
abandoned  to  them.  "  Let  the  peasants  return  to  their  ploughs, 
and  the  Cossacks  alone  bear  arms,"  said  the  Poles.  Bogdan 
could  neither  abandon  the  Cossacks,  who  would  not  hear  of  the 
register,  nor  the  country  people,  whose  revolt  had  given  him  the 
victory,  to  be  again  placed,  as  was  proposed,  under  the  yoke  of 
the  flans.  "The  time  for  negotiations  is  past,"  he  said  to  the 
commissioners  ;  "  I  must  free  the  whole  Russian  nation  from 
the  yoke  of  the  Poles.  At  first  I  took  up  arms  for  my  own  in- 
juries— now  I  fight  for  the  true  faith.  The  people  will  stand  by 
me  as  far  as  Lublin,  as  far  as  Cracow  ;  I  will  not  betray  them." 
The  war  continued,  and  Bogdan  summoned  the  Khan  of  the 


276  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Crimea  to  his  aid,  and  marched  to  meet  the  Polish  army,  com- 
manded by  the  king  in  person.  John  Casimir  found  himself  at 
Zborovo  surrounded  by  the  innumerable  cavalry  of  the  enemy. 
It  would  have  been  all  over  with  him  had  he  not  purchased  the 
defection  of  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  by  a  large  sum,  and  the 
promise  of  an  annual  tribute.  The  Khan  then  retired,  recom- 
mending his  ally  to  the  clemency  of  the  king.  Khmelnitski  was 
driven  to  treat ;  the  register  was  re-established,  but  the  number 
of  Cossacks  enrolled  was  raised  to  40,000 ;  Bogdan  was  recog- 
nized hetman  of  Little  Russia,  and  the  town  of  Tchigirine  as- 
signed to  him  as  a  residence.  It  was  agreed  that  there  should 
be  neither  Crown  troops  nor  Jews  in  the  localities  inhabited  by 
the  Cossacks,  and  no  Jesuits  where  orthodox  schools  existed. 
The  Metropolitan  of  Kief  was  to  have  a  seat  in  the  senate  of 
Warsaw. 

What  Bogdan  had  foreseen  when  he  refused  to  treat  really 
happened ;  the  treaty  could  not  be  executed.  The  number  of 
fighting  men  who  had  taken  part  in  the  election  exceeded  40,000 
• — were  those  in  excess  to  be  relegated  to  the  work  of  the  fields, 
to  the  seignorial  corvtc?  The  people  had  helped  the  Cossacks, 
were  they  then  to  be  surrendered  to  their  pans  ?  Bogdan  soon 
found  himself  involved  in  inextricable  difficulties :  on  one  side 
he  violated  the  treaty  by  enrolling  more  than  40.000  men  in  his 
register ;  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  executed  it,  he  would  have  to 
begin  by  inflicting  death  on  the  rebels.  He  wore  out  his  popu- 
larity in  performing  this  ungrateful  task.  He  preferred  to  take 
up  arms,  accusing  the  Poles  of  having  broken  certain  clauses  of 
the  treaty.  This  war  was  less  successful  than  the  first ;  the 
Khan  of  the  Crimea,  who  a  second  time  came  to  the  aid  of  the 
Cossacks,  a  second  time  betrayed  them,  and  the  Cossacks  were 
beaten  at  Berestechtko.  The  conditions  of  the  Peace  of  the 
White  Church  (Belata  Tcherkof}  were  more  severe  than  those  of 
the  first  peace.  The  number  of  registered  Cossacks  was  reduced 
to  20,000 ;  and  20,000  more,  thus  finding  themselves  excluded 
from  the  army,  were  thrown  back  upon  the  people.  The  greater 
part  chose  rather  to  emigrate  to  Russian  soil,  to  wander  to  the 
Don,  or  to  live  by  brigandage  on  the  Volga. 

A  peace  such  as  this  was  only  a  truce,  and  the  Cossacks 
were  certain  to  break  it  as  soon  as  they  could  find  an  ally. 
Bogdan  wrote  to  entreat  the  Tzar  to  take  Little  Russia  under 
his  protection.  The  Government  of  Alexis  had  sought  for  some 
time  a  pretext  for  rupture  with  Poland.  The  Polish  Government, 
in  writing  to  the  Tzar,  had  not  used  the  full  royal  title.  Moscow 
never  missed  an  opportunity  for  remonstrance  ;  Warsaw  assured 
them  that  it  was  pure  inadvertence.  "  Then,"  said  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


277 


Russians,  "  an  example  must  be  made  of  the  guilty."  No  ex- 
ample was  made,  and  the  diminution  of  title  was  used  at  every 
interchange  of  notes.  The  Court  of  Russia  kept  up  this  casus 
belli,  waiting  for  a  moment  to  profit  by  it  ;  this  was  found  in  the 
appeal  of  Khmelnitski.  The  Estates  were  convoked,  and  to 
them  were  reported  the  repeated  insults  to  his  Tzarian  Majesty, 
and  the  persecution  of  the  true  faith  in  Little  Russia.  It  was 
added,  that  the  Little  Russians,  if  repulsed  by  the  Tzar,  would 
have  to  place  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  Sultan. 
On  this  occasion  the  Estates  declared  for  war.  Alexis  sent  the 
boyard  Boutourline  to  receive  the  oath  of  the  hetman,  the  army, 
and  the  people  of  Little  Russia. 

It  was  time  that  the  Tzar  decided.  Bogdan,  betrayed  a 
third  time  by  the  Khan,  had  been  defeated  at  Ivanetz  on  the 
Dniester,  but  on  the  receipt  of  the  news  from  Moscow  he  called 
the  General  Assembly  at  Pereiaslavl  to  announce  to  them  the 
fact.  "  Noble  colonels  ;  esaouls,  and  centurions,  and  you  army 
of  Zaporogues,  and  you  orthodox  Christians,"  cried  the  hetman, 
"you  see  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  live  without  a  prince.  Now 
we  have  four  to  choose  from  :  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  the  Khan  of 
the  Crimea,  the  King  of  Poland,  and  the  Tzar  of  orthodox 
Great  Russia,  whom  for  six  years  we  have  not  ceased  to  entreat 
to  become  our  Tzar  and  lord.  The  Sultan  is  a  Mussulman  ;  we 
know  what  our  brethren  the  orthodox  Greeks  suffered  at  his 
hands.  The  Khan  is  also  a  Mussulman,  and  our  alliances  with 
him  have  brought  us  nothing  but  trouble.  It  is  needless  to 
remind  you  of  what  the  Polish  pans  have  made  us  endure.  But 
the  Christian  and  orthodox  Tzar  is  of  the  same  religion  as 
ourselves.  We  shall  not  find  a  better  support  than  his.  Who- 
ever thinks  otherwise  may  go  where  he  likes — the  way  is  open." 
The  air  rang  with  applause,  the  oath  demanded  by  Boutourline 
was  taken,  and  an  embassy  set  out  for  Moscow,  to  ask  the  main- 
tenance of  Ukranian  liberties.  The  Tzar  freely  granted  all 
their  conditions  :  the  army  was  to  be  raised  permanently  to  the 
number  of  60,000  ;  the  Cossacks  were  to  elect  their  hetman  ; 
the  rights  of  the  schliachta  and  the  towns  were  to  be  maintained  ; 
the  administration  of  the  towns  and  the  imposition  of  taxes 
were  to  be  entrusted  to  the  natives ;  the  hetman  was  to  have 
the  right  of  receiving  foreign  ambassadors,  but  was  to  signify 
the  fact  to  the  Tzar ;  and  he  was  forbidden,  without  special 
leave,  to  receive  the  envoys  of  Turkey  and  Poland. 

In  May  1654  the  Tzar  Alexis  solemnly  announced  in  the 
Ouspienski  Sober  that  he  had  resolved  to  march  in  person 
against  his  enemy  the  King  of  Poland.  He  commanded  that 
in  this  campaign  no  occasion  should  be  given  for  the  generals 


2 7g  HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

to  dispute  precedence.  The  Polish  volevodes  affirm  that  on  this 
occasion  "  Moscow  made  war  in  quite  a  new  way,  and  conquered 
the  people  by  the  clemency  and  gentleness  of  the  Tzar."  This 
humanny,  so  well  timed  in  a  war  of  deliverance,  contributed 
greatly  to  the  success  of  the  Muscovites.  Polotsk,  Mohilef,  and 
all  the  towns  of  White  Russia  opened  their  gates  one  after  the 
other,  and  Smolensk  only  resisted  five  weeks  (1654).  The 
following  year  the  Prince  Tcherkasski  defeated  the  hetman 
Radziwill  and  began  the  conquest  of  Lithuania  proper;  Wilna, 
the  capital,  Grodno,  and  Kobno,  fell  successively.  During  this 
time  Khmelnitski  and  the  Muscovites  invaded  Southern  Poland 
and  tookLublin.  All  the  East  resounded  with  the  Russian 
victories  :  it  was  said  at  Moscow  that  the  Greeks  prayed  for  the 
Tzar  and  refused  obedience  to  any  but  an  orthodox  emperor,  and 
that  the  Hospodars  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia  implored  Alexis 
to  take  them  under  his  protection. 

Poland  seemed  reduced  to  the  last  extremity  ;  and  there 
was  still  a  third  enemy  to  fall  on  her.  Charles  X.,  King  of 
Sweden,  arrived  and  captured  Posen,  Warsaw,  and  Cracow,  the 
three  Polish  capitals.  This  conflict  of  ambitions  was,  however, 
the  salvation  of  \\izpospoHte;  the  Swede  threatened  the  Russian 
conquests,  and  claimed  Lithuania.  He  entered  into  relations 
with  Khmelnitski,  who  forgot  the  oath  he  had  taken  ;  it  was 
Charles  XII,  and  Mazeppa  enacted  half  a  century  before.  The 
Tzar  Alexis  feared  he  had  only  shaken  Poland  to  strengthen 
Sweden,  and  would  not  risk  the  reunion  of  these  two  formidable 
monarchies  under  the  same  sceptre.  He  hastened  to  negotiate 
with  the  Poles,  who  promised  to  elect  him  after  the  death  of 
their  present  king;  then  he  turned  his  arms  against  Sweden. 
The  latter  was  the  heir  on  the  Baltic  of  the  Livonian  Order. 
Alexis  trod  in  the  steps  of  Ivan  the  Terrible ;  like  him,  his 
successes  were  rapid,  but  they  as  rapidly  evaporated  in  smoke. 
He  took  Diinaburg  and  Kokenhusen,  two  old  castles  of  the 
Knights ;  but  the  Russians  besieged  Riga  in  vain,  and  succeeded 
no  better  at  Ore'chek  or  Kexholm.  The  occupation  of  Dorpat 
terminated  the  first  campaign  (1656)  ;  after  that,  hostilities  lan- 
guished, and  Alexis  concluded  a  truce  of  twenty  years,  which 
secured  him  Dorpat  and  a  part  of  his  conquests.  The  affairs  of 
Poland  and  Little  Russia  became,  however,  so  terribly  compli- 
cated, that  the  truce  became  the  Peace  of  Cardis,  by  which 
Alexis  abandoned  all  Livonia  (1661). 

The  hetman  Khmelnitski  had  more  than  once  given  his  new 
sovereign  cause  for  discontent.  In  spite  of  his  oath,  he  had 
negotiated  with  Sweden  and  Poland.  In  fact,  now  that  he  had 
got  rid  of  his  former  master,  he  did  not  want  to  become  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


279 


vassal  of  a  new  sovereign,  but  to  create  a  third  Slav  State  be- 
tween Poland  and  Russia,  and  to  remain  its  independent 
sovereign.  This  hope  was  shared  by  the  Cossacks.  They  had 
revolted  against  Poland  because  the  king  was  weak  and  could 
not  make  himself  respect ed  by  the  aristocracy  ;  they  feared  the 
Tzar  of  Muscovy  would  be  only  too  strong.  All  government. 
all  authority,  \vas  a  burden  to  the  free  Cossack. 

Bogdan,  however,  kept  up  the  appearances  of  submission.  His 
death  was  the  signal  of  disorder.  Vygovski,  chancellor  of  the 
Cossack  army,  took  the  mace  of  the  hetman,  but  Martin 
Pouchkar,  the  polkovnik  of  Pultowa,  and  the  Zaporogues,  refused 
to  recognize  him.  Vygovski,  Pouchkar,  and  the  Zaporogue 
ataman  denounced  each  other  at  Moscow.  Vygovski  caused 
Pouchkar  to  be  assassinated,  and  made  advances  to  Poland,  to 
secure  himself  an  ally  against  the  Tzar ;  he  also  applied  to  the 
Khan  of  the  Crimea,  and  defeated  Prince  Troubetskoii  at  Kono- 
top  ;  but  after  the  retreat  of  the  Khan,  the  majority  of  the  Cos- 
sacks declared  for  Moscow,  and  obliged  the  rebel  to  fly  to 
Poland.  George  Khmelnitski,  son  of  the  liberator,  was  elected 
hetman. 

The  troubles  of  Little  Russia  revived  the  courage  of  the 
Poles.  They  succeeded  in  expelling  the  Swedes,  and  refused  to 
execute  the  treaty  of  Moscow.  The  war  recommenced,  and 
the  Russians  were  unfortunate.  The  very  extremity  of  their 
misfortunes  seemed  to  have  bound  the  Poles  together.  After 
some  slight  successes,  one  Russian  army  was  defeated  at 
Polonka  by  the  voievode  Tcharnetski,  the  conqueror  of  the 
Swedes ;  another,  commanded  by  the  boyard  Cheremetief  and 
the  hetman  George  Khmelnitski,  allowed  itself  to  be  surrounded 
near  Tchoudnovo  by  the  Tatars  and  Poles,  and  being  deserted 
by  the  Cossacks,  was  forced  to  lay  down  its  arms.  In  the 
north  they  lost  Wilna  and  the  whole  of  Lithuania. 

Khmelnitski,  had  become  a  monk.  Teteria,  his  successor, 
had  done  homage  to  the  king  ;  but  the  country  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Dnieper  refused  to  recognize  him  as  hetman,  and  elected 
Brioukhovetski,  who  was  devoted  to  Russia.  John  Casimir 
crossed  the  river,  and  was  on  the  point  of  reconquering  the 
whole  Ukraine  ;  but  having  been  repulsed  at  the  siege  of  Glou- 
khof,  he  lost  all  his  best  troops  through  hunger  and  cold  in  the 
steppes  of  the  desert.  The  two  empires  were  exhausted  by  a 
war  which  had  already  lasted  ten  years.  The  whole  of  Poland 
had  been  overrun  by  Swedes,  Russians,  and  Cossacks.  Russia 
had  no  longer  money  with  which  to  pay  her  army,  and  she  had 
recourse  to  a  forced  currency,  by  which  a  bronze  coinage  was 
given  the  fictitious  value  of  silver.  Everywhere  were  heard 


23o  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

bitter  complaints  of  the  famine.  At  Moscow  a  riot  broke  out 
against  the  Miloslavskis,  the  kinsmen  of  the  Tzarina,  and  the 
multitude  inarched  to  the  palace  of  Kolomenskoe'  to  drag  them 
out  by  force.  The  soldiers  had  to  fire  on  the  rebels,  and  7000* 
of  them  were  killed  or  taken. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  neither  the  Poles  nor  the  Russians 
would  lay  down  arms  without  being  assured  the  possession  oi 
all  that  they  had  conquered  with  so  many  sacrifices.  Poland 
was  now  attacked  by  two  new  misfortunes — the  revolt  of  Prince 
Lubomirski,  who  had  some  grievance  against  the  queen,  and  the 
death  of  Teteria,  whose  successor,  Dorochenko,  went  over  to 
the  Sultan,  and  by  so  doing  involved  the  Government  in  a  war 
with  both  Turks  and  Tatars.  It  was  necessary  to  treat  with 
Russia,  and  a  thirteen  years'  truce  was  concluded  at  Androus- 
sovo.  Alexis  renounced  Lithuania,  but  kept  Smolensk  and 
Kief  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Dnieper,  and  all  the  Little  Russian 
left  bank  (1667). 

The  treaty  with  Poland  did  not  give  peace  to  Little  Russia. 
Neither  the  Dnieper  Cossacks  nor  the  Don  Cossacks  could 
exist  under  the  obedience  and  regularity  essential  to  a  modern 
State.  The  more  Russia  became  civilized  and  centralized,  the 
more  she  became  separated  from  the  men  of  the  Steppe  ;  the 
further  the  frontier  of  this  civilized  Russia  advanced  to  the 
South,  the  nearer  approached  the  inevitable  conflict.  The  reign 
of  Alexis,  troubled  at  first  by  the  revolts  of  the  Muscovite  cities, 
was  now  vexed  by  the  revolts  of  the  Cossacks. 

The  hetman  Brioukhovetski  was  a  devoted  adherent  of 
Russia,  but  he  was  surrounded  by  many  malcontents.  As  usual, 
the  people  had  not  got  all  they  had  hoped  by  the  revolution  ; 
he  saw,  however,  in  the  absolute  authority  of  the  Tzar,  a  bul- 
wark against  the  Little  Russian  oligarchy  of  the  starchina  and 
the  polkovniks,  and  against  the  turbulence  of  the  Cossacks. 
"  God,"  he  said  to  the  latter,  "  has  delivered  us  from  you  ;  you 
can  no  longer  pillage  and  devastate  our  houses."  The  Cossacks 
and  the  starchina,  or  in  other  words,  the  military  and  aristocratic 
party,  were  still  more  displeased  to  see  the  Muscovite  voievodes 
establish  themselves  in  the  towns.  The  Republic  of  the 
Zaporogues  already  feared  that  it  had  given  itself  a  master. 
Methodius,  Metropolitan  of  Kief,  encouraged  the  resistance  of 
a  party  of  the  clergy  who  wished  ro  remain  subject  to  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  and  not  to  be  transferred  to  the  Patri- 
arch of  Moscow.  It  was  Methodius  who  organized  the  rebellion  ; 
he  made  advances  to  the  hetman,  who  opened  a  negotiation 
with  Dorochenko,  the  ataman  of  the  right  bank,  who  promised 
to  resign  his  office  and  to  recognize  as  chief  of  Little  Russia  the 


HIS  '1  'OR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  2  8 1 

man  who  would  deliver  her.  The  weak  Brioukhovetski  allowed 
himself  to  be  persuaded,  and  at  the  Assembly  of  Gadatch,  in 
1668,  it  was  decided  to  revolt  against  the  Tzar,  and  to  take  the 
oath  to  the  Sultan,  as  the  men  of  the  right  bank  had  already 
done.  Two  voievodes  and  120  Muscovites  were  put  to  death.  A 
short  time  after,  Brioukhovetski  was  slain  by  order  of  Doro- 
chenko,  who  became  hetman  of  both  banks.  But  of  the  two 
parties  which  divided  Little  Russia,  the  party  of  independence 
or  the  Polish  and  Turkish  Party,  and  the  party  of  Moscow,  the 
latter  was  predominant  on  the  left  bank.  It  did  not  hesitate  to 
make  terms  with  the  Tzar,  and,  at  the  price  of  a  few  concessions, 
a  second  time  submitted  to  him  entirely.  Mnogogrechnyi,  the 
new  hetman,  took  up  his  abode  at  Batourine. 

The  right  bank  had  no  reason  to  pride  itself  on  the  policy  to 
which  it  was  committed  by  Dorochenko.  It  became  the  theatre 
of  a  terrible  war  between  Turkey  and  Poland,  and  was  cruelly 
ravaged  by  Mahomet  IV.  Abandoned  for  a  moment  by  the  weak 
King  Michael  Vichnevetski,  it  was  conquered  by  his  energetic 
successor,  John  Sobieski.  The  left,  or  Muscovite  bank,  had 
less  to  suffer,  although  the  Sultan  claimed  it  equally  as  his  own 
possession,  but  the  inhabitants  had  only  to  fight  with  their  old 
enemies  the  Tatars. 

The  Cossacks  of  the  Don  at  this  period  were,  on  the  whole, 
tolerably  quiet;  but  one  of  their  number,  Stenko  Razine,  over- 
turned all  Eastern  Russia.  The  immigration  of  Cossacks  of  the 
Dnieper,  expelled  from  their  native  land  by  war,  had  created  a 
great  famine  in  these  poor  plains  of  the  Don,  Stenko  assem- 
bled some  of  these  starved  adventurers,  and  formed  a  scheme 
for  the  capture  of  Azof  ;  but  on  being  hindered  by  the  starchina 
of  the  Dontsi,  he  turned  towards  the  East,  towards  the  Volga 
and  the  Jaik  (Oural).  His  reputation  was  wide-spread  ;  he 
was  said  to  be  a  magician,  against  whom  neither  sabre,  balls, 
nor  bullets  could  prevail,  and  the  brigands  of  all  the  country 
crowded  to  his  banner.  He  swept  the  Caspian,  and  ravaged 
the  shores  of  Persia.  The  Russian  Government,  powerless  to 
crush  him,  offered  him  a  pardon  if  he  would  surrender  his  guns 
and  boats  stolen  from  the  Crown.  He  accepted  the  offer;  but 
his  exploits,  his  wealth  acquired  by  pillage,  and  his  princely 
liberality  created  him  an  immense  party  among  the  lower  classes, 
and  among  the  Cossacks  and  even  the  streltsi  of  the  towns.  The 
lands  of  the  Volga  were  always  ready  for  a  social  revolution  ; 
hence  the  success  of  Razine,  and  later  of  Pougatchef.  There 
brigands  were  popular  and  respected  ;  honest  merchants,  come 
to  the  Don  for  trading  purposes,  and  learning  that  Stenko  had 
begun  the  career  of  a  pirate,  did  not  hesitate  to  join  him. 


2g2  HfSTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

In  1670,  Stenko  having  spent  all  the  money  he  had  gained 
by  pillage,  went  up  the  Don  with  an  army  of  vagabonds,  and 
thence  crossed  to  the  Volga.  All  the  country  rose  on  the  ap- 
proach of  a  chief  already  so  famous.  The  inhabitants  of  Tzar- 
itsyne  opened  their  gates  to  him.  A  flotilla  was  sent  against 
him,  but  the  sailors  and  the  streltsi  surrendered,  and  betrayed 
to  him  their  commanders.  Astrakhan  revolted,  and  delivered 
up  its  two  vo'ievodes,  one  of  whom  was  thrown  from  the  top  of  a 
bell-tower.  Ascending  the  Volga,  he  took  Saratof  and  Samara, 
and  raised  the  country  of  Nijni-Novgorod,  Tambof,  and  Pensa. 
Everywhere  in  the  Russia  of  the  Volga  the  serfs  revolted 
against  their  masters — the  Tatars,  Tchouvaches,  Mordvians,  and 
Tcheremisses  against  the  domination  of  Russia.  It  was  a  fear- 
ful revolution.  In  1671  Stenko  Razine  was  defeated,  near 
Simbirsk,  by  George  Baratinski.  His  prestige  was  lost ;  he  was 
pursued  into  the  steppes,  arrested  on  the  Don,  and  sent  to  Mos- 
cow, where  he  was  executed  (1671). 

His  death  did  not  immediately  check  the  rebellion.  The 
brigands  still  continued  to  hold  the  country.  At  Astrakhan, 
Vassili  Ouss  governed  despotically,  and  threw  the  archbishop 
from  a  belfry.  Finally,  however,  all  these  imitators  of  Razine 
were  killed  or  captured,  the  Volga  freed,  and  the  Don  became 
as  peaceful  as  the  Dnieper. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REFORMS  OF  NICON — THE   PRECURSORS  OF   PETER 
THE   GREAT. 

If  Alexis,  father  of  Peter  the  Great,  was  not  himself  a  re- 
former, his  whole  reign  was  a  preparation  for  reform.  Who  can 
tell  how  much  Peter  owed  to  the  example  of  his  father — and  of 
his  mother  Natalia,  the  pupil  of  Matve'ef — to  the  ideas  of  Ni- 
con,  Polotski  and  Nachtchokine  ?  Nicon  was  the  son  of  a 
simple  peasant  of  the  Government  of  Nijni-Novgorod.  The 
Church  drew  the  young  man  from  obscurity,  and  gave  him 
little  by  little  a  place  among  those  who  were  great.  A 
priest  at  Moscow,  a  recluse  renowned  for  his  piety  on  the 
banks  of  the  White  Lake,  and  later  an  archimandrite  of  the 
NovospasskiMonastyr,  he  was  at  last  nominated  Metropolitan  of 
Novgorod,  where  we  have  seen  him  appease  a  sedition  at  the 
peril  of  his  life.  The  Tzar  loved  and  admired  him,  and  made 
him  Patriarch,  and  allowed  him  to  take  the  title  of  Chief  Noble 
and  Sovereign,  once  borne  by  Philarete.  A  man  who  had 
raised  himself  to  such  a  height  from  such  a  depth  was  not  cap- 
able of  mastering  his  ambition.  Proud  and  imperious,  he  made 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  283 

himself  a  multitude  of  enemies  among  the  clergy  and  the  nobles, 
and  despised  them. 

Nicon  took  up  the  correction  of  the  holy  books  began  by 
Dionysius  of  Tro'itsa.  A  number  of  gross  mistakes  and  even  inter 
polations  had  slipped  into  the  Slavonic  manuscripts,  and  thence 
passed  into  print.  On  being  informed  of  these  mistakes  by 
some  Greek  prelates  who  had  come  to  Moscow,  Nicon  assem- 
bled a  council,  where  it  was  decided  that  the  printed  books  must 
be  corrected  according  to  the  ancient  Slavonic  or  Greek  manu- 
scripts. Nicon  collected  these  texts  from  all  parts,  and,  with 
the  help  of  learned  ecclesiastics,  set  to  work.  This  attempt, 
which  denotes  a  truly  modern  and  scientific  spirit,  was  the  cause 
of  a  schism.  To  the  people,  and  to  a  large  party  of  the  clergy 
and  monks,  everything  in  the  holy  books,  even  the  mistakes  of 
the  copyists,  was  sacred.  Certain  altered  or  interpolated  texts 
had  in  their  turn  consecrated  usages  opposed  to  those  generally 
followed  by  the  Church.  The  sectaries  relying  on  these  texts 
forbade  the  beard  to  be  shaven  under  the  penalty  of  committing 
a  mortal  sin,  and  ordered  the  sign  of  the  cross  to  be  made  with 
two  fingers  and  not  with  three,  and  the  liturgy  with  seven  pros- 
phires  and  not  with  five.  Fanatics  were  ready  to  die  sooner  than 
read  lisous  for  Isous  (Jesus).  Besides  those  whom  an  excessive 
respect  for  ancient  texts  and  customs  drove  into  schism,  we 
must  reckon  true  heretics,  who  adopted  falsified  or  apocryphal 
renderings,  and  who,  after  having  been  for  long  hidden  and 
ignored  in  the  bosom  of  the  orthodox  Church,  were  all  at  once 
unmasked.  Thus  the  reforms  of  Nicon  brought  to  light  the 
raskol  latent  in  the  Russian  Church,  with  all  its  multiplicity  of 
sects — Old  Believers,  Drinkers  of  Milk,  Champions  of  the 
Spirit,  Flagellants,  Skoptsi,  or  voluntary  eunuchs,  and  many 
others,  whose  origin  may  be  traced  to  Alexandrine  Gnosticism, 
Persian  Manichasism,  and  perhaps  even  to  Hindu  Pantheism 

(1654). 

The  Tzar  energetically  supported  his  patriarch.  He  dili- 
gently sought  out  the  religious  madmen  (iourodivie}  and  the  wan- 
dering prophets  who  led  the  people  astray,  disgraced  the  men 
and  women  of  his  Court  who  persisted  in  crossing  themselves 
with  two  fingers,  imprisoned  rebellious  monks  and  ecclesiastics, 
and  hunted  down  assemblies  of  non-conformists.  One  of  Ni- 
con's  enemies  was  burnt  alive.  The  most  curious  episode  of 
this  religious  var  was  the  revolt  of  the  holy  monasteries  of  the 
White  Sea.  The  monks,  passionately  attached  to  their  ancient 
customs,  won  over  the  strcltsi  and  the  ditii-boyarskis  who  formed 
the  garrison  of  the  fortified  convent  of  Solovetski.  An  army 
had  to  be  sent  against  them  (1668),  but  the  monastery  only  capit- 


2g4  HISTOR  Y  OF  K USSIA. 

ulated  after  a  siege  of  eight  years.  It  was  then  taken  by  as- 
sault, and  the  rebels  hung. 

At  the  same  time  that  Alexis  enabled  Nicon  to  subdue  his 
religious  foes,  he  delivered  him  up  to  his  political  enemies. 
The  proud  and  imperious  character  of  the  Patriarch  had  ended 
by  rendering  him  insupportable  to  the  Tzar.  It  was  a  reproduc- 
tion of  the  rivalry  of  the  Patriarch  Keroularios  and  the  Em- 
peror Isaac  Comnenus  in  the  nth  century  (Byzantine).  The 
courtiers  did  their  best  to  foment  this  misunderstanding.  Nicon, 
instead  of  combating  their  arts,  treated  them  with  disdain.  At 
last  his  enemies  put  upon  him  a  public  insult,  which  made  him 
beside  himself.  In  the  midst  of  the  tears  of  the  people,  he 
solemnly  placed  his  pontifical  insignia  on  the  altar,  and  retired 
to  a  convent  he  had  founded  near  Moscow.  This  was  to  relin- 
quish the  field  of  battle  to  his  adversaries.  He  expected  that 
the  Tzar  would  beseech  him  to  resume  his  office,  but  the  Tzar 
did  not  trouble  himself  about  his  old  favorite.  His  voluntary 
exile  lasted  eight  years  (1658-1666),  when  a  council  was  assem- 
bled on  the  occasion  of  the  arrival  of  the  Patriarchs  of  Antioch 
and  Alexandria  at  Moscow.  The  council  approved  of  Nicon's 
reforms  and  his  corrections  of  the  sacred  books  ;  but  for  his 
voluntary  desertion  of  the  patriarchate,  his  audacious  attacks  on 
the  Tzar  and  the  bishops,  and  the  abuse  of  his  power  over  the 
inferior  clergy,  he  was  condemned  to  be  imprisoned  in  a  mon- 
astery on  the  White  Lake. 

By  the  side  of  Nicon  among  the  reformers,  we  must  mention 
Simeon  Polotski,  tutor  of  the  sons  of  Alexis,  who  published 
against  the  raskolniks  the  '  Rod  of  Government ; '  wrote  light 
verses,  panegyrics,  sermons,  dramatic  compositions,  maxims,  and 
examples  drawn  from  the  Scriptures,  and  never  ceased  to  remind 
the  Tzar  of  a  French  king.  "There  was  once,"  he  wrote,  "a 
King  of  France  called  Francis  I.  As  he  loved  literature  and 
science,  though  his  ancestors  hated  them  and  lived  in  ignorance 
like  barbarians,  the  sons  of  illustrious  families  sought  instruction, 
in  order  to  please  the  monarch.  Thus  knowledge  spread  through 
the  country,  for  it  is  the  custom  of  subjects  to  imitate  the  prince  ; 
all  love  what  he  loves.  Happy  is  the  kingdom  whose  king  gives 
a  good  example  to  all  !  "  Simeon  was  a  White  Russian  ;  others, 
like  Slavinetski  and  Satanovski,  who  were  charged  by  Nicon  with 
the  translation  of  foreign  books,  were  natives  of  Little  Russia, 
of  Kief  the  learned.  These  two  western  divisions  of  Russia 
served  as  a  link  between  Muscovy  and  Europe. 

Two  writers  of  this  epoch  merit  special  mention.  Gregory 
Kotochikhine,  under-secretary  of  the  Prikaz  of  Embassies,  was 
obliged,  in  consequence  cf  a  quarrel  with  the  vo'ievode  Dot 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  285 

gorouid,  to  fly  first  into  Poland  and  then  into  Sweden,  where  he 
wrote  a  curious  treatise,  called  '  Russia  under  the  reign  of  Alexis 
Mikhailovitch.,'  which  appeared  about  1666.  He  does  not  con- 
cern himself  either  with  the  clergy  or  the  inferior  classes,  but 
gives  a  frightful  picture  of  the  ignorance,  sensuality,  and  brutality 
of  the  boyards  and  nobles.  So  graphic  is  it  that,  as  PoleVoI 
remarks,  we  are  forced  involuntarily  to  ask,  "  In  what  state  could 
the  lowet  orders  have  been  ?  "  He  speaks  with  horror  and 
disgust  of  the  administration  of  justice,  compares  foreign  institu- 
tions with  those  of  his  own  country  to  the  advantage  of  the 
former,  and  regrets  that  his  compatriots  did  not  send  their  sons 
to  be  educated  abroad. 

louri  Krijanitch,  a  Servian  by  birth  and  a  Catholic  priest, 
was  one  of  those  learned  Slavs  who  now  came  into  Russia  to  seek 
employment  for  their  talents.  He  had  proposed  to  himself  three 
aims  in  coming  to  Moscow:  i.  To  elevate  the  Slavonic  tongue 
by  compiling  a  grammar  and  a  lexicon,  so  that  the  Slavs  might 
learn  to  speak  and  write  correctly  ;  and  to  place  a  larger  number 
•of  words  and  phrases  at  their  disposal,  so  that  they  might  be 
able  to  express  all  the  thoughts  common  to  the  human  mind, 
and  also  political  and  general  ideas.  2.  To  write  the  history 
of  the  Slavs,  and  to  refute  the  falsehoods  and  calumnies  of  the 
Germans.  3.  To  unmask  the  tricks  and  sophisms  made  use  of 
by  foreign  nations  to  deceive  the  Slavs.  In  his  work  entitled 
'The  Russian  Empire  in  the  middle  of  the  i7th  Century,  dedi- 
cated to  Alexis  Mikhailovitch,  and  lately  republished  by  M. 
Bezsonof,  he  touches  on  all  points  of  manners  and  customs, 
politics,  and  political  economy.  Like  Kotochikhine,  he  attacks 
ignorance  and  barbarism,  and  advocates  instruction,  study,  and 
civilization,  as  being  the  only  remedies  for  the  misfortunes  of 
Russia. 

Krijanitch  is  the  first  of  the  Slavophiles,  or  the  Pan-Slavists, 
as  they  are  at  present  called.  He  appeals  to  all  the  Slav  nations 
— "  Borysthenites,  or  Little  Russians,  Poles,  Lithuanians,  and 
Serbs.  He  advises  the  Russians  to  mistrust  equally  Germans 
and  Greeks.  It  was  probably  his  philippics  against  the  Greek 
clergy  established  in  Russia  that  caused  him  in  1660  to  be  exiled 
to  Tobolsk. 

Ordine-Nacfatchokine,  son  of  a  gentleman  of  Pskof,  distin- 
guished himself  as  a  diplomatist  in  the  negotiations  for  the  Peace 
of  Androussovo,  which  gave  Kief  and  Smolensk  to  Russia.  Sum- 
moned to  take  part  in  the  councils  of  the  Tzar,  he  applied  his 
activity  to  all  branches  of  the  administration  ;  to  the  army,  that 
needed  reform  ;  to  commerce,  that  must  be  freed  from  the  in- 
terference of  the  vo'ievodes  ;  to  diplomacy,  forwhlj "?.  men  skilled 


286  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

in  languages,  representatives  worthy  of  the  Court  of  Russia,  must 
be  found.  His  object  was  to  make  Muscovy  the  centre  of 
Asiatic  and  European  trade  ;  he  instituted  an  Armenian  Company 
for  the  purchase  of  Persian  silks,  dreamed  of  a  fleet  on  the 
Caspian,  constructed  the  first  Russian  vessel  on  the  Oka,  had 
extracts  from  foreign  news-letters  regularly  translated  for  the 
enlightenment  of  the  sovereign,  and  thus  founded,  though  for  the 
Tzar's  benefit  alone,  the  Russian  press.  . 

As  he  had  necessarily  to  praise  the  usages  of  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  to  find  fault  with  those  of  Russia,  Nachtchokine  could 
not  but  make  himself  many  enemies.  His  morality  was  equal 
to  his  talent :  incorruptible,  indefatigable,  and  master  of  himself, 
he  was  the  first  great  European  that  Russia  had  produced.  While 
praising  Europe  he  still  remained  a  Russian.  In  his  old  age 
he  become  a  monk. 

When  Nachtchokine  had  to  leave  his  post,  the  boyard 
Matve'ef,  a  familiar  friend  of  Alexis,  was  appointed  his  successor. 
One  day,  when  the  Tzar  was  dining  with  Matve'ef,  he  noticed  a 
young  girl  who  was  serving  at  table,  and  who  pleased  him  by  her- 
modest  and  intelligent  air.  This  was  a  motherless  girl,  Natalia 
Narychkine,  to  whom  her  uncle  Matve'ef  had  been  a  second 
father.  "  I  have  found  a  husband  for  her,"  said  the  Tzar  to 
Matve'ef  some  days  after.  This  husband  was  the  Tzar  himself. 
The  marriage  drew  closer  still  the  ties  that  bound  him  to  Matve'ef. 
Now  the  latter  was,  like  Nachtchokine,  full  of  European  ideas. 
His  house  was  furnished  and  ornamented  according  to  Western 
notions.  His  chosen  guests  did  not  give  themselves  up  to  the 
orgies  authorized  by  national  custom  ;  they  behaved  as  courte- 
ously as  if  they  were  in  a  French  salon.  His  Scotch  wife,  a 
Hamilton  by  birth,  was  the  only  lady  of  the  Court  who  did  not 
paint  herself,  and,  instead  of  keeping  herself  secluded  in  her 
apartments,  took  part  in  the  conversation  of  men.  We  may  con- 
ceive the  influence  of  the  boyard  and  his  wife  on  their  adopted 
daughter ;  and  is  it  surprising  that  Natalia  was  the  first  Russian 
princess  who  drew  back  the  curtains  of  her  litter,  and  allowed 
her  face  to  be  seen  by  her  subjects  ?  Matve'ef  protected  foreign 
artists, — "  masters  in  perspective  writings,"  as  they  were  called. 
In  the  German  Slobode  of  Moscow  he  established  a  sort  of 
dramatic  academy,  where  twenty-five  merchants'  sons  learnt 
to  act  comedies.  The  Tzar  acquired  a  taste  for  theatrical  enter- 
tainments. Likatchof,  his  envoy  at  the  Court  of  Florence,  w;r>te 
to  his  sovereign  enthusiastic  letters  full  of  the  marvels  which  he 
had  seen  at  the  opera — of  palaces  which  came  and  went,  of  a 
sea  that  rose  and  fell  and  filled  itself  with  fish,  of  men  who  rode 
on  monsters  of  the  deep,  or  pursued  each  other  into  the  clouds. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  ,87 

wfoscow  undertook  to  rival  Florence.  In  a  wooden  theatre, 
ballets  and  dramas,  adapted  from  the  Bible,  were  represented 
before  the  Tzar  :  '  Joseph  sold  by  his  Brethren,'  '  The  Prodigal 
Son,'  and  '  Esther/  which  preceded  that  of  Racine  by  seventeen 
years.  At  Moscow,  as  at  St.  Cyr,  the  piece  gave  scope  to  many 
allusions.  Here  Esther  was  Natalia  Narychkine  ;  Mordecai  was 
Matveef,  the  protector  of  her  youth ;  and  the  vre'mianchtchik 
Hainan,  who  was  hung  on  the  tchelcbitit  of  Queen  Esther,  was, 
no  doubt,  Khitrovo,  the  former  favorite.  These  pieces  were  en- 
livened by  somewhat  rough  pleasantries.  In  '  Holofernes,'  when 
Judith  has  cut  off  the  head  of  the  Assyrian  voi'evode,  the  servant 
cries  "  Here  is  a  poor  man  who  will  be  much  astonished,  on 
awaking,  to  find  his  head  carried  away  ! " 

During  this  reign,  when  Russia  was  trying  to  assimilate  her- 
self to  Europe,  diplomacy  naturally  took  rapid  strides.  Musovy 
had  entered  into  more  or  less  close  relations  with  all  the  Cou.  ts 
of  the  West. 

In  1645,  Alexis  sent  Gerasimus  Doktourof  to  notify  his  ac- 
cession to  the  King  of  England,  Charles  I.  The  Russian  envoy 
arrived  in  England  in  the  midst  of  the  Revolution.  Being  re- 
ceived at  Gravesend  with  great  honors  and  the  firing  of  guns  by 
the  company  of  merchants  that  traded  with  Russia,  he  at  once 
inquired  "where  was  the  king?"  They  replied,  they  did  not 
know  exactly  where  he  was,  because  for  three  or  four  years  there 
had  been  a  great  civil  war,  and  instead  of  the  king  they  had  now 
the  Parliament,  composed  of  deputies  from  all  the  orders,  who 
governed  London  as  well  as  the  kingdoms  of  England  and 
Scotland.  "  Our  war  with  the  king,"  said  the  merchants,  "  began 
for  the  sake  of  religion,  when  he  married  the  daughter  of  the 
King  of  France.  She,  being  a  Papist,  persuaded  the  king  into 
various  superstitious  practices ;  it  was  by  her  counsel  that  the 
king  instituted  archbishops  and  called  in  the  Jesuits.  Many 
people,  in  order  to  follow  the  example  of  the  king,  made  them- 
selves Papists  too.  Besides  this,  the  king  wished  to  govern  the 
kingdom  according  to  his  own  will,  as  do  the  sovereigns  of  other 
States.  But  here,  from  time  immemorial,  the  country  has  been 
free  :  the  early  kings  could  settle  nothing :  it  was  the  Parlia- 
ment, the  men  who  were  elected,  that  governed.  The  king 
began  to  rule  after  his  own  will,  but  the  Parliament  would  not 
allow  that,  and  many  archbishops  and  Jesuits  were  executed. 
The  king,  seeing  that  the  Parliament  intended  to  act  according 
to  its  own  wish,  as  it  had  done  from  all  time,  and  not  at  all  ac- 
cording to  the  royal  will,  left  London  with  the  queen,  without 
being  expelled  by  anyone,  saying  that  they  were  going  away  into 
other  towns.  Once  out  of  London,  he  sent  the  queen  to  France, 


388  HISTORY  OF  KL'SSfA. 

and  began  to  fight  us,  but  the  Parliament  was  the  stronger. 
The  Parliament  is  composed  oi\.\\oj>alaty  (chambers)  :  in  one  of 
them  sit  the  boyards,  in  the  other  the  men  elected  by  the  com- 
mons— the  sloiijilit  liottdi  and  the  merchants.  Five  hundred  men 
sit  in  the  parliament,  and  one  orator  speaks  for  all." 

These  l.~  .ons  in  the  English  Constitution  could  not  penetrate 
the  brain  of  the  Russian  envoy.  He  only  recognized  the  king, 
and  persisted,  according  to  the  text  of  his  instructions,  in  trying 
to  deliver  his  letters  of  credit  to  the  king  himself.  "  Hast  thou 
a  letter  from  thy  sovereign,  and  a  mission  to  the  Parliament?'" 
they  asked  him.  He  replied,  "  I  have  neither  a  letter  nor  a 
mission  to  the  Parliament.  Let  the  Parliament  send  me  im- 
mediately before  the  king,  and  give  me  an  escort,  carriages,  and 
provisions.  Let  the  Parliament  present  me  to  him — it  is  to  him 
that  I  will  speak."  His  demand  was  naturally  refused,  and  he 
wished  instantly  to  leave  for  Holland,  but  this  was  not  allowed. 

The  following  year  Charles  I.  was  brought  a  prisoner  into 
London.  Doktourof  insisted  on  being  presented  to  him.  His 
request  was  ill-timed.  "You  cannot  be  brought  before  him," 
they  said  to  him  ;  "  he  no  longer  governs  anything."  Doktourof 
then  refused  a  dinner  given  to  him  by  the  Russian  Company, 
and  only  yielded  when  the  dinner  was  served  at  his  own  house. 
The  Parliament,  however,  did  not  wish  to  interrupt  the  friendly 
relations  with  Russia. 

Doktourof  was  summoned  before  the  House  of  Lords  on  the 
i3th  of  June.  At  his  entrance  all  the  "  boyards"  took  off  their 
hats,  and  Lord  Manchester,  the  "chief  boyard,"  rose.  Then 
Doktourof,  to  the  general  consternation,  made  the  following 
speech : — "  I  am  sent  by  my  sovereign  to  your  king,  Charles 
King  of  England.  I  have  been  sent  as  a  courier  (gonets)  to 
negotiate  important  affairs  of  State,  which  offer  great  advantages 
to  both  sovereigns  and  to  all  Christendom,  and  may  help  to  main- 
tain peace  and  concord.  It  is  the  ijth  of  June,  and,  since  I 
arrived  in  London  on  the  26th  of  November  last,  I  have  never 
ceased  to  show  you  the  letter  of  the  Tzar  and  to  beg  you  to 
allow  me  to  go  before  the  king.  You  have  kept  me  in  London 
without  permitting  me  either  to  have  an  interview  with  the  king 
or  to  return  to  the  Tzar;  and  yet  in  all  the  neighboringcountries 
the  route  is  free  to  all  ambassadors,  envoys,  and  couriers  of  the 
Tzar." 

Manchester  replied  that  they  would  explain  to  the  Tzar  by 
letter  their  reasons  for  acting  thus.  They  gave  him  a  chair,  and 
the  English  "  boyards "  likewise  seated  themselves  ;  and  he 
began  to  look  about  the  House,  of  which  he  gives  a  minute  de- 
»cription  in  his  report.  He  was  then  conducted  to  the  House  of 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  289 

Commons,  and  the  dignitaries  came  to  meet  him  preceded  by 
the  royal  sceptre.  He  renewed  his  declarations,  and  then  re- 
tired ceremoniously.  In  June  1646  he  left  England  much  dis- 
contented. Alexis  could  understand  no  more  of  the  English 
Revolution  than  his  envoy.  He  maintained,  like  Catherine  II., 
the  cause  of  kings  against  the  liberty  of  the  subjects.  In  May 
1647  ne  received  at  Moscow  Nawtingall,  envoy  of  Charles  I., 
who  denounced  the  captivity  of  the  king,  and  said  Charles  would 
see  with  pleasure  the  English  Company  deprived  of  its  privileges, 
and  everyone  allowed  to  trade  freely  with  Russia.  Alexis 
listened  to  his  request,  and  granted  him,  as  aid  to  the  king  30,000 
tchet-'crts  of  corn,  out  of  the  300,000  that  were  asked  of  him. 
But  the  English  merchants  settled  in  Russia  accused  Nawtingall 
of  imposture,  saying  that  the  king's  letter  was  apocryphal,  and 
that  the  dog  he  had  brought  as  a  present  to  Alexis  had  never 
been  bought  by  Charles  I.  Nawtingall  was  expelled  in  disgrace, 
and  avenged  himself  by  accusing  his  compatriots  of  a  project  of 
attacking  Arkhangel,  and  of  pillaging  the  Russian  merchants. 
His  honors  as  ambassador  were  then  given  back  to  him,  but  he 
quitted  Russia. 

When  Alexis  heard  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.,  he  published 
the  oukase  of  June  1649,  which,  as  a  punishment  to  the  regicides, 
forbade  the  English  merchants  to  live  in  the  cities  of  the  interior, 
and  confined  them  to  Arkhangel.  The  Tzar  furnished  help  in 
money  and  corn  to  Charles,  Prince  of  Wales,  who  in  1660  became 
Charles  II.,  and  resumed  relations  with  him  when  he  ascended 
the  throne  of  the  Stuarts. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war  with  Poland,  it  occurred  to  Alexis 
to  notify  the  fact  to  the  sovereigns  of  the  West.  In  1653  he 
sent  to  Louis  XIV.  a  certain  Matchdkine,  who  was  also  pre- 
sented to  Anne  of  Austria.  In  1668  Peter  Potemkine  was  ac- 
credited first  to  the  Court  of  Spain,  and  then  to  that  of  France. 
It  was  just  after  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  it  was  not 
difficult  for  Russia  to  guess  that  the  war  would  soon  recom- 
mence. The  object  of  the  embassy  was  to  induce  Louis  XIV. 
to  enter  into  regular  relations  with  Russia,  and  to  send  French 
vessels  to  Arkhangel.  Potemkine  had  conferences  with  Colbert 
and  the  six  merchant  guilds  of  Paris.  But  the  results  of  this 
embassy  were  hardly  greater  than  those  of  the  preceding  one. 
The  account  of  Potemkine  contains  some  curious  details  and 
quaint  reflections  on  the  Spain  and  France  of  the  iyth  century, 
but  is  chiefly  occupied  with  difficulties  raised  by  him  on  ques- 
tions of  etiquette. 


Ji/STVK  Y  OF  RUSS2A. 


REIGN   OF    FEODOR   ALEXIEVITCH   (1676-1682). 

On  the  death  of  Alexis,  his  eldest  son  Feodor  succeeded  to 
the  crown.  The  Miloslavskis,  Feodor's  maternal  relatives,  prof- 
ited by  his  accession  to  ruin  their  enemy,  Matvdef  who  was  ac- 
cused of  magic,  deprived  of  his  property  and  his  title  of  boyard, 
and  banished  to  Poustozersk.  In  this  reign  the  Little  Russian 
question  received  a  solution.  The  hetman  Samoilovitch  and 
Prince  Romodanoviski  defeated  Dorochenko,  and  obliged  him 
to  resign  the  office  of  ataman.  They  then  had  to  fight  the  Turks 
and  Tatars,  who  twice  invaded  the  Ukraine  and  advanced  to 
Tchigirine. 

The  country,  according  to  a  contemporary  account,  was  cov- 
ered with  ruined  towns  and  castles,  and  heaps  of  human  bones 
that  whitened  in  the  sun.  Finally  the  Sultan  concluded  at 
Bakhtchi-Serni  a  truce  of  twenty  years,  which  ceded  to  Russia 
Zaporogia  and  the  Ukraine.  In  1681  Feodor  sent  a  new  em- 
bassy to  Louis  XIV. ;  his  envoy  being  the  son  of  the  old  Potem- 
kine,  who  managed,  according  to  the  diplomatic  historian  Flas- 
sans,  to  give  by  his  own  wisdom  and  learning  a  favorable  idea 
of  the  nation  which  he  represented. 

It  was  in  this  reign  that  an  assembly  was  held  of  the  higher 
clergy  and  the  boyards,  to  legislate  on  the  question  of  precedence 
(iniestnichestvo),  which  continued  to  be  one  of  the  plagues  of 
Russia.  The  assembly  commanded  that  there  should  be  no 
more  disputes,  and  in  its  presence  and  that  of  the  Tzar  the 
'  Books  of  Rank  '  were  solemnly  burnt.  In  future  whoever  "  dis- 
puted "  was  to  be  deprived  of  his  nobility  and  his  wealth. 

In  order  to  defend  the  orthodox  Church  against  the  heresies 
of  the  West,  and  to  connect  it  more  closely  with  the  Eastern 
Church,  Feodor  founded  the  Slavo-Graeco- Latin  Academy  of 
Moscow.  Greek  and  Latin,  Christian  philosophy  and  theology, 
were  taught  there.  The  brothers  Likhoudi  were  brought  from 
Greece  to  be  professors  there.  This  school,  although  ecclesi- 
astical, was  an  advance  on  all  other  establishments  of  the  kind 
in  Russia,  and  produced  some  brilliant  pupils.  Among  them 
we  may  mention  the  mathematician  Magnitski  under  Peter  the 
Great,  and  the  historian  Bantych-Kamenski  and  the  Metropoli- 
tan Plato  under  Catharine  II.  The  school  was  afterwards  trans- 
ferred to  the  Monastery  of  Troltsa. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


a9i 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PETER  THE  GREAT:  EARLY  YEARS  (1682-1709). 

Regency  of  Sophia  (1682-1689)— Peter  I. — Expeditions  against  Azof  (1695- 
1696) — First  journey  to  the  West  (1697) — Revolt  and  destruction  of  the 
streltsi  Contest  with  the  Cossacks  :  revolt  of  the  Don  (1706)  ;  Mazeppa 
(1709). 

REGENCY  OF  SOPHIA  (1682-1689)  PETER  I. 

ALEXIS  MIKHAILOVITCH  had  by  his  first  wife,  Maria  Milos- 
lavski,  two  sons  (Feodor  and  Ivan)  and  six  daughters ;  by  Ms 
second  wife  Natalia  Narychkine,  one  son  (who  became  Peter  J.) 
and  two  daughters.  As  he  was  twice  married,  and  the  kinsmen 
of  each  wife  had,  according  to  custom,  surrounded  the  throne, 
there  existed  two  factions  in  the  palace,  which  were  brought  face 
to  face  by  the  death  of  Feodor.  The  Miloslavskis  had  on  their 
side  the  claim  of  seniority,  the  number  of  royal  children  left  by 
Maria,  and  above  all,  the  fact  that  Ivan  was  the  elder  of  the  two 
surviving  sons ;  but  unluckily  for  them,  Ivan  was  notoriously  im- 
becile both  in  body  and  mind.  On  the  side  of  the  Narychkines 
was  the  interest  excited  by  the  precocious  intelligence  of  Peter, 
and  the  position  of  legal  head  of  all  the  royal  family,  which,  ac- 
cording to  Russian  law,  gave  to  Natalia  Narychkine  her  title  of 
"  Tzarina  Dowager."  Both  factions  had  for  some  time  taken 
their  measures  and  recruited  their  partisans.  .  Who  should  suc- 
ceed Feodor  ?  Was  it  to  be  the  son  of  the  Miloslavski,  or  the 
son  of  the  Narychkine  ?  The  Miloslavskis  were  first  defeated 
on  legal  grounds.  Taking  the  incapacity  of  Ivan  into  consider- 
ation, the  boyards  and  the  Patriarch  Joachim  proclaimed  the 
young  Peter,  then  nine  years  old,  Tzar.  The  Narychkines  tri- 
umphed :  Natalia  became  Tzarina-Regent,  recalled  from  exile 
her  foster-father,  Matve'ef,  and  surrounded  herself  by  her 
brothers  and  uncles. 

The  Miloslavskis'  only  means  of  revenge  lay  in  revolt,  but 
they  were  without  a  head  ;  for  it  was  impossible  for  Ivan  to  take 
the  lead.  The  eldest  of  his  six  sisters  was  thirty-two  years  of 
age,  the  youngest  nineteen  ;  the  most  energetic  of  them  was 


29* 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


Sophia,  who  was  twenty-five.  These  six  princesses  saw  them, 
selves  condemned  to  the  dreary  destiny  of  the  Russian  tzareimi^ 
and  were  forced  to  renounce  all  hopes  of  marriage,  with  no 
prospects  but  to  grow  old  in  the  seclusion  of  the  tcrem,  subjected 
by  law  to  the  authority  of  a  stepmother.  All  their  youth  had  to 
look  forward  to  was  the  cloister.  They,  however,  only  breathed 
in  action  ;  and  though  imperial  etiquette  and  Byzantine  man- 
ners, prejudices,  and  traditions  forbade  them  to  appear  in 
public,  even  Byzantine  traditions  offered  them  models  to  follow. 
Had  not  Pulcheria,  daughter  of  an  emperor,  reigned  at  Constan- 
tinople in  the  name  of  her  brother,  the  incapable  Theodosius  ? 
Had  she  not  contracted  a  nominal  marriage  with  the  brave 
Marcian,  who  was  her  sword  against  the  barbarians  ?  Here 
was  the  ideal  that  Sophia  could  propose  to  herself;  to  be  a 
TzardieVitsa,  a  woman-emperor.  To  emancipate  herself  from 
the  rigorous  laws  of  the  terem,  to  force  the  "  twenty-seven  locks  " 
of  the  song,  to  raise  the  fata  that  covered  her  face,  to  appear  in 
public  and  meet  the  looks  of  men,  needed  both  energy,  cunning, 
and  patience  that  could  wait  and  be  content  to  proceed  by  suc- 
cessive efforts.  Sophia's  first  step  was  to  appear  at  Feodor's 
funeral,  though  it  was  not  the  custom  for  any  but  the  widow  and 
the  heir  to  be  present.  There  her  litter  encountered  that  of 
Natalia  Narychkine,  and  her  presence  forced  the  Tzarina- 
Mother  to  retreat.  She  surrounded  herself  with  a  court  of  edu- 
cated men,  who  publicly  praised  her,  encouraged  and  excited 
her  to  action.  Simeon  Polotski  and  Silvester  Medvie'def  wrote 
verses  in  her  honor,  recalled  to  her  the  example  of  Pulcheria 
and  Olga,  compared  her  to  the  virgin  Queen  Elizabeth  of  Eng- 
land, and  even  to  Semiramis  ;  we  might  think  we  were  listening 
to  Voltaire  addressing  Catherine  II.  They  played  on  her  name 
Sophia  (wisdom),  and  declared  she  had  been  endowed  with  the 
quality  as  well  as  the  title.  Polotski  dedicated  to  her  the 
'  Crown  of  Faith,'  and  Medvie'def  his  '  Gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit.' 
The  tcrem  offered  the  strangest  contrasts.  There  acted  they  the 
'  Malade  Imaginaire,'  and  the  audience  was  composed  of  the 
heterogeneous  assembly  of  popes,  monks,  nuns,  and  old  pen- 
sioners that  formed  the  Courts  of  the  ancient  Tzarinas.  In 
this  shifting  crowd  there  were  some  useful  instruments  of  in- 
trigue. The  old  pensioners,  while  telling  their  rosaries,  served 
as  emissaries  between  the  palace  and  the  town,  carried  mes- 
sages and  presents  to  the  turbulent  streltsi,  and  arranged 
matters  between  the  Tzarian  ladies  and  the  soldiers.  Sin- 
ister rumors  were  skilfully  disseminated  through  Moscow : 
Feodor,  the  eldest  son  of  Alexis,  had  died,  the  victim  of  con- 
spirators ;  the  same  lot  was  doubtless  reserved  for  Ivan.  What 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


293 


was  to  become  of  the  poor  tzarhni,  of  the  blood  of  kings  ?  At 
last  it  was  publicly  announced  that  a  brother  of  Natalia  Narych- 
kine  had  seized  the  crown  and  seated  himself  on  the  throne^ 
and  that  Ivan  had  been  strangled.  Love  and  pity  for  the  son 
of  Alexis,  and  the  indignation  excited  by  the  news  of  the  usurpa- 
tion, immediately  caused  the  people  of  Moscow  to  revolt,  and 
the  ringleaders  cleverly  directed  the  movement.  The  tocsin 
sounded  from  400  churches  of  the  "  holy  city  "  ;  the  regiments 
of  the  strdtsi  took  up  arms  and  marched,  followed  by  an  im- 
mense crowd,  to  the  Kremlin,  with  drums  beating,  matches 
lighted,  and  dragging  cannon  behind  them.  Natalia  Narychkine 
had  only  to  show  herself  on  the  Red  Staircase,  accompanied  by 
her  son  Peter,  and  Ivan  who  was  reported  dead.  Their  mere 
appearance  sufficed  to  contradict  all  the  calumnies.  The 
streltsi  hesitated,  seeing  they  had  been  deceived.  A  clever  ha- 
rangue of  Matveef,  who  had  formerly  commanded  them,  and  the 
exhortations  of  the  Patriarch,  shook  them  further.  The  revolt 
was  almost  appeased ;  the  Miloslavskis  had  missed  their  aim, 
for  they  had  not  yet  succeeded  in  putting  to  death  the  people  of 
whom  they  were  jealous.  Suddenly  Prince  Michael  Dolgorouki, 
chief  of  the  prikaz  of  the  streltsi,  began  to  insult  the  rioters 
in  the  most  violent  language.  This  ill-timed  harangue  awoke 
their  fury  ;  they  seized  Dolgorouki,  and  flung  him  from  the  top 
of  the  Red  Staircase  on  to  their  pikes.  They  stabbed  Matveef, 
under  the  eyes  of  the  Tzarina ;  then  they  sacked  the  palace, 
murdering  all  who  fell  into  their  hands.  Athanasius  Narych- 
kine, a  brother  of  Natalia,  was  thrown  from  a  window  on  to  the 
points  of  their  lances.  The  following  day  the  e'meute  recom- 
menced ;  they  tore  from  the  arms  of  the  Tzarina  her  father 
Cyril,  and  her  brother  Ivan  ;  the  latter  was  tortured  and  sent 
into  a  monastery.  Historians  show  us  Sophia  interceded  for 
the  victims  on  her  knees,  but  an  understanding  between  the 
rebels  and  the  TzareVna  did  exist ;  the  streltsi  obeyed  orders. 
The  following  days  were  consecrated  to  the  purifying  of  the 
palace  and  the  administration,  and  the  seventh  day  of  the  revolt 
they  sent  their  commandant,  the  prince-boyard  Khovanski,  to 
declare  that  they  would  have  two  Tzars — Ivan  at  the  head,  and 
Peter  as  coadjutor ;  and  if  this  were  refused,  they  would  again 
rebel.  The  boyards  of  the  douma  deliberated  on  this  proposal, 
and  the  greater  number  of  the  boyards  were  opposed  to  it.  In 
Russia  the  absolute  power  had  never  been  shared,  but  the 
orators  of  the  terem  cited  many  examples  both  from  sacred  and 
profane  history  :  Pharaoh  and  Joseph,  Arcadius  and  Honorius, 
Basil  II.  and  Constantine  VIII.  ;  and  the  best  of  all  the  argu 
ments  were  the  pikes  of  the  streltsi  (1682). 


»94 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


Sophia  had  triumphed  :  she  reigned  in  the  name  of  her  two 
brothers,  Ivan  and  Peter.  She  made  a  point  of  showing  herself 
in  public,  at  processions,  solemn  services,  and  dedications  of 
churches.  At  the  Ouspienski  Sobor,  while  her  brothers  occupied 
the  place  of  the  Tzar,  she  filled  that  of  the  Tzarina  ;  only  she 
raised  the  curtains  and  boldly  allowed  herself  to  be  incensed  by 
the  Patriarch.  When  the  raskolniks  challenged  the  heads  of  the 
orthodox  Church  to  discussion,  she  wished  to  preside  and  hold 
the  meeting  in  the  open  air,  at  the  Lobnot  Mie'sto  on  the  Red 
Place.  There  was  however  so  much  opposition,  that  she  was 
forced  to  call  the  assembly  in  the  Palace  of  Facets,  and  sat 
behind  the  throne  of  her  two  brothers,  present  though  invisible. 
The  double-seated  throne  used  on  those  occasions  is  still  pre- 
served at  Moscow ;  there  is  an  opening  in  the  back,  hidden  by 
a  veil  of  silk,  and  behind  this  sat  Sophia.  This  singular  piece 
of  furniture  is  the  symbol  of  a  government  previously  un- 
known to  Russia,  composed  of  two  visible  Tzars  and  one  in- 
visible sovereign. 

The  strdtsi,  however,  felt  their  prejudices  against  female 
sovereignty  awaken.  They  shrank  from  the  contempt  heaped 
by  the  TzareVna  upon  the  ancient  manners.  Sophia  had  already 
become  in  their  eyes  a  "  scandalous  person  "  (pozomot  litzo  ). 
Another  cause  of  misunderstanding  was  the  support  she  gave  to 
the  State  Church,  as  reformed  by  Nicon,  while  the  sireltsi  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  people  held  to  the  "  old  faith."  She 
had  arrested  certain  "  old  believers,"  who  at  the  discussion  in 
the  Palace  of  Facets,  had  challenged  the  patriarchs  and  ortho- 
dox prelates,  and  she  had  caused  the  ringleader  to  be  exe- 
cuted. Khovanski,  chief  of  the  streltsi,  whether  from  sympathy 
with  the  raskol,  or  whether  he  wished  to  please  his  subordi- 
nates, affected  to  share  their  discontent.  The  Court  no  longer 
felt  itself  safe  at  Moscow.  Sophia  took  refuge  with  the 
Tzarina  and  the  two  young  princes  in  the  fortified  monastery  of 
TroYtsa,  and  summoned  around  her  the  gentlemen-at-arms. 
Khovanski  was  invited  to  attend,  was  arrested  on  the  way,  and 
put  to  death  with  his  son.  The  streltsi  attempted  a  new  rising, 
but,  with  the  usual  fickleness  of  a  popular  militia,  suddenly  passed 
from  the  extreme  of  insolence  to  the  extreme  of  humility.  They 
inarched  to  Troitsa,  this  time  in  the  guise  of  suppliants,  with 
cords  round  their  necks,  carrying  axes  and  blocks  for  the  death 
they  expected.  The  Patriarch  consented  to  intercede  for  them, 
and  Sophia  contented  herself  with  the  sacrifice  of  the  ring- 
leaders. 

Sophia,  having  got  rid  of  her  accomplices,  governed  by  aid  of 
her  two  favorites — Chaklovity,  the  new  commandant  of  the  streltfi, 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  I  29£ 

whom  she  had  drawn  from  obscurity,  and  who  was  completely 
devoted  to  her,  and  Prince  Vassili  Galitsyne.  Galitsyne  has 
become  the  hero  of  an  historic  school  which  opposes  his  genius 
to  that  of  Peter  the  Great,  in  the  same  way  as  in  France  Henry, 
Duke  of  Guise,  has  been  exalted  at  the  expense  of  Henry  IV. 
He  was  the  special  favorite,  the  intimate  friend  of  Sophia,  the 
director  of  her  foreign  policy,  and  her  right  hand  in  military  affairs. 
Sophia  and  Galitsyne  labored  to  organize  a  Holy  League  between 
Russia,  Poland,  Venice  and  Austria  against  the  Turks  and  Tatars. 
They  also  tried  to  gain  the  countenance  of  the  Catholic  Powers 
of  the  West ;  and  in  1687  Jacob  Dolgorouki  and  Jacob  Mychetski 
disembarked  at  Dunkirk,  as  envoys  to  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV. 
They  were  not  received  very  favorably  :  the  King  of  France  was 
not  at  all  inclined  to  make  war  against  the  Turks  ;  he  was,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  ally  of  Mahomet  IV.,  who  was  about  to  besiege 
Vienna  while  Louis  blockaded  Luxemburg.  The  whole  plan  of 
the  campaign  was,  however,  thrown  out  by  the  intervention  of 
Russia  and  John  Sobieski  in  favor  of  Austria.  The  Russian 
ambassadors  received  orders  to  re-embark  at  Havre,  without 
going  further  south. 

The  government  of  the  TzareVna  still  persisted  in  its  warlike 
projects.  In  return  for  an  active  co-operation  against  the  Otto- 
mans, Poland  had  consented  to  ratify  the  conditions  of  the  Treaty 
of  Androussovo,  and  to  sign  a  perpetual  peace  (1686).  A  hun- 
dred thousand  Muscovites,  under  the  command  of  Prince  Galit- 
syne, and  fifty  thousand  Little  Russian  Cossacks,  under  the 
orders  of  the  hetman  Samoilovitch,  marched  against  the  Crimea 
(1687).  The  army  suffered  greatly  in  the  southern  steppes,  as 
the  Tatars  had  fired  the  grassy  plains.  Galitsyne  was  forced  to 
return  without  having  encountered  the  enemy.  Samoilovitch 
was  accused  of  treason,  deprived  of  his  command,  and  sent  to 
Siber'a ;  and  Mazeppa,  who  owed  to  Samoilovitch  his  appoint- 
inen',  as  Secretary-at-war,  and  whose  denunciations  had  chiefly 
contributed  to  his  downfall,  was  appointed  his  successor.  In  the 
spring  of  1689  the  Muscovite  and  Ukranian  armies,  commanded 
by  Galitsyne  and  Mazeppa,  a£ain  set  out  for  the  Crimea. 
The  second  expedition  was  hardly  more  fortunate  than  the  first : 
they  got  as  far  as  Perekop,  and  were  then  obliged  to  retreat  with- 
out even  having  taken  the  fortress.  This  double  defeat  did  not 
hinder  Sophia  from  preparing  for  her  favorite  a  triumphal  entry 
into  Moscow.  In  vain  Peter  forbade  her  to  leave  the  palace  ; 
she  braved  his  displeasure  and  headed  the  procession,  accom- 
panied by  the  clergy  and  the  images  and  followed  by  the  army 
of  the  Crimea,  admitted  the  generals  to  kiss  her  hand,  and  distri- 
buted glasses  of  brandy  among  the  officers.  Peter  left  Moscow 


29<$  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

\ 

in  anger,  and  retired  to  the  village  of  Preobrajenskoe'.  The 
foreign  policy  of  the  TzareVna  was  marked  by  another  display 
of  weakness.  By  the  Treaty  of  Nertchinsk,  she  restored  to  the 
Chinese  Empire  the  fertile  regions  of  the  Amour,  which  had 
been  conquered  by  a  handful  of  Cossacks,  and  razed  the  fortress 
of  Albazine,  where  those  adventurers  had  braved  all  the  forces 
of  the  East.  On  all  sides  Russia  seemed  to  retreat  before  the 
barbarians. 

Meantime  Peter  was  growing.  His  precocious  faculties,  his 
quick  intelligence,  and  his  strong  will  awakened  alike  the  hopes 
of  his  partisans  and  the  fears  of  his  enemies.  As  a  child  he 
only  loved  drums,  swords,  and  muskets.  He  learned  history  by 
means  of  colored  prints  brought  from  Germany.  Zotof,  his 
master,  whom  he  afterwards  made  "  the  archpope  of  fools," 
'  taught  him  to  read.  Among  the  heroes  held  up  to  him  as  examples, 
we  are  not  surprised  to  find  Ivan  the  Terrible,  whose  character 
and  position  offer  so  much  analogy  to  his  own.  "  When  the 
TzareVitch  was  tired  of  reading,"  says  M.  Zabidline,  "  Zotof  took 
the  book  from  his  hand,  and,  to  amuse  him,  would  himself  read 
the  great  deeds  of  his  father,  Alexis  Mikha'ilovitch,  and  those  of 
the  Tzar  Ivan  Vassilie'vitch,  their  campaigns,  their  distant  expe- 
ditions, their  battles  and  sieges  :  how  they  endured  fatigues  and 
privations  better  than  any  common  soldier ;  what  benefits  they 
had  conferred  on  the  empire,  and  how  they  extended  the  fron- 
tiers of  Russia."  Peter  also  learnt  Latin,  German,  and  Dutch. 
He  read  much  and  widely,  and  learnt  a  great  deal,  though  with- 
out method.  Like  Ivan  the  Terrible,  he  was  a  self-taught  man. 
He  afterwards  complained  of  not  having  been  instructed  accord- 
ing to  rule.  This  was  perhaps  a  good  thing.  His  education, 
like  that  of  Ivan  IV.,  was  neglected,  but  at  least  he  was  not  sub- 
jected to  the  enervating  influence  of  the  terem — he  was  not  cast 
in  that  dull  mould  which  turned  out  so  many  idiots  in  the  royal 
family.  He  "  roamed  at  large,  and  wandered  in  the  streets  with 
his  comrades."  The  streets  of  Moscow  at  that  period  were, 
n coord ing  to  M.  Zabie'line,  the  worst  school  of  profligacy  and 
•chery  that  can  be  imagined  ;  but  they  were,  on  the  whole, 
'\idfor  Peter*  than  the  palace.  He  met  there  something 
besides  mere  jesters ;  he  encountered  new  elements  which  had 
as  yet  no  place  in  the  terem,  but  contained  the  germ  of  the  re- 
generation of  Russia.  He  came  across  Russians  who,  if  un 
scrupulous,  were  also  unprejudiced,  and  who  could  aid  him  in 
his  bold  reform  of  the  ancient  society.  He  there  became  ac- 
quainted with  Swiss,  English,  and  G'erman  adventurers- with 
Lefort,  with  Gordon,  and  with  Timmermann,  who  initiated  him 
into  European  civilization.  His  Court  was  composed  of  Leo 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


297 


Narychkine,  of  Boris  Galitsyne  ( who  had  undertaken  never  to 
flatter  him),  of  Andrew  Matvdef  (who  had  marked  taste  for 
everything  European),  and  of  Dolgorouki,  at  whose  house  he 
first  saw  an  astrolabe.  He  played  at  soldiers  with  his  young 
friends  and  his  grooms,  and  formed  them  into  the  "  battalion  of 
playmates,"  who  manoeuvred  after  the  European  fashion,  and 
became  the  kernel  of  the  future  regular  army.  He  learnt  the 
elements  of  geometry  and  fortification,  and  constructed  small 
citadels,  which  he  took  or  defended  with  his  young  warriors  in 
those  fierce  battles  which  sometimes  counted  their  wounded  or 
dead,  and  in  which  the  Tzar  of  Russia  was  not  always  spared. 
An  English  boat  stranded  on  the  shore  of  Yaousa  caused  him  to 
send  for  Franz  Timmermann,  who  taught  him  to  manage  a  sail- 
ing boat,  even  with  a  contrary  wind.  He  who  formerly,  like  a 
true  boyard  of  Moscow,  had  such  a  horror  of  the  water  that  he 
could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  cross  a  bridge,  became  a  deter- 
mined sailor :  he  guided  his  boat  first  on  the  Yaousa,  then  on 
the  lake  of  Pereiaslavl.  Brandt,  the  Dutchman,  built  him  a 
whole  flotilla ;  and  already,  in  spite  of  the  terrors  of  his  mother, 
Natalia,  Peter  dreamed  of  the  sea. 

"  The  child  is  amusing  himself,"  the  courtiers  of  Sophia 
affected  to  observe  ;  but  these  amusements  disquieted  her.  Each 
day  added  to  the  years  of  Peter  seemed  to  bring  her  nearer  to  the 
cloister.  In  vain  she  proudly  called  herself  "  autocrat  "  ;  she 
saw  her  stepmother,  her  rival,  lifting  up  her  head.  Galitsyne 
confined  himself  to  regretting  that  they  had  not  known  better 
how  to  profit  by  the  revolution  of  1682,  but  Chaklovity,  who 
knew  he  must  fall  with  his  mistress,  said  aloud,  "  It  would  be 
wiser  to  put  the  Tzarina  to  death  than  to  be  put  to  death  by 
her."  Sophia  could  only  save  herself  by  seizing  the  throne — but 
who  would  help  her  to  take  it  ?  The  streltsi  ?  But  the  result 
of  their  last  rising  had  chilled  them  considerably.  Sophia  her- 
self, while  trying  to  bind  this  formidable  force,  had  broken  it, 
and  the  streltsi  had  not  forgotten  their  chiefs  beheaded  at 
Troitsa.  Now  what  did  the  emissaries  of  Sophia  propose  to 
them  ?  Again  to  attack  the  palace  ;  to  put  Leo  Narychkine, 
Boris  Galitsyne,  and  other  partisans  of  Peter  to  death  ;  to  arrest 
his  mother,  and  to  expel  the  Patriarch.  They  trusted  that  Peter 
and  Natalia  would  perish  in  the  tumult.  The  streltsi  remained 
indifferent  when  Sophia,  affecting  to  think  her  life  threatened, 
fled  to  the  Dievitchi  Monastyr,  and  sent  them  letters  of  entreaty. 
"  If  thy  days  are  in  peril,"  tranquilly  replied  the  strdtsi,  "  there 
must  be  an  inquiry."  Chaklovity  could  hardly  collect  four  hun- 
dred of  them  at  the  Kremlin. 

The  struggle  began  between  Moscow  and  Preobrajenskoe', 


29g  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

the  village  with  the  prophetical  name  (the  Transfiguration  or 
Regeneration).  Two  streltsi  warned  Peter  of  the  plots  of  his 
sister,  and,  for  the  second  time,  he  sought  an  asylum  at  Troitsa. 
It  was  then  seen  who  was  the  true  Tzar  ;  all  men  hastened  to 
range  themselves  around  him  :  his  mother,  his  armed  squires, 
the  "  battalion  of  playmates,"  the  foreign  officers,  and  even  the 
streltsi  of  the  regiment  of  Soukharef.  The  Patriarch  also  took 
the  side  of  the  Tzar,  and  brought  him  moral  support,  as  the 
foreign  soldiers  had  brought  him  material  force.  The  partisans 
of  Sophia  were  cold  and  irresolute  ;  the  streltsi  themselves  de- 
manded that  her  favorite  Chaklovity  should  be  surrendered  to 
the  Tzar.  She  had  to  implore  the  mediation  of  the  Patriarch. 
Chaklovity  was  first  put  to  the  torture  and  made  to  confess  his 
plot  against  the  Tzar,  and  then  decapitated.  Medvie'def  was  at 
first  only  condemned  to  the  knout  and  banishment  for  heresy, 
but  he  acknowledged  he  had  intended  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Patriarch  and  to  marry  Sophia  ;  he  was  dishonored  by  being  im- 
prisoned with  two  sorcerers  condemned  to  be  burned  alive  in  a 
cage,  and  was  afterwards  beheaded.  Galitsyne  was  deprived  of 
his  property,  and  exiled  to  Poustozersk.  Sophia  remained  in 
the  Dievitchi  Monastyr,  subjected  to  a  hard  captivity.  Though 
Ivan  continued  to  reign  conjointly  with  his  brother,  yet  Peter, 
who  was  then  only  seventeen,  governed  alone,  surrounded  by 
his  mother,  the  Narychkines,  the  Dolgoroukis,  and  Boris  Galit- 
syne (1689). 

Sophia  had  freed  herself  from  the  seclusion  of  the  terem,  as 
Peter  had  emancipated  himself  from  the  seclusion  of  the  palace 
to  roam  the  streets  and  navigate  rivers.  Both  had  behaved 
scandalously,  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  time — the  one  ha- 
ranguing soldiers,  presiding  over  councils,  walking  with  her  veil 
raised  ;  the  other  using  the  axe  like  a  carpenter,  rowing  like  a 
Cossack,  brawling  with  foreign  adventurers,  and  fighting  with 
his  grooms  in  mimic  battles.  But  to  the  one  her  emancipation 
was  only  a  means  of  obtaining  power  ;  to  the  other  the  eman- 
cipation of  Russia,  like  the  emancipation  of  himself,  was  the 
end.  He  wished  the  nation  to  shake  off  the  old  trammels  from 
which  he  had  freed  himself.  Sophia  remained  a  Byzantine, 
Peter  aspired  to  be  a  European.  In  the  conflict  between  the 
TzareVna  and  the  Tzar,  progress  was  not  on  the  side  of  the 
Ditvitchi  Monastyr. 


HISTORY  OF  XUSSIA. 


EXPEDITIONS    AGAINST   AZOF    (1695-1696)  —  FIRST  JOURNEY    TO 
THE  WEST  (1697). 

The  first  use  the  Tzar  made  of  his  liberty  was  to  hasten  to 
Arkhangel.  There,  deaf  to  the  advice  and  prayers  of  his  mother, 
who  was  astounded  at  this  unexpected  taste  for  salt  water,  he 
gazed  on  that  sea  which  not  Tzar  had  ever  looked  on.  He  ate 
with  the  merchants  and  the  officers  of  foreign  navies;  he  breath- 
ed the  air  which  had  come  from  the  West.  He  established  a 
dockyard,  built  boats,  dared  the  angry  waves  of  this  unknown 
ocean,  and  almost  perished  in  a  storm,  which  did  not  prevent 
the  "  skipper  Peter  Alexie'vitch  "  from  again  putting  to  sea,  and 
bringing  the  Dutch  vessels  back  to  the  Holy  Cape.  Unhappily, 
the  White  Sea,  by  which,  since  the  time  of  Ivan  IV.,  the  Eng- 
lish had  entered  Russia,  is  frostbound  in  winter.  In  order  to 
open  permanent  communications  with  the  West,  with  civilized 
countries,  it  was  necessary  for  Peter  to  establish  himself  on  the 
Baltic  or  the  Black  Sea.  Now  the  first  belonged  to  the  Swedes, 
and  the  second  to  the  Turks,  as  the  Caspian  did  to  the  Per- 
sians. Who  was  first  to  be  attacked  ?  The  treaties  concluded 
with  Poland  and  Austria,  as  well  as  policy  and  religion,  urged 
the  Tzar  against  the  Turks,  and  Constantinople  has  always  been 
the  point  of  attraction  for  orthodox  Russia.  Peter  shared  the 
sentiments  of  his  people,  and  had  the  enthusiasm  of  a  crusader 
against  the  infidel.  Notwithstanding  his  ardent  wish  to  travel 
in  the  West,  he  took  the  resolution  not  to  appear  in  foreign 
lands  till  he  could  appear  as  a  victor.  Twice  had  Galitsyne 
failed  against  the  Crimea  ;  Peter  determined  to  attack  the  bar- 
barians by  the  Don,  and  besiege  Azof.  The  army  was  com- 
manded by  three  generals,  Golovine,  Gordon,  and  Lefort,  who 
were  to  act  with  the  "  bombardier  of  the  Preobrajenski  regi- 
ment, Peter  Alexievitch."  This  regiment,  as  well  as  three 
others  which  had  sprung  from  the  "  amusements  "  of  Preo- 
brajenskoe' — the  Semenovski,  the  Botousitski,  and  the  regiment 
of  Lefort — were  the  heart  of  the  expedition.  It  failed  because 
the  Tzar  had  no  fleet  with  which  to  invest  Azof  by  sea,  because 
the  new  army  and  its  chiefs  wanted  experience,  and  because 
Jansen,  the  German  engineer,  ill-treated  by  Peter,  passed  over 
to  the  enemy.  After  two  assaults,  the  siege  was  raised.  This 
check  appeared  the  more  grave  because  the  Tzar  himself  was 
with  the  army,  because  the  first  attempt  to  turn  from  the  "  amuse- 
ments "  of  Preobrajenskod  to  serious  warfare  had  failed,  and 
because  this  failure  would  furnish  arms  against  innovations, 
against  the  Germans  and  the  heretics,  against  the  new  tactics, 


300 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


It  might  even  compromise,  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  the  work 
of  regeneration  (1695). 

Although  Peter  had  followed  the  example  of  Galitsyne,  and 
entered  Moscow  in  triumph,  he  felt  he  needed  revenge.  He 
sent  for  good  officers  from  foreign  countries.  Artillerymen 
arrived  from  Holland  and  Austria,  engineers  from  Prussia,  and 
Admiral  Lima  from  Venice.  Peter  hurried  on  the  creation  of  a 
fleet  with  feverish  impatience.  He  built  of  green  wood  twenty- 
two  galleys,  a  hundred  rafts,  and  seventeen  hundred  boats  or 
barks.  All  the  small  ports  of  the  Don  were  metamorphosed 
into  dockyards ;  twenty-six  thousand  workmen  were  assembled 
there  from  all  parts  of  the  empire.  It  was  like  the  camp  of 
Boulogne.  No  misfortune — neither  the  desertion  of  the  laborers, 
the  burnings  of  the  dockyards,  nor  even  his  own  illness — could 
lessen  his  activity.  Peter  was  able  to  write  that,  "  following  the 
advice  God  gave  to  Adam,  he  earned  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of 
his  brow."  At  last  the  "  marine  caravan,"  the  Russian  armada, 
descended  the  Don.  From  the  slopes  of  Azof  he  wrote  to  his 
sister  Natalia  :  *  "  In  obedience  to  thy  counsels,  I  do  not  go  to 
meet  the  shells  and  balls  ;  it  is  they  who  approach  me,  but  tolera- 
bly courteously."  Azof  was  blockaded  by  sea  and  land,  and  a 
breach  was  opened  by  the  engineers.  Preparations  were  being 
made  for  a  general  assault,  when  the  place  capitulated.  The 
joy  in  Russia  was  great,  and  the  streltsfs  jealousy  of  the  success 
of  foreign  tactics  gave  place  to  their  enthusiasm  as  Christians 
for  this  victory  over  Islamism,  which  recalled  those  of  Kazan 
and  Astrakhan.  The  effect  produced  on  Europe  was  consider- 
able. At  Warsaw  the  people  shouted,  "  Long  live  the  Tzar !  " 
The  army  entered  Moscow  under  triumphal  arches,  on  which 
were  represented  Hercules  trampling  a  pacha  and  two  Turks 
under  foot,  and  Mars  throwing  to  the  earth  a  monrza  and  two 
Tatars.  Admiral  Lefort  and  Schein  the  generalissimo  took 
part  in  the  cortege,  seated  on  magnificent  sledges  ;  whilst  Peter, 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  Captain,  followed  on  foot.  Jansen, 
destined  to  the  gibbet,  marched  among  the  prisoners  (1676). 

Peter  wished  to  profit  by  this  great  success  to  found  the 
naval  power  of  Russia.  By  the  decision  of  the  douma  three 
thousand  families  were  established  at  Azof,  besides  four  hundred 
Kalmucks,  and  a  garrison  of  Moscow  strdtsi.  The  Patriarch, 
the  prelates,  and  the  monasteries  taxed  themselves  for  the  con- 
struction of  one  vessel  to  every  eight  thousand  serfs.  The 
nobles,  the  officials,  and  the  merchants  were  seized  with  the 
fever  of  this  holy  war,  and  brought  their  contributions  towards 

*  HU  mother  died  in  1694,  his  brother  Ivan  in  1696. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSTA. 


301 


the  infant  navy.  It  was  proposed  to  unite  the  Don  and  the  Volga 
by  means  of  a  canal.  A  new  appeal  was  made  to  the  artisans 
and  sailors  of  Europe.  Fifty  young  nobles  of  the  Court  were 
sent  to  Venice,  England,  and  the  Low  Countries,  to  learn  sea- 
manship and  shipbuilding.  But  it  was  necessary  that  the  Tzar 
himself  should  be  able  to  judge  of  the  science  of  his  subjects  ; 
he  must  counteract  Russian  indolence  and  prejudice  by  the 
force  of  a  great  example ;  and  Peter,  after  having  begun  his 
career  in  the  navy  at  the  rank  of  "  skipper,"  and  in  the  army  at 
that  of  bombardier,  was  to  become  a  carpenter  of  Saardam. 
He  allowed  himself,  as  a  reward  for  his  success  at  Azof,  the 
much  longed-for  journey  to  the  West. 

In  1697  Admiral  Lefort  and  Generals  Golovine  and  Vosnit- 
syne  prepared  to  depart  for  the  countries  of  the  West,  under  the 
title  of  "  the  great  ambassadors  of  the  Tzar."  Their  suite  was 
composed  of  two  hundred  and  seventy  persons — young  nobles, 
soldiers,  interpreters,  merchants,  jesters,  and  buffoons.  In  the 
cortege  was  a  young  man  who  went  by  the  name  of  Peter  Mi- 
khailof.  This  incognito  would  render  the  position  of  the  Tzar 
easier,  whether  in  his  own  personal  studies  or  in  delicate  nego- 
tiations. On  the  journey  to  Riga,  Peter  allowed  himself  to  be 
insulted  by  the  governor,  but  laid  up  the  recollection  for  future 
use.  At  Konigsburg  the  Prussian  Colonel  Sternfeld  delivered 
to  "  M.  Peter  Mikhailof  "  "a  formal  brevet  of  master  of  artil- 
lery.'' The  great  ambassadors  and  their  travelling  companion 
were  cordially  received  by  the  Courts  of  Courland,  Hanover, 
and  Brandenburg.  Sophia  Charlotte  of  Hanover,  afterwards 
Queen  of  Prussia,  has  left  us  some  curious  notes  about  the  Tzar, 
then  twenty-seven  years  of  age.  He  astonished  her  by  the 
vivacity  of  his  mind,  and  the  promptitude  and  point  of  his  an- 
swers, not  less  than  by  the  grossness  of  his  manners,  his  bad 
habits  at  table,  his  wild  timidity,  like  that  of  a  badly  brought-up 
child,  his  grimaces,  and  a  frightful  twitching  which  at  times  con- 
vulsed his  whole  face.  Peter  had  then  a  beautiful  brown  skin, 
with  great  piercing  eyes,  but  his  features  already  bore  traces 
of  toil  and  debauchery.  "  He  must  have  very  good  and  very 
bad  points,"  said  the  young  Electress  ;  and  in  this  he  repre- 
sented contemporary  Russia.  "  If  he  had  received  a  better 
education,"  adds  the  princess,  "  he  would  have  been  an  accom- 
plished man."  The  suite  of  the  Tzar  were  not  less  surprising 
than  their  master  ;  the  Muscovites  danced  with  the  Court  ladies, 
and  took  the  stiffening  of  their  corsets  for  their  bones.  "  The 
bones  of  these  Germans  are  devilish  hard  !  "  said  the  Tzar. 

Leaving  the  great  embassy  on  the  road,  Peter  travelled 
quickly,  and  reached  Saardam.  The  very  day  of  his  arrivr1  lie 


HISTOK  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

took  a  lodging  at  a  blacksmith's,  procured  himself  a  complete 
costume  like  those  worn  by  Dutch  workmen,  and  began  to  wield 
the  axe.  He  bargained  for  a  boat,  bought  it,  and  drank  the  tra- 
ditional pint  of  beer  with  its  owner.  He  visited  cutleries,  rope- 
walks,  and  other  manufactories,  and  everywhere  tried  his  hand 
at  the  work :  in  a  paper  manufactory  he  made  some  paper. 
However,  in  spite  of  the  tradition,  he  only  remained  eight  days 
at  Saardam.  At  Amsterdam  his  eccentricities  were  no  less  as- 
tonishing. He  neither  took  any  rest  himself,  nor  allowed  others 
to  do  so  ;  he  exhausted  all  his  ciceroni,  always  repeating,  "  I  must 
see  it."  He  inspected  the  most  celebrated  anatomical  collec- 
tions ;  engaged  artists,  workmen,  officers,  and  engineers  ;  and 
bought  models  of  ships,  and  collections  of  naval  laws  and  trea- 
ties. He  entered  familiarly  the  houses  of  private  individuals, 
gained  the  good  will  of  the  Dutch  by  his  bonhomie,  penetrated 
into  the  recesses  of  the  shops  and  stalls,  and  remained  lost  in 
admiration  over  a  dentist. 

But,  amidst  all  these  distractions,  he  never  lost  sight  of  his 
aim.  "  We  labor,"  he  wrote  to  the  Patriarch  Adrian,  "  in  order 
thoroughly  to  master  the  art  of  the  sea  ;  so  that,  having  once  learnt 
it,  we  may  return  to  Russia  and  conquer  the  enemies  of  Christ, 
and  free  by  his  grace  the  Christians  who  are  oppressed.  This  is 
what  I  shall  long  for,  to  my  last  breath."  He  was  vexed  at  mak- 
ing so  little  progress  in  shipbuilding,  but  in  Holland  everyone 
had  to  learn  by  personal  experience.  A  naval  captain  told  him 
that  in  England  instruction  was  based  on  principles,  and  these 
he  could  learn  in  four  months ;  so  Peter  crossed  the  sea,  and 
spent  three  months  in  London  and  the  neighboring  towns. 
There  he  took  into  his  service  goldsmiths  and  gold-beaters, 
architects  and  bombardiers.  He  then  returned  to  Holland, 
and,  his  ship  being  attacked  by  a  violent  tempest,  he  reassured 
those  who  trembled  for  his  safety  by  the  remark,  "  Did  you  ever 
hear  of  a  Tzar  of  Russia  who  was  drowned  in  the  North  Sea  ? " 
Though  much  occupied  with  his  technical  studies,  he  had  not 
neglected  policy  ;  he  had  conversed  with  William  III,  but  did 
not  visit  France  in  this  tour,  for  "  Louis  XIV.,  "says  St.  Simon, 
"had  procured  the  postponement  of  his  visit;  "  the  fact  being 
that  his  alliance  with  the  Emperor,  and  his  wars  with  the  Turks, 
were  looked  on  with  disfavor  at  Versailles.  He  went  to  Vienna 
to  study  the  military  art,  and  dissuaded  Leopold  from  making 
peace  with  the  Sultan.  Peter  wished  to  conquer  Kertch  in  order 
to  secure  the  Straits  of  lenikale.  He  was  preparing  to  go  to 
Venice,  when  vexatious  intelligence  reached  him  from  Moscow, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  303 

REVOLT  AND  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  STRELTSI. 

The  first  reforms  of  Peter,  his  first  attempts  against  the  na- 
tional prejudices  and  customs,  had  raised  him  up  a  crowd  of 
enemies.  Old  Russia  did  not  allow  herself  quietly  to  be  set  aside 
by  the  bold  innovator.  There  was  in  the  interior  a  sullen  and 
resolute  resistance,  which  sometimes  gave  birth  to  bloody  scenes. 
The  revolt  of  the  streltsi,  the  insurrection  of  Astrakhan,  the  re- 
bellion of  the  Cossacks,  and  later  the  trial  of  his  son  and  first 
wife,  are  only  episodes  of  the  great  struggle.  Already  the 
priests  were  teaching  that  Antichrist  was  born.  Now  it  had 
been  prophesied  that  Antichrist  should  be  born  of  an  adulteress, 
and  Peter  was  the  son  of  the  second  wife  of  Alexis,  therefore  his 
mother  Natalia  was  the  "  false  virgin,"  the  adulterous  woman  of 
the  prophecies.  The  increasingly  heavy  taxes  that  weighed  on 
the  people  were  another  sign  that  the  time  had  come.  Others, 
disgusted  by  the  taste  shown  by  the  Tzar  for  German  clothes  and 
foreign  languages  and  adventurers,  affirmed  that  he  was  not  the 
son  of  Alexis,  but  of  Lefort  the  Genevan,  or  that  his  father  was 
a  German  surgeon.  They  were  scandalized  to  see  the  Tzar,  like 
another  Gregory  Otrdpief,  expose  himself  to  blows  in  his  military 
"  amusements."  The  lower  orders  were  indignant  at  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  long  beards  and  national  costume,  and  the  raskohiiks 
at  the  authorization  of  "  the  sacrilegious  smell  of  tobacco." 
The  journey  to  the  West  completed  the  general  dissatisfaction. 
Had  anyone  ever  before  seen  a  Tzar  of  Moscow  quit  Holy  Rus- 
sia to  wander  in  the  kingdoms  of  foreigners  ?  Who  knew  what 
adventures  might  befall  him  among  the  ntfmtsi  and  the  bousour- 
manes  f  for  the  Russian  people  hardly  knew  how  to  distinguish 
between  the  Turks  and  the  Germans,  and  were  wholly  ignorant 
of  France  and  England.  Under  an  unknown  sky,  at  the  extrem- 
ity of  the  world,  on  the  shores  of  the  "  ocean  sea,"  what  dangers 
might  he  not  encounter  ?  Then  a  singular  legend  was  invented 
about  the  travels  of  the  Tzar.  It  was  said  that  he  went  to  Stock- 
holm disguised  as  a  merchant,  and  that  the  queen  had  recog- 
nized him,  and  had  tried  in  vain  to  capture  him.  According  to 
another  version,  she  had  plunged  him  in  a  dungeon,  and  deliv- 
ered him  over  to  his  enemies,  who  wished  to  put  him  into  a  cask 
lined  with  nails,  and  throw  him  into  the  sea.  He  had  only  been 
saved  by  a  streletz  who  had  taken  his  place.  Some  asserted  that 
Peter  was  still  kept  there  ;  and  in  1705  the  streltsi,  and  raskol- 
niks  of  Astrakhan  still  gave  out  that  it  was  a  false  Tzar  who 
had  come  back  to  Moscow — the  true  Tzar  was  a  prisoner  at 
Stekoln,  attached  to  a  stake.* 

*  A.  Rambaud,  '  La  Russie  Epique,'  p.  303. 


3°4 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSfA. 


In  the  midst  of  this  universal  disturbance,  caused  by  the  au« 
sence  of  Peter,  there  were  certain  symptoms  peculiarly  disquiet- 
ing. The  Muscovite  army  grew  more  and  more  hostile  to  the 
new  order  of  things.  In  1694  Peter  had  discovered  a  fresh 
conspiracy,  having  for  its  object  the  deliverance  of  Sophia  ;  and 
at  the  very  moment  of  his  departure  from  Russia  he  had  to  put 
down  a  plot  of  strcltsi  and  Cossacks,  headed  by  Colonel  Tsykler. 
Those  of  the  strcltsi  who  had  been  sent  to  form  the  garrison  of 
Azof  pined  for  their  wives,  their  children,  and  the  trades  they 
had  left  in  Moscow.  When  in  the  absence  of  the  Tzar  they  were 
sent  from  Azof  to  the  frontiers  of  Poland,  they  again  began  to 
murmur.  "  What  a  fate  is  ours  !  It  is  the  boyards  who  do  all 
the  mischief  ;  for  three  years  they  have  kept  us  from  our  homes." 
Two  hundred  deserted  and  returned  to  Moscow  ;  but  the  douma, 
fearing  their  presence  in  the  already  troubled  capital,  expelled 
them  by  force.  They  brought  back  to  their  regiments  a  letter  of 
Sophia.  "You  suffer,"  she  wrote  ;  "later  it  will  become  worse. 
March  on  Moscow.  What  is  it  you  wait  for?  There  is  no  news 
of  the  Tzar."  It  was  repeated  through  the  army  that  the  Tzar 
had  died  in  foreign  lands,  and  that  the  boyards  wished  to 
put  his  son  Alexis  to  death.  It  was  necessary  to  march  on  Mos- 
cow and  exterminate  the  nobles.  The  military  sedition  was 
complicated  by  the  religious  fanaticism  of  the  raskolniks  and  the 
demagogic  passions  of  the  popular  army.  Four  regiments  revolt- 
ed and  deserted.  Generals  Schein  and  Gordon,  \vith  their  reg- 
ular troops,  hastened  after  them,  came  up  with  them  on  the 
banks  of  the  Iskra,  and  tried  to  persuade  them  to  return  to  their 
duty.  The  strcltsi  replied  by  a  petition  setting  forth  all  their 
grievances  :  "  Many  of  them  had  died  during  the  expedition  to 
Azof,  suggested  by  Lefort,  a  German,  a.heretic  ;  they  had  endured 
fatiguing  marches  over  burning  plains,  their  only  food  being  bad 
meat ;  their  strength  had  been  exhausted  by  severe  tasks,  and 
they  had  been  banished  to  distant  garrisons.  Moscow  was  now 
a  prey  to  all  sorts  of  horrors.  Foreigners  had  introduced  the 
custom  of  shaving  the  beard  and  smoking  tobacco.  It  was  said 
that  these  nie'mtsi  meant  to  seize  the  town.  On  this  rumor, 
the  strcltsi  had  arrived,  and  also  because  Romodanovski  wished 
to  disperse  and  put  them  to  the  sword  without  anyone  knowing 
why."  A  few  cannon-shots  were  sufficient  to  scatter  the  rebels. 
A  large  number  were  arrested  ;  torture,  the  gibbet,  and  the  dun- 
geon awaited  the  captives. 

When  Peter  hastened  home  from  Vienna,  he  decided  that 
his  generals  and  his  douma  had  been  too  lenient.  He  had  old 
grievances  against  the  strcltsi  ;  they  had  been  the  army  of  Sophia, 
in  opposition  to  the  army  of  the  Tzar ;  he  remembered  the  inva- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  305 

8ion  of  the  Kremlin,  the  massacre  of  his  mother's  family,  her 
terrors  in  Troitsa,  and  the  conspiracies  which  all  but  delayed  his 
journey  to  the  West.  At  the  very  time  that  he  was  travelling  in 
Europe  for  the  benefit  of  his  people,  these  incorrigible  mutineers 
had  forced  him  to  renounce  his  dearest  projects,  and  had  stopped 
him  on  the  road  to  Venice.  He  resolved  to  take  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  by  crushing  his  enemies  en  masse,  and  by  mak- 
ing the  Old  Russia  feel  the  weight  of  a  terror  that  would  recall 
the  days  of  Ivan  IV.  The  long  beards  had  been  the  standard  of 
revolt — they  should  fall.  On  the  26th  of  August  he  ordered  all 
the  gentlemen  of  his  Court  to  shave  themselves,  and  himself  ap- 
plied the  razor  to  his  great  lords.  The  same  day  the  Red  Place 
was  covered  with  gibbets.  The  Patriarch  Adrian  tried  in  vain  to 
appease  the  anger  of  the  Tzar  by  presenting  to  him  the  wonder- 
working image  of  the  Mother  of  God  "  Why  hast  thou  brought 
out  the  holy  icon  ? "  exclaimed  the  Tzar.  "  Retire  and  restore 
it  to  its  place.  Know  that  I  venerate  God  and  His  Mother  as 
much  as  thyself,  but  know  also  that  it  is  my  duty  to  protect  the 
people  and  punish  the  rebels." 

On  the  3oth  of  October  there  arrived  at  the  Red  Place  the 
first  instalment  of  230  prisoners  :  they  came  in  carts,  with  lighted 
torches  in  their  hands,  nearly  all  already  broken  by  torture,  and 
followed  by  their  wives  and  children,  who  ran  behind  chanting  a 
funeral  wail.  Their  sentence  was  read,  and  they  were  slain,  the 
Tzar  ordering  several  officers  to  help  the  executioner.  John 
George  Korb,  the  Austrian  agent,  who  as  an  eye-witness  has  left 
us  an  authentic  account  of  the  executions,  heard  that  five  rebel 
heads  had  been  sent  into  the  dust  by  blows  from  an  axe  wielded 
by  the  noblest  hand  in  Russia."  The  terrible  carpenter  of  Saar- 
dam  worked  and  obliged  his  boyards  to  work  at  this  horrible 
employment.  Seven  other  days  were  employed  in  this  way ;  a 
thousand  victims  were  put  to  death.  Some  were  broken  on  the 
wheel,  and  others  died  by  various  modes  of  torture.  The  removal 
of  the  corpses  was  forbidden  :  for  five  months  Moscow  had 
before  its  eyes  the  spectacle  of  the  dead  bodies  hanging  from  the 
battlements  of  the  Kremlin  and  the  other  ramparts ;  and  for 
five  months  the  streltsi  suspended  to  the  bars  of  Sophia's  prison 
presented  her  the  petition  by  which  they  had  entreated  her  to 
reign.  Two  of  her  confidants  were  buried  alive  ;  she  herself,  with 
Eudoxia  Lapoukhine,  Peter's  wife,  who  had  been  repudiated  for 
her  obstinate  attachment  to  the  ancient  customs,  had  their  heads 
shaved  and  were  confined  in  monasteries.  After  the  revolt  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Astrakhan,  who  put  their  voi'evode  to  death, 
the  old  militia  was  completely  abolished,  and  the  way  left  clear 
for  the  formation  of  new  troops. 


306  HISTORY  OF  XUSS/A. 

CONTEST  WITH    THE  COSSACKS  :  REVOLT  OF   THE   DON  (1706)  ; 
MA2EPPA  (1709). 

The  streltsi  was  not  the  only  military  force  of  ancient  Russia 
whose  existence  and  privileges  had  become  incompatible  with 
the  organization  of  the  modern  State.  The  "  armies  "  (voiska) 
of  Cossacks — those  republican  and  undisciplined  warriors  who 
had  been  formerly  the  rampart  of  Russia,  and  were  her  outposts 
against  the  barbarians — had  to  undergo  a  transformation.  The 
empire  had  numerous  grievances  against  them  :  the  Cossacks 
of  the  Ukraine  and  those  of  the  Don  had  given  birth  to  the  first 
and  the  second  of  the  false  Dmitris,  and  from  the  army  of  the 
Don  had  sprung  the  terrible  Stenko  Razine. 

In  1706  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don  revolted  against  the  Tzarian 
government,  because  they  were  forbidden  to  give  an  asylum  to 
the  peasants  who  fled  from  their  masters,  or  to  those  who  took 
refuge  from  taxation  in  the  camp.  The  ataman  Boulavine,  and 
his  lieutenants  Nekrassof,  Frolof,  and  Dranyi,  summoned  them 
to  arms.  They  murdered  Prince  George  Dolgorouki,  defeated 
the  Russians  on  the  Liskovata,  took  Tcherkask,  threatened  Azof, 
all  the  while  protesting  their  fidelity  to  the  Tzar,  and  accusing 
the  voJevodes  of  having  acted  "  without  orders.''  They  soon, 
however,  suffered  defeat  at  the  hands  of  Vassili  Dolgorouki, 
brother  of  the  dead  man.  Boulavine  was  stabbed  by  his  own 
soldiers,  and  Nekrassof  fled  with  two  thousand  men  to  the  Kuban. 
The  rebel  camp  was  laid  waste,  and  Dolgorouki  was  able  to 
write  :  "  The  chief  mutineers  and  declared  traitors  have  been 
hung ;  of  the  others,  one  out  of  every  ten  ;  and  all  these  dead 
malefactors  have  been  laid  on  rafts  and  abandoned  to  the  river, 
to  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  Dontsi,  and  to  cause  them 
to  repent." 

Since  Samolilovitch  had  been  removed,  Mazeppa  had  been 
the  hetman  of  the  Little  Russian  Cossacks  of  the  Ukraine.  In 
his  youth  a  page  of  John  Casimir,  King  of  Poland,  that  adventure 
had  befallen  him  which  the  poem  of  Lord  Byron  and  the  pictures 
of  Horace  Vernet  have  rendered  famous.  Loosed  from  the  back 
of  the  unbroken  horse  which  had  carried  him  into  the  solitudes 
of  the  Ukraine,  he  had  entered  the  Cossack  army,  and,  by  be- 
traying all  chiefs  and  parties  in  turn,  he  had  risen  through  all 
the  grades  of  military  service.  He  owed  the  office  of  hetman 
toGalitsyne  and  Sophia,  but  was  one  of  the  first  to  embrace  the 
cause  of  Peter.  His  elevation  gained  him  many  enemies,  but 
the  Tzar,  who  admired  his  intelligence  and  believed  in  his  fidel- 
ity, delivered  up  to  him  his  accusers.  He  executed  the  monk 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSTA.  307 

Salomon,  who  pretended  to  reveal  Mazeppa's  intrigues  with  the 
King  of  Poland  and  Sophia ;  Mikhallof  in  1690,  and  the  diak 
Souzlof  in  1696,  were  likewise  put  to  death. 

All  this  time  the  Ukraine  was  being  steadily  undermined  by 
factions.  In  the  Cossack  army  there  always  existed  a  Russian 
party,  a  party  who  longed  for  Polish  government,  and  a  party 
who  wished  to  do  homage  to  the  Turks.  In  1693  Petrek,  one 
of  the  chiefs,  invaded  the  Ukraine  with  40,000  Tatars,  but  was 
forced  to  retreat.  Besides  this,  the  views  of  the  army  and  those 
of  the  sedentary  populations  of  the  Ukraine  were  always  at 
variance.  The  hetman  dreamed  of  becoming  independent,  the 
officers  disliked  being  responsible  to  anyone,  and  the  soldiers 
wished  to  live  at  the  expense  of  the  country,  without  either  work' 
ing  or  paying  taxes,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient  nobles ; 
but  the  farmers  who  had  created  the  agricultural  prosperity  of 
the  country,  the  citizens  who  could  not  work  in  security,  in  fact 
all  the  peaceful  laboring  population,  determined  to  get  rid  of 
the  turbulent  military  oligarchy,  and  hailed  the  Tzar  of  Moscow 
as  a  liberator. 

Mazeppa  represented  the  military  element  of  the  Ukraine, 
and  was  hated  by  the  more  peaceful  classes.  The  Tzar  over- 
whelmed  him  with  proofs  of  confidence,  but  Mazeppa  feared  the 
strengthening  of  the  Russian  State.  He  remembered  how  one 
day  in  an  orgie  the  Tzar  had  seized  him  by  the  beard  and  vicv. 
lently  shaken  him.  The  taxes  imposed  on  the  vassal  State  of 
Little  Russia  became  daily  heavier,  and  in  the  war  with  Charles 
XII.  they  increased  still  more.  Everything  was  to  be  feared 
from  the  imperious  humor  and  autocratic  pretensions  of  Peter. 
The  invasion  of  the  Swedes,  now  imminent,  would  necessarily 
precipitate  the  crisis  ;  and  either  Little  Russia  would  gain  her  in- 
dependence by  the  help  of  the  foreigners,  or  their  defeat  on  her 
soil  would  give  a  mortal  blow  to  her  prosperity  and  hopes  for 
the  future.  Feeling  the  approach  of  the  hour  when  he  must 
obey  the  White  Tzar,  Mazeppa  allowed  himself  to  be  drawn  into 
communications  with  Stanislas  Leszczinski,  the  King  of  Poland 
set  up  by  the  Swedish  party.  The  witty  Princess  Dolskalta 
had  given  him  an  alphabet  in  cipher.  Up  to  that  time 
Mazeppa  had  delivered  to  the  Tzar  all  letters  tampering  with 
his  fidelity,  and,  in  return,  the  Tzar  surrendered  to  him  all  his 
accusers.  When  he  received  the  letters  of  the  princess  he 
smiled  and  said,  "  Wicked  woman,  she  wants  to  detach  me 
from  the  Tzar."  He  did  not  give  up  the  letter,  but  burned  it. 
When  the  hand  of  Menchikof's  sister  was  refused  to  one  of  his 
cousins,  when  Menchikof  himself  began  to  give  direct  orders  to 
the  commanders  of  the/0/&r,  when  the  Swedish  war  and  the  march 


308  HISTORY  Of  RUSSIA. 

of  the  Muscovite  troops  limited  his  power  and  augmented  the 
burdens  of  his  territory,  when  the  Tzar  sent  pressing  injunctions 
for  the  equipment  of  the  army  in  European  style,  when  he  felt 
around  him  the  spirit  of  rebellion  against  Moscow,  he  wrote  to 
Leszczinski,  saying  that  he  did  not  think  the  Polish  army  sufficient' 
ly  strong,  but  assuring  him  of  his  goodwill.  His  confidant,  Orlik, 
was  in  the  secret  of  all  his  intrigues.  Some  of  his  subordinates  who 
had  penetrated  his  designs  made  another  attempt  to  denounce  him 
to  the  Tzar  :  among  these  were  Pale'i,  celebrated  in  the  songs  of  the 
Ukraine  ;  Kotchoubey,  whose  daughter  Mazeppa  had  taken  ;  and 
Iskra.  The  information  was  very  exact  and  revealed  his  secret  con- 
ferences with  the  emissaries  of  the  King  and  of  Princess  Dolskai'a 
It  failed,  like  former  denunciations,  through  the  blind  confidence 
of  Peter  :  Palel  was  sent  to  Siberia  ;  Iskra  and  Kotchoubey  were 
tortured,  forced  to  confess  themselves  false  witnesses,  delivered 
up  to  the  hetman,  and  beheaded.  Mazeppa  was  conscious  that 
such  extraordinary  good  fortune  could  not  last,  and  the  malcon- 
tents urged  him  to  think  of  their  common  safety.  At  this  moment 
Charles  XII.  arrived  in  the  neighborhood  of  Little  Russia. 
"  The  devil  has  brought  him,"  cried  Mazeppa ;  and  he  tried  be- 
tween the  two  powers  to  save  the  independence  of  his  little 
State,  without  delivering  himself  over  completely  either  to 
Charles  XII.  or  Peter  the  Great.  When  the  latter  invited  him 
to  join  the  army,  he  pretended  that  he  was  ill,  and  even  received 
extreme  unction.  But  Menchikof  and  Charles  were  approach- 
ing— a  choice  must  be  made.  Mazeppa  left  his  bed,  assembled 
his  most  faithful  Cossacks,  and  crossed  the  Desna  to  effect  a 
junction  with  the  Swedish  army.  Then  Peter  the  Great  made  a 
proclamation  denouncing  the  treason  of  Mazeppa,  his  alliance 
with  the  heretics,  his  plot  to  restore  the  Ukraine  to  Poland,  and 
to  fill  the  monasteries  and  temples  of  God  with  Uniates.  He  was 
cursed  in  all  the  churches  of  Russia.  Batourine,  his  capital,  was 
taken  by  Menchikof,  sacked  and  destroyed ;  his  accomplices, whom 
he  had  abandoned,  died  on  the  wheel  and  the  gibbet ;  he  himself 
fled,  after  the  battle  of  Pultowa,  to  the  Turkish  territory,  and  per- 
ished miserably  at  Bender.  A  new  hetman,  Skoropadski,  was 
elected  in  his  stead ;  the  mass  of  the  people  and  the  Cossack  army 
pronounced  loudly  for  theTzar,  and  the  Swedes  had  to  cope  with 
the  rising  of  the  entire  population  of  the  Ukraine.  In  spite  of 
this,  the  independence  of  Little  Russia  was  past.  The  privileges 
of  the  Cossacks  were  over,  and  twelve  hundred  of  them  were 
sent  to  work  at  the  Canal  of  Ladoga.  A  Muscovite  official  was 
joined  to  Skoropadski  to  govern  "  in  concert  with  the  advice  of 
the  hetman."  Muscovite  subjects  were  allowed  to  hold  lands  in 
the  Ukraine  by  the  same  title  as  the  Little  Russians  ;  Menchikof 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  309 

and  Chafirof  were  given  large  domains  there  by  Skoropadski, 
whose  daughter  married  another  Muscovite,  Tolstoi,  created  com- 
mandant of  the  polk  of  Nie'jine.  In  1722  Little  Russia,  whose 
affairs  up  to  that  time  had  been  conducted  by  the  department  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  was  governed  by  a  special  office  founded  at 
Moscow  under  the  name  of  "  Little  Russian  Affairs."  This  was 
clear  proof  that  the  Ukraine  had  ceased  to  be  an  autonomous 
State.  When  Skoropadski  died,  Peter  did  not  nominate  a  suc- 
cessor, declaring  that  "  the  treasons  of  the  preceding  hetmans 
did  not  allow  a  decision  to  be  made  lightly  in  this  grave  matter 
of  election,  and  that  he  needed  time  to  find  a  man  of  assured 
fidelity." 

From  this  time  the  institutions  of  the  Ukraine  were  modified 
at  the  will  of  Peter  the  Great  and  his  successors.  The  hetman- 
nate  was  now  abolished,  now  restored,  till  the  last  man  who  held 
the  title,  a  courtier  of  Catherine  II.,  abdicated  in  1789.  The 
affairs  of  the  Ukraine  were  sometimes  directed  by  the  office  of 
Little  Russia,  sometimes  by  the  office  of  Foreign  Affairs,  till 
the  time  when,  under  Catherine  II.,  it  became  an  integral  part 
of  the  empire.  As  to  the  Zaporogues,  after  their  sticha  had 
been  taken  by  Peter  the  Great,  they  emigrated  to  the  Crimea, 
obtained  their  restoration  to  the  Lower  Dnieper  from  Anne, 
found  the  neighboring  country  already  transformed,  and,  as 
their  existence  seemed  incompatible  with  security  and  coloni- 
zation, were  finally  expelled  in  1775. 

From  the  year  1709  we  may  say  that  there  no  longer  existed 
in  the  empire  a  single  military  force  that  could  oppose  its  privi- 
leges to  the  will  of  the  Tzar. 


THE 

HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA 

FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  1877 


BY 

ALFRED  RAMBAUD 

FkOFBKBUR  A  LA  FACULTjfj  DBS  LBTTRES  A  XANCY;  MEMBRB  COKRMPONOAMT 
,      L'ACAD£MIB  DES  SCIENCES  DE  SAIXT-PJ£TERSBOURC 


TRANSLATED  BY 

LEONORA    B.    LANG 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOLUME  II. 

WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO 

HOOPER,  CLARKE  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


CONTENTS,  VOL.  II 


PETER  THE  GREAT. 
CHAPTER  I. 

PETER  THE  GREAT  :  STRUGGLE  WITH  CHARLES  XII.      (1700-1709). 

Narva  (1700) :  conquest  of  the  Baltic  provinces  —  Charles  XII.  in- 
vades Russia  :  Pultowa  (1709),  9-21 

CHAPTER  II. 

PETER  THE  GREAT  :  THE  REFORMS. 

General  character  of  the  reforms  :  the  instruments  of  Peter  the  Great 
—  Social  reforms  :  the  tchin  ;  emancipation  of  women  —  Adminis- 
trative, military,  and  ecclesiastical  reforms  —  Economic  reforms : 
manufactures  —  Utilitarian  character  of  the  plans  of  education  — 
Foundation  of  St,  Petersburg  (1703),  23-40 

CHAPTER  HI. 

PETER  THE  GREAT  :  LAST  YEARS  (1709-1725). 

War  with  Turkey  :  Treaty  of  the  Pruth  (1711)  —  Journey  to  Paris  (1717) 
—  Peace  of  Nystad  (1721)  —  Conquests  on  the  Carpian  —  Family 
affairs  :  Eudoxia ;  trial  of  Alexis  (1718) ;  Catherine,  -  41-52 


THE  EMPRESSES  OF  THE  18TH  CENTURY. 
CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  WIDOW  AND  GRANDSON  OF  PETER  THE  GREAT  :  CATHERINE  I. 

(1725-1727)  AND  PETER  n.  (1727-1730). 

The  work  of  Peter  the  Great  continued  by  Catherine  —  Menchikof 
and  the  Dolgorouki  —  Maurice  de  Saxe  in  Courland,  -  53-57 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  TWO  ANNES  :  REIGN  OF  ANNE  IVANOVNA,  AND  REGENCY  OF 
ANNE  LEOPOLDOVNA  (1730-1741). 

Attempt  at  an  aristocratic  constitution  (1730):  the  "Bironovcht- 
chiiia  "  —  Succession  of  Poland  (1733-1735)  and  war  with  Turkey 
(1735-1739)  —  Ivan  VI.  —  Regency  of  Biren  and  Anne  —  Revolu- 
tion of  1741,  -  -  -  58-70 


ir.  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

ELIZABETH  PETROVNA  (1741-1762). 

Reaction  against  the  Germans  :  war  with  Sweden  (1741-1743)  —  Sue* 
cession  of  Austria  :  war  against  Frederic  II.  (1756-1762)  —  Reforms 
under  Elizabeth  ;  French  influence,  71-80 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PETER  in.  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1762. 

Government  of  Peter  III.  and  the  alliance  with  Frederic  II.  —  Revo- 
lution of  1762  :  Catherine  II.,  -  81-86 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

CATHERINE  II.  :  EARLY  YEARS  (1762-1780). 

End  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  :  intervention  in  Poland  —  First  Turk- 
ish war  :  first  partition  of  Poland  (1772)  :  Swedish  Revolution  of 
—  Plague  at  Moscow  —  Pougatchef  ,  87-99 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CATHERINE  H.  :  GOVERNMENT  AND  REFORMS. 

The  helpers  of  Catherine  H.  :  the  great  legislative  commission  (1766- 
1768)  —  Administration  and  justice  :  colonization  —  Public  instruc- 
tion —  Letters  and  arts  —  The  French  Philosophers,  100-110 

CHAPTER  X. 

CATHERINE  H.  :  LAST  YEARS  (1779-1796). 

Franco-Russian  mediation  at  Teschen  (1779)  —  Armed  neutrality 
(1780)  —  Annexation  of  the  Crimea  (1783)  —  Second  war  with  Tur- 
key (1787-1792)  and  war  with  Sweden  (1788-1790)  —  Second  parti- 
tion of  Poland  :  Diet  of  Grodno  —  Third  partition  :  Kosciuszko  — 
Catherine  II.  and  the  French  Revolutions-War  with  Persia,  111-127 


THE  FOUR  EMPERORS. 
CHAPTER  XI. 

PAUL  I.   (17TH  NOVEMBER,   1796-24TH  MARCH,  1801). 

Peace  policy  :  accession  to  the  second  Coalition  —  Campaigns  of  the 
Ionian  Islands,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Holland,  and  Naples  —  Alli- 
ance with  Bonaparte :  the  League  of  Neutrals,  and  the  great 
scheme  against  India,  -  128-141 


CONTENTS.  T. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

ALEXANDER  I.  :  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  (1801-1825). 

First  war  with  Napoleon  :  Austerlitz,  Eylau,  Friedland,  and  Treaty 
of  Tilsit  —  Interview  at  Erfurt :  wars  with  England,  Sweden, 
Austria,  Turkey,  and  Persia  —  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  :  causes 
of  the  second  war  with  Napoleon  —  The  "  Patriotic  War  :"  battle 
of  Borodino  ;  burning  of  Moscow  ;  destruction  of  the  Grand  Army 
—  Campaigns  of  Germany  and  France  :  treaties  of  Vienna  and 
Paris  —  Kingdom  of  Poland  :  congresses  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Carls- 
bad, Laybach,  and  Verona,  142-209 

CHAPTER  XHI. 

ALEXANDER  I.  :  INTERNAL  AFFAIRS. 

Early  years  :  the  triumvirate  ;  liberal  measures  ;  the  ministers  ;  pub- 
lic instruction  —  Speranski  ;  Council  of  the  Empire  ;  projected 
civil  code  ;  ideas  of  social  reform  —  Araktcheef :  political  and  uni- 
versity reaction  ;  military  colonies  —  Secret  Societies  :  Poland  — 
Literary  and  scientific  movement,  210-225 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

NICHOLAS  I.  (,1825-1855). 

The  December  insurrection  —  Administration  and  reforms  —  Public 
education  and  literature  —  War  with  Persia  (1826-1828)  —  First 
Turkish  war  :  liberation  of  Greece  (1826-1829)  —  The  Russians  and 
English  in  Asia  —  Polish  insurrection  (1831)  —  Hostility  against 
France :  the  Eastern  question  ;  Revolution  of  1848 ;  intervention 
in  Hungary  —  Second  Turkish  war  :  the  allies  in  the  Crimea  — 
Awakening  of  Russian  opinion,  226-254 

CHAPTER  XV. 

ALEXANDER  II.   (1855 — 1877). 

End  of  the  Crimean  war  :  Treaty  of  Paris  —  The  Act  of  the  19th  of 
February,  1861  :  judicial  reforms ;  local  self-government  —  The 
Polish  insurrection  —  Intellectual  movement ;  industrial  progress  ; 
military  law  —  Conquests  in  Asia  —  European  policy,  255-285 


OBSERVATIONS,     -  .  286 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES,    -  -     288 

TABLE  OF  MEASURES,  WEIGHTS,  &c.,  293 


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born  1815. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PETER  THE  GREAT  :  STRUGGLE  WITH  CHARLES  XII.      (1700-1709). 

Narva  (1700):  conquest  of  the  Baltic  provinces — Charles  XII.  invades  Russia: 
Pultowa  (1709). 


NARVA  (1700)  :    CONQUEST  OF  THE   BALTIC  PROVINCES. 

PETER  I.  had  navigated  the  White  Sea,  and  conquered  a  port 
on  the  Sea  of  Azof ;  but  by  the  Baltic  alone  could  he  secure  rapid 
and  regular  communication  with  the  nations  of  the  West.  It 
was  only  by  taking  up  ;;  position  on  the  Baltic  that  Russia  could 
cease  to  be  an  Oriental  State,  and  could  form  part  of  Europe. 
The  Baltic  at  that  time  belonged  to  Sweden,  whose  possessions 
on  the  coasts — Finland,  Carelia,  Ingria,  Esthonia,  Livonia,  and 
Pomerania — made  it  a  £  odish  Mediterranean.  Stockholm  was 
situated  in  the  centre  of  the  monarchy  of  the  Vasas,  instead  of 
lying,  as  it  does  at  present,  on  its  maritime  frontier.  To  "  open 
a  window  "  into  the  West,  it  was  necessary  to  break  in  some 
point  the  chain  of  Swedish  possessions.  The  opportunity  seemed 
favorable.  The  struggle  still  continued  in  Sweden  between  the 
aristocracy  and  the  crown  ;  the  last  king,  Charles  XI.,  had  in 
1680  rendered  his  authority  absolute,  and  ordered  the  nobles  to 
restore  to  the  throne  all  the  crown  lands  alienated  since  1609. 
This  edict  of  resumption,  scarcely  mitigated  by  a  promise  of 
indemnity,  ruined  the  aristocracy.  In  Livonia  especially,  the 
German  nobility,  descendants  of  the  old  Order,  protested 
strongly.  They  sent  a  deputation  to  the  king,  Charles  XL,  with 
John  Reinhold  Patkul  at  its  head.  He  was  a  proud,  energetic, 


I  o  ffIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

vindictive,  and  intelligent  man,  whose  free  speech  displeased 
the  king ;  and  as  his  colleagues  supported  him  in  all  his  acis,  he 
and  they  were  arrested,  carried  before  a  court-martial,  and  con- 
demned to  death.  Patkul  managed  to  escape,  and  burning  with 
rage  he  sought  on  all  sides  enemies  of  Charles  XI.  and  his  young 
son  Charles  XII.  It  was  he  who  proposed  to  Augustus  of  Sax- 
ony, king  of  Poland,  a  scheme  by  which  Sweden  was  to  be  at- 
tacked simultaneously  by  all  her  neighbors.  Poland  was  to 
take  from  her  Livonia  and  Esthonia,  Russia  was  to  conquer  In- 
gria  and  Carelia,  Denmark  was  to  invade  Holstein,  which  belonged 
to  a  brother-in-law  of  Charles  XII.  Peter  accepted  the  over- 
tures of  the  King  of  Poland  :  he  desired  nothing  better  than  to 
carry  out  the  designs  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  and  of  his  father  Alexis. 
The  youth  of  the  new  King  of  Sweden,  and  his  reputed  incapac- 
ity, led  Peter  to  expect  rapid  success.  Peter  I.  acceded  to  the 
coalition  by  virtue  of  the  Treaty  of  Preobrajenskoe'.  In  the 
manifesto  by  which  he  declared  war,  he  took  pains  to  recall  his 
grievances,  puerile  though  they  were,  against  the  governor  of 
Riga. 

When  Peter  appeared  under  the  walls  of  Narva,  Patkul  at 
first  rejoiced,  but  speedily  became  uneasy  ;  he  had  not  intended 
that  Narva  should  be  attacked  by  the  Russians,  but  advised 
Augustus  not  to  raise  the  question.  The  coalition  was  almost 
immediately  smitten  by  two  unexpected  blows.  The  King  of 
Denmark,  threatened  in  Copenhagen,  had  been  forced  to  sign 
the  Treaty  of  Traventhal,  and  at  the  approach  of  the  Swedes 
the  King  of  Poland  had  been  forced  to  raise  the  siege  of  Riga. 
Without  waiting  to  pursue  the  Poles,  Charles  turned  against  the 
Russians. 

A  desire  to  please  the  victors  has  caused  the  numerical  dis- 
proportion between  the  two  armies  to  be  exaggerated.  Voltaire 
himself  was  forced  to  rectify,  in  his  '  History  of  Peter  the  Great,' 
the  numbers  that  he  had  given  in  the  *  History  of  Charles  XII.' 
The  latter  had  hardly  8430  men  ;  the  Russians  amounted  to  63,- 
500  men,  of  whom  only  40,000  took  part  in  the  action.  The 
army  was  composed  of  regular  troops,  beside  sttelfsi,  Cossacks, 
ditti-boyarskit)  and  men  raised  in  haste,  in  the  absence  of  the 
Tzar,  who  had  quitted  the  camp  on  the  previous  evening  to 
hasten  the  arrival  of  the  reinforcements,  it  was  placed  under 
the  command  of  an  old  general  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany  the 
Due  de  Crol,  whom  the  troops  suspected  from  the  fact  of  his 
being  a  stranger.  In  the  siege  of  Narva,  they  had  at  their  backs 
the  Narova,  or  river  of  Narva,  and  occupied  a  fortified  line  of 
seven  versts  (4  miles),  the  whole  extent  of  which  it  was  impos- 
sible to  defend.  In  some  places  there  was  only  a  single  line  of 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  1 1 

soldiers,  placed  about  six  feet  from  one  another.  In  front, 
about  the  centre,  they  had  erected  a  great  battery ;  before  the 
entrenchments,  on  the  route  to  Revel,  were  outposts  to  the 
number  of  4000  men. 

On  the  3oth  (tgth)  of  November,  1700,  the  battle  began  by  a 
cannonade  that  lasted  till  two  in  the  afternoon.  At  that  time 
the  Swedes  reached  the  foot  of  the  entrenchments  under  cover  of 
a  snow-storm,  which  prevented  the  Russians  from  seeing  twenty 
paces  in  front.  In  an  instant  the  Swedes  had  crossed  the  fosse 
and  the  parapet,  and  the  Russian  camp  was  seized  with  panic. 
"The  Germans  have  betrayed  us,"  cried  the  soldiers,  and  began 
to  stab  the  foreign  officers.  The  Due  de  Croi  and  his  staff  saw 
no  refuge  from  their  own  soldiers  except  in  flight  to  the  Swed- 
ish camp.  Cheremetief,  who  commanded  the  cavalry,  hurried 
to  the  river  Narova,  and  succeeded  in  crossing  it,  though  more 
than  a  thousand  men  were  lost  in  the  passage.  One  body  alone 
defended  itself  with  the  energy  of  despair  :  the  Preobrajenski  and 
the  Semenvo.ki,  favorite  regiments  of  Peter  the  Great,  which 
had  been  rganized  after  the  European  fashion,  entrenched 
themselves  in  haste  behind  a  barrier  formed  of  artillery  wagons, 
and  repulsed  all  the  attacks  of  the  Swedes,  directed  by  the  king 
in  person.  In  spite  of  this  gallant  defence,  the  Russian  army 
was  cut  in  two  by  the  capture  of  the  great  central  battery.  Night 
came  on  and  increased  the  disorder.  The  right  wing,  com- 
manded by  Dolgorouki,  Golovin  ,  Boutourline,  and  Alexander, 
TzareVitch  of  Imeritia,  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  king ; 
the  generals  signed  a  capitulation  which  insured  them  a  free  re- 
treat with  arms,  standards,  and  baggage,  but  they  had  to  abandon 
all  their  artillery,  except  six  pieces  of  cannon.  The  Preobrajen- 
ski and  Semenovski  guards  left  their  fortress  of  wagons  and 
retired  in  good  order,  and  to  hasten  their  retreat  the  Swedes 
themselves  built  them  a  bridge  over  the  Narova.  The  left  wing, 
which  had  suffered  more  severely,  was  obliged  to  sign  a  more 
rigorous  capitulation :  it  was  allowed  to  retire,  but  had  to  lay 
down  its  arms.  Charles  XII.  then  allowed  the  Russian  army 
to  cross  the  river,  neither  from  generosity  nor  disdain,  as  has 
sometimes  been  said,  but  from  prudence.  Wrede,  the  Swedish 
general,  writes  :  "  If  the  Russian  general  Weide,  who  had  6000 
men  under  arms,  had  had  the  courage  to  attack  us,  we  should 
have  been  lost ;  we  were  completely  exhausted,  having  had 
neither  rest  nor  food  for  many  days,  and  our  soldiers  were  so 
intoxicated  with  the  wine  that  they  found  in  the  Russian  camp 
that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  restore  order."  The  King 
of  Sweden,  by  slightly  straining  the  terms  of  capitulation,  re- 
tained as  prisoners  Croi  and  the  officers  who  had  taken  refuge 


I2  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

hi  his  camp.  Many  remained  for  twenty  years  in  Sweden. 
Besides  the  prisoners,  the  Russians  had  lost  6000  men,  the 
Swedes  nearly  2000  men. 

There  are  salutary  defeats  and  fatal  victories.  Charles  was 
overwhelmed  by  flatteries  from  the  whole  of  Europe.  Medals 
were  struck  in  his  honor  with  the  inscriptions,  "  Sitperant  oper- 
ata  fidem"  or  again,  "  Tres  uno  contudit  ictu."  The  young  king 
could  not  entirely  shake  off  the  intoxication  of  his  success. 
"  He  dreams  of  nothing  but  war,"  writes  his  general  Stenbock  ; 
"  he  no  longer  listens  to  advice  ;  he  behaves  as  one  who  thinks 
that  God  directly  inspires  him  for  what  he  has  to  do."  He  de- 
spised enemies  so  easily  conquered,  and,  counting  the  Russian 
army  for  nothing,  made  great  preparations  for  the  downfall  of 
the  harmless  King  of  Poland.  During  five  years  he  did  nothing 
but  plot  for  his  dethronement,  meddling  in  the  intrigues  of  the 
Polish  diets,  and  trying  to  crush  the  partisans  of  Augustus,  as  if 
the  elevation  and  support  of  Stanislas  Leszczinski  had  been  really 
of  vital  importance  to  Sweden  in  the  same  way  as  the  possession 
of  its  maritime  provinces.  Peter  understood  how  much  it  was 
for  his  advantage  that  his  rival  should  be  thus  occupied ;  he 
aided  Augustus  of  Saxony  with  troops  and  money,  to  keep  his 
own  hands  free  in  the  regions  of  the  Baltic.  It  was  enough  for 
him  to  know  that  the  impetuous  King  of  Sweden  was  for  some 
time  entangled  among  the  marshes  and  intrigues  of  Poland. 

Peter  had  taken  courage  after  Narva.  Nothing  was  really 
lost,  since  the  greater  part  of  his  army  remained  intact ;  he  had 
only  to  turn  to  profit  this  rude  lesson  in  the  military  art.  He 
increased  the  fortifications  of  Pskof,  Novgorod,  and  the  frontier 
towns  ;  every  one  was  set  to  work.  He  frightened,  by  terrible 
examples,  robbers  of  treasure  and  dishonest  officials.  With  the 
church  bells  he  cast  three  hundred  cannon  ;  he  created  ten  new 
regiments,  each  consisting  of  a  thousand  dragoons.  He  sent 
250  children  to  the  military  schools. 

The  year  after  the  defeat  at  Narva,  Cheremetief  attacked  the 
Swedish  general  Slipenbach  near  Ehresfer  in  Livonia.  The 
Russians  were  the  more  numerous,  but  it  was  an  advance  to  con- 
quer the  Swedes,  even  at  odds  of  three  to  one.  Out  of  7000 
men  Slipenbach  lost  3500,  and  only  350  prisoners  were  taken — 
a  fact  which  proves  the  fierceness  of  the  fighting.  This  "eldest 
of  Russian  victories  "  was  celebrated  at  Moscow  by  a  triumph  in 
which  the  arms,  guns,  and  banners  of  the  vanquished  filed  past, 
Cheremetief  was  created  field-marshal,  and  Peter  exclaimed. 
"  Glory  be  to  God  !  one  day  we  shall  be  able  to  beat  the  Swedes  " 
(1701).  The  same  year  seven  Swedish  vessels  were  repulsed 
by  the  fleet  of  the  Tzar.  In  1702  Cheremetief  again  defeated 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  13 

Slipenbach  *•*•  Fummelsdorff,  took  from  him  all  his  artillery,  and 

killed  6000  out  of  his  8000  men. 

The  ultimate  aim  of  Peter  was  the  possession  of  the  Neva, 
which  had  belonged  to  the  early  Russian  princes,  and  where 
Saint  Alexander  Nevskl  had  won  his  glorious  surname  by  vic- 
tories over  Swedish  enemies.  He  took  Noteburg,  the  ancient 
Ore'check  (the  nut)  of  the  Novgorodians,  which  commanded  the 
Neva  where  it  leaves  Lake  Ladoga,  and  called  it  Schliisselburg 
(fortress  of  the  key),  because  the  post  would  make  him  master 
of  the  river.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  Neva  the  Swedes  held  the 
small  fort  of  Nienschantz ;  he  captured  and  destroyed  it,  and  in 
a  neighboring  island  he  founded  the  citadel  round  which  his 
future  capital  was  to  cluster ;  the  islet  of  Cronslott  became  Cron- 
stadt,  which  was  to  close  against  the  Scandinavians  the  entrance 
on  the  side  of  the  sea.  The  Neva  was  his.  The  same  year 
(1703)  he  seized  two  Swedish  vessels  in  its  waters — "  an  unheard- 
of  success,"  he  wrote  to  Moscow.  Then  Koperie,  lam,  and 
Dorpat  (once  a  vassal  city  of  Novgorod)  fell  into  his  hands,  and 
he  revenged  himself  for  his  defeat  at  Narva  by  capturing  that 
town  (1704),  and  by  protecting  the  citizens  from  his  own  soldiers, 
who  were  drunk  with  blood.  During  this  time  Livonia  and 
Esthonia,  provinces  inherited  by  Charles  XII.,  were  given  up  to 
frightful  devastation,  worse  than  that  of  the  Palatinate  by  Louis 
XIV.  The  days  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  seemed  to  have  returned, 
The  Russians  signalized  the  reconquest  of  their  ancient  territory 
by  atrocities.  Volmar,  Marienburg,  Wenden,  and  Wesen  were 
pillaged ;  Cheremetief  only  spared  Riga,  Pernau,  and  Revel  (or 
Kobyvan,  as  it  was  called  by  the  Tchouds).  The  Letto-Finnish 
country  was  made  a  desert ;  the  Cossacks,  Kalmucks,  Bachkirs, 
and  Tatars  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  their  prisoners.  The 
Zaporogues  alone  carried  4000  captives — men,  women,  and 
children — back  to  the  Lower  Dnieper.  Neither  the  capture  of 
the  fortresses,  the  burning  of  the  towns,  nor  the  extermination 
of  the  people,  could  distract  Charles  XII.  from  the  attempt  to 
ruin  Augustus. 

In  1705  the  Tzar  felt  it  was  necessary  to  keep  an  eye  on  the 
actions  of  the  Swede  in  Poland,  and  not  to  allow  his  ally 
Augustus  to  be  entirely  crushed.  It  was  enough  to  have  taken 
from  him  his  share  of  the  booty,  Esthonia  and  Livonia.  The 
Russians  crossed  (he  Dwina,  occupied  Courland  and  VVilna,  and 
concentrated  themselves  in  an  entrenched  camp  at  Grodno. 
Peter,  like  Ivan  the  Terrible,  had  not  only  to  struggle  with  his 
external  enemies ;  the  internal  factions  had  not  yet  been  sub- 
dued. At  the  moment  that  he  was  preparing  to  give  battle  to 
the  Swedes,  the  revolt  of  Astrakhan  obliged  him  to  send  to  the 


! 4  HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

Lower  Volga  a  portion  of  his  troops  under  Cheremetief,  one  of 
his  best  generals.  It  was  time  Cheremetief  arrived,  for  already 
the  streltsi  of  Astrakhan  had  appealed  for  help  to  the  Cossacks. 
The  Russian  army  in  Lithuania  found  itself  for  an  instant  in  great 
straits  :  Schulenburg,  the  general  of  Augustus,  had  been  defeated 
at  Frauenstadt  (1706),  and  been  forced  to  fall  back  on  Saxony 
Thanks  to  the  skilful  dispositions  of  Peter,  the  Russian  army 
succeeded  in  retreating  without  opposition  to  Kief.  About  the 
year  1706  Menchikof  inflicted  on  the  Swedish  general  Mardefelt, 
with  nearly  equal  numbers,  a  bloody  defeat  near  Kalisch. 


CHARLES  XII.    INVADES  RUSSIA:   PULTOWA    (1709). 

Charles  XII.  had  pursued  the  army  of  the  King  of  Poland 
into  Saxony;  to  punish  his  new  enterprise  against  Stanislas 
Leszczinski  and  his  entrance  into  Warsaw,  he  crushed  the 
Electoral  States  by  his  extortions  and  requisitions  ;  he  traversed 
Silesia  without  deigning  to  ask  leave  of  the  Emperor  Joseph, 
despising  the  protestations  of  the  diet  of  Ratisbon  ;  he  received 
the  complaints  of  the  Protestants  of  this  province  who  were 
persecuted  by  Austria,  and  appeared  before  the  malcontents  of 
Hungary  as  the  great  redresser  of  wrongs.  This  happened  at 
the  most  critical  moment  in  the  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession. 
France,  defeated  at  Hochstadt,  Ramilies,  and  Turin,  turned 
her  eyes  towards  victorious  Sweden.  England,  Holland,  Aus- 
tria, Brandenburg,  Hanover,  all  the  powers  concerned  in  the 
attack  on  the  French  frontiers,  trembled  lest  the  Swedish  army 
should  assail  the  coalition  in  the  rear.  Had  not  Sweden  been 
the  ally  of  France  since  the  time  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  of 
Oxenstiern  ?  Had  she  not  been  the  companion  of  her  days  of 
glory  ?  Did  she  not  owe  France  her  great  position  in  Ger- 
many ?  Had  she  not  to  fear  lest  she  might  suffer  from  the 
defeat  of  France  ?  Was  not  Charles  XII.  at  this  moment  re- 
ceiving subsidies  from  the  Grand  Monarque  ?  Was  his  help 
not  entreated  by  the  French  envoys  ?  The  fate  of  the  world 
seemed  to  lie  in  the  hands  of  the  young  victor.  If  he  turned  to 
the  West,  if  he  revenged  his  own  grievances  and  those  of  Prot- 
estantism against  Austria,  France  was  saved,  and  Sweden, 
whom  fearful  things  awaited  on  the  plains  of  Russia,  was  saved 
also.  There  was  a  pause  of  anxious  and  solemn  expectation, 
all  the  greater  because  the  proud  and  silent  monarch  had  al- 
lowed no  hint  of  his  projects  to  escape  him.  The  situation  ap- 
peared so  grave  that  in  April  1707  Marlborough  resolved  to 
seek  him  in  his  camp.  Few  words  were  exchanged  between 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  1 5 

these  two  great  captains,  whose  characters  were  so  different, 
but  the  clever  Englishman  was  able  to  guess  Charles's  hatred 
and  jealousy  of  France ;  he  saw  that  his  eyes  glittered  at  the 
mention  of  the  Tzar ;  he  remarked  spread  out  on  the  table  a 
map  of  Russia.  Marlborough  retired  full  of  hope.  Those  who 
feared  Charles  agreed  to  whatever  he  proposed  to  them  ;  Au- 
gustus accepted  the  humiliating  treaty  of  Altranstadt ;  he  de- 
livered up  Patkul,  whom  the  Tzar  had  accredited  to  him  as 
ambassador,  and  whom,  in  spite  of  his  inviolable  position,  the 
son  of  Charles  XI.  broke  on  the  wheel.  The  Emperor  relin« 
quished  a  hundred  churches  to  the  Protestants  of  Silesia,  dis- 
missed a  chamberlain  of  whom  the  King  had  reason  to  complain, 
surrendered  1500  Russian  refugees,  and  recalled  400  German 
officers  who  had  taken  service  with  the  Tzar.  The  Elector  of 
Brandenburg  signed  a  perpetual  peace.  Charles  XII.  might 
now  break  up  his  camp  at  Leipzig  ;  he  saw  only  one  enemy,  the 
Tzar  of  Russia. 

The  adversary  of  Peter  the  Great  was  an  admirable  knight- 
errant  rather  than  a  sovereign.  The  absolute  power  of  which 
he  became  possessed  at  an  early  age  left  without  counterpoise 
his  fiery  temper  and  obstinate  character — his  "  iron  head,"  as 
the  Turks  said  at  Bender.  Voltaire  observes  that  he  carried  all 
his  virtues  to  such  an  excess  that  they  became  as  dangerous  as 
the  opposite  vices.  His  dominant  virtue  and  vice  was  a  passion 
for  glory.  Glory,  and  glory  alone,  was  to  him  the  end  of  war. 
He  does  not  appear  to  have  understood  that  it  was  possible  to 
acquire  it  by  practising  the  arts  of  peace.  Up  to  the  moment 
when  the  news  of  the  coalition  formed  against  him  revealed  to 
him  his  military  vocation,  he  seemed  the  most  insignificant  of 
all  the  European  princes.  His  conduct  appeared  to  be  regu- 
lated, not  by  the  political  principles  current  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  by  some  strange  and  archaic  point  of  honor.  He 
only  knew  Alexander  the  Great  as  the  romantic  hero  of  Quintus 
Curtius,  and  this  phantom  he  took  for  his  ideal.  He  was 
nourished  on  the  old  Scandinavian  sagas,  and  we  may  truly  say 
that  the  soul  and  spirit  of  the  old  vikings  revived  in  him  :  he 
had  their  wonderful  deeds  forever  before  his  eyes,  and  the 
versified  maxims  of  the  Scalds  forever  present  to  his  memory. 
Charles  XII.  was  a  hero  of  the  Edda  set  down  by  mistake  in  a 
matter-of-fact  century.  A  Russian  historian,  M.  Guerrier,  calls 
him  "The  last  of  the  Varangians  ";  he  was  the  last  of  those 
Scandinavian  adventurers  who  had  marched  over  the  Russian 
plains  from  Novgorod  to  Kief,  but  to  whom  henceforth  the  road 
to  the  south  remained  forever  shut.  Pitiless  to  others  as  well 
as  to  himself,  we  find  him  undergoing  useless  dangers  and 


16  ftlSTOR  V  OF  Xl/SSS*. 

fatigues,  seeking  adventures  like  a  sea-king  who  had  only  nis 
head  to  risk  ;  considering  a  war  as  a  single  combat  between  two 
champions,  which  could  only  end,  if  not  with  the  death,  at  leas£ 
with  the  dethronement,  of  the  vanquished  ;  fighting  not  to  gain 
crowns,  but  to  distribute  them  ;  giving  largesses  to  his  soldiers 
as  if  he  had  always  the  treasures  of  pillage,  the  "red  gold  of 
Fafnir's  heath,"  at  his  disposal ;  despising  all  the  luxuries  of 
life,  like  the  Northmen  who  boasted  of  never  having  slept  be- 
neath a  roof  :  flying  from  women,  "  whose  silken  hairs,"  say  the 
sagas,  "are  nets  of  perfidy  "  ;  regarding  a  backward  movement 
as  dishonor,  and  considering  prudent  advice  an  evidence  of 
weakness  ;  ready  to  face  water,  as  in  the  marshes  of  Lithuania  ; 
or  fire,  as  in  the  conflagration  of  Bender.  He  had  his  own 
guard  of  drabans,  as  the  konungs  of  fabulous  times  had  their 
droujina,  as  Alexander  had  his  hetairoi.  His  companioos  also 
are  heroes  of  sagas,  an'd  legend  has  gilded  their  exploits.  It  is 
related  in  Sweden  that  Hinstersfelt  carried  off  the  enemy's  guns 
on  his  shoulders,  and  that,  passing  through  a  vaulted  gateway, 
from  which  hung  a  ring,  he  put  his  little  finger  through  it  and 
pulled  himself  up  by  it,  and  with  him  the  horse  which  he  pressed 
between  his  knees.  "  When  I  have  nine  of  my  drabans  with 
me,"  said  Charles,  "  nothing  can  hinder  me  from  going  where  I 
will."  He  was  thus  impelled  to  seek  adventures  in  distant  lands, 
and,  like  the  warriors  of  old,  to  "  win  the  world  by  the  force  of 
his  arm."  He  sent  officers  even  into  Asia  and  Egypt  to  recon- 
noitre and  to  collect  information. 

The  poet  Pouchkine  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  disappointed 
Mazeppa  the  following^  remark  : — "  I  have  been  mistaken  about 
this  Charles;  no  doubt  he  is  a  bold  and  audacious  youth  ;  he 
can  gain  two,  or  even  three  battles ;  he  can  fall  suddenly  on  the 
enemy,  eat  his  breakfast,  reply  to  a  bomb  with  a  burst  of 
laughter ;  like  any  sharpshooter,  he  can  glide  by  night  into  the 
camp  of  the  foe,  overthrow  some  Cossack  as  he  has  done  to-day, 
give  blow  for  blow,  and  wound  for  wound  :  but  he  is  not  of  a 
stature  to  cope  with  the  giant ;  he  wishes  to  make  Fortune 
manoeuvre  like  a  regiment  at  the  sound  of  the  drum.  He  is 
blind,  obstinate,  impatient ;  he  is  thoughtless  and  presumptuous  ; 
he  believes  in  God  knows  what  star.  He  measures  by  his  past 
success  the  new  forces  of  his  enemy.  He  must  be  taught  better. 
I  am  ashamed  in  my  old  age  to  have  allowed  myself  to  be  se- 
duced by  a  military  wanderer, — to  have  been  dazzled,  like  a 
young  girl,  by  the  courage  and  the  luck  of  an  adventurer." 

The  two  adversaries  were  to  meet  at  last.  Charles  quitted 
Saxony  with  43,000  men,  enriched  with  the  spoils  of  the 
country  ;  he  left  behind  10,000  to  support  Stanislas  on  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  17 

throne,  and  marched  towards  the  Niemen.  He  was  the  first  to 
enter  Grodno  with  600  men,  and  only  the  prodigies  of  valor 
which  he  performed  prevented  his  being  captured  by  the 
Russian  rear-guard  (1708).  The  Tzar,  in  pursuance  of  a  system 
which  was  to  be  followed  in  1812,  fell  back  on  Russia,  laying 
waste  Lithuania  as  he  went.  The  Swedish  name  was  still  a 
universal  terror.  Besides  the  33,000  men  who  followed 
Charles,  Lewenhaupt  was  to  bring  up  18,000  from  Poland.  No 
Russian  force  seemed  fit  to  cope  with  the  most  experienced 
army  in  Europe.  The  internal  affairs  of  Russia  also  troubled 
Peter ;  it  was  at  this  decisive  moment  that  the  revolt  of  Boula- 
vine,  in  the  camp  of  the  Don,  occurred,  and  the  first  agitation 
among  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper.  Before  risking  the  safety 
of  his  empire,  within  which  terrible  disorders  were  still  ferment- 
ing, before  exposing  his  new  creations  to  the  horrors  of  an 
invasion,  Peter  tried  to  negotiate  with  his  enemy ;  he  offered  to 
be  content  with  a  single  port  on  the  Baltic.  I  will  treat  with 
the  Tzar  in  Moscow,"  said  Charles. 

From  the  Niemen,  across  the  forest  of  Minsk,  where  the 
Swedes  were  obliged  to  cut  a  passage  with  their  axes,  Charles 
XII.  reached  the  Berezina,  which  he  crossed  at  the  head  of  a 
body  of  3000  men.  At  Hollosin  he  came  up  with  20,000 
Russians ;  whose  steadiness  should  have  given  him  pause,  for 
they  only  yielded  at  the  seventh  charge  of  the  king.  He 
reached  the  Dnieper  at  Mohilef,  and  even  got  as  far  as  Mstislaf. 
At  Dobroe,  south  of  Smolensk,  he  attacked  a  body  of  10,000 
Russians  and  6000  Kalmucks.  This  time  he  had  a  horse  killed 
under  him,  two  aides-de-camp  killed  at  his  side,  and,  find- 
ing himself  alone  with  five  men,  slew  twelve  foes  with  his 
own  hand,  and  only  escaped  by  a  miracle.  Russia,  however, 
was  not  going  to  allow  herself  to  be  conquered  so  easily.  He 
then  found  himself  on  the  road  to  Moscow,  which  Napoleon  was 
afterwards  to  take,  300  miles  from  the  Russian  capital.  It  was 
already  the  end  of  September  ;  winter  approached,  and  showed 
signs  of  being  severe ;  provisions  were  scarce,  and  Charles 
was  advised  to  retreat  from  Mstislaf  to  Mohilef,  and  there 
await  Lewenhaupt,  who  would  bring  up  18,000  men  and  plenty 
of  food.  Charles,  however,  allowed  himself  to  be  tempted 
by  the  offers  of  Mazeppa,  who  promised  him  a  reinforcement 
of  30,000  Cossacks,  and  by  the  hopes  of  abundance  in  the 
fertile  plains  of  the  south.  Besides,  as  he  confessed  to  Gyl- 
lenkruk,  who  was  horrified  by  this  confidence,  "he  had  no 
plan. "  So  he  turned  towards  the  Ukraine.  Then  the  Tzar  and 
his  generals  hung  like  wolves  on  the  flank  of  Lewenhaupt,  who 
found  himself  isolated  and  without  support  on  the  plains  of  the 


^  HISTOkY  OP  RUSSIA. 

Dnieper.  At  Lesna,  on  the  banks  of  the  Soja,  they  fought  a 
battle  which  raged  for  three  days,  and  where,  this  time,  the 
numbers  were  equal.  The  Swedish  general  lost  12,000  out  of 
his  18,000  men,  and  was  forced  to  spike  his  cannon  and  burn  a 
thousand  wagon-loads  of  provisions,  besides  the  6000  captured 
Dy  the  Russians.  All  the  convoy,  which  was  the  only  hope  of 
the  royal  army,  was  destroyed.  Lewenhaupt  only  brought  to 
Charles  what  remained  from  the  disaster. 

By  this  time  winter  had  come,  the  terrible  winter  of  1709.  In 
the  forced  marches  which  the  King  of  Sweden  had  the  impru- 
ence  to  impose  on  his  army,  the  men,  who  lacked  winter  cloth- 
ing, and  the  starving  horses  perished  by  thousands  ;  the  guns 
vvere  thrown  into  the  river  for  want  of  beasts  to  transport  them. 
The  very  crows  fell  dead  from  the  cold,  and  the  doctors  were 
<mployed  in  amputating  frost-bitten  hands  and  feet.  Charles 
continued  his  march,  ascertained  the  distance  which  separated 
him  from  Asia,  and  consoled  his  half-naked  soldiers  with  the 
assurance  that  he  would  conduct  them  so  far  that  they  could 
only  receive  news  of  Sweden  three  times  a  year.  A  soldier 
showed  him  the  horrible  mouldy  bread  on  which  the  army  was 
fed.  Charles  took  it,  tasted  it,  and  observed  quietly,  "  It  is  not 
good,  but  it  may  be  eaten." 

The  arrival  of  spring  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  sufferings  of 
the  army.  Prince  Menchikof  sacked  Batourine,  the  capital  of 
the  fugitive  hetman,  and  razed  the  sttcha  of  the  Zaporogues 
(May  1709).  Charles  reached  the  walls  of  Pultowa,  and  halted 
there,  to  wait  for  the  Turks  and  the  Poles  of  Leszczinski,  who 
were  never  to  arrive.  While  awaiting  them  he  determined  to 
attack  Pultowa,  "for  a  diversion."  It  was  in  vain  that  the  use- 
lessness  of  the  enterprise  and  the  impossibility  of  success  were 
represented  to  him.  What  was  the  good  of  wasting  powder  r.ncl 
the  munitions  of  war,  which  had  now  become  rare  in  the  camp  ? 
"  Yes,"  replied  the  Iron-head  to  Gyllenkruk,  "  we  are  obliged 
to  do  extraordinary  things  to  gain  honor  and  glory  ;  '*  and  to 
Piper,  "An  angel  would  have  to  descend  from  heaven  with 
orders  for  me  to  go  before  I  stirred  from  this  place."  When  had 
his  favorite  heroes  of  the  Eddas  ever  been  seen  to  retreat  ?  He 
made  Gutman,  his  servant,  recite  the  saga  of  Rolf  Ericsen,  who 
"  vanquished  the  Russian  sorcerer  in  the  isle  of  Retusari,  and 
conquered  all  Russia  and  Denmark,  so  that  his  name  is 
honored  and  glorified  throughout  the  North."  Menchikof  then 
came  up  and  showed  that  he  had  profited  by  the  lessons  of  the 
Swedes  by  making  a  feint,  which  enabled  him  to  throw  som« 
Troops  into  Pultowa. 

The  Tzar  arrived  (4th — i5th  June,  1709)  with  60,000  men, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  Jt) 

whom  he  covered  by  an  entrenchment  raised  during  a  single 
night.  Charles's  army  was  now  reduced  to  29,000  men,  who 
lacked  everything,  suffered  as  much  from  the  extreme  heat  as 
they  had  formerly  done  from  the  extreme  cold,  and  were 
exhausted  by  suffering  and  privations.  He  had  only  four  field- 
pieces  against  the  seventy-two  guns  of  the  Tzar.  In  one  of  his 
nightly  sallies,  when  he  was  trying  to  harass  the  enemy's  van- 
guard, Charles  received  a  wound  in  his  heel  which  necessitated 
a  cruel  operation,  and  on  the  day  of  the  famous  battle  (2yth 
June — 8th  July,  1709)  he  had  to  be  carried  in  a  litter.  Tht 
generals  on  whom  the  responsibility  of  command  fell  could  not 
agree  ;  he  himself  thwarted  the  dispositions  of  Rehnskold,  who 
was  nominated  general-in-chief. 

Peter  had  confided  the  centre  to  Cheremetief,  the  right  to 
Renne,  the  left  to  Menchikof,  and  the  artillery  to  Bruce.  He 
then  harangued  his  troops.  "  The  moment  is  come,"  he  said  ; 
"  the  fate  of  our  country  is  to  be  decided.  You  must  not  think 
'  it  is  for  Peter  we  fight ' ;  no,  it  is  for  the  empire  confided  to 
Peter,  it  is  for  the  country,  it  is  for  our  orthodox  faith,  for  the 
Church  of  God.  As  for  Peter,  know  that  he  is  ready  to  sacrifice 
his  life  for  a  prosperous  and  glorious  future  for  Russia." 

The  Swedes  took  the  offensive.  "  All  those  who  have  served 
in  the  Swedish  army,"  says  Voltaire,  "  know  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  resist  their  first  shock."  They  saw  in  victory  an  end  of 
their  sufferings,  and  fought  like  the  wild  Bersarkers  of  the 
legends.  They  charged  with  fury  the  cavalry  placed  at  the 
right  of  the  Russians,  wounded  Renne,  who  had  to  yield  his 
command  to  Bauer,  and  took  two  redoubts.  Peter,  in  trying 
to  rally  his  cavalry,  received  a  ball  in  his  hat.  Menchikof  had 
three  horses  killed  under  him. 

Unluckily  for  Charles,  the  corps  of  Kreutz,  which  ought  to 
have  made  a  detour  and  fallen  on  the  enemy's  flank,  was  lost, 
and  never  appeared.  The  superior  artillery  of  the  Russians  ar- 
rested the  charge  of  the  Swedes.  Menchikof  marched  boldly 
on  their  rear,  and  thus  separated  the  body  of  the  army  from  the 
camp  under  Pultowa,  which  he  finally  reached.  The  Russian 
fire  on  the  front  of  the  Swedes  was  so  violent  that  the  horses 
harnessed  to  Charles's  litter  were  killed  ;  his  drabans  then  took 
it  in  turns  to  carry  him,  but  twenty-one  out  of  the  twenty-four 
were  left  where  they  fell.  The  Russian  cavalry  rallied,  and  the 
Russian  infantry  which  was  now  put  in  motion  broke  the  Swed- 
ish line.  Attacked  in  front  by  Peter,  and  in  the  rear  by  Men- 
chikof, the  Swedes  were  speedily  thrown  into  disorder.  They 
fled,  and  Charles  was  placed  on  horseback  by  his  guards,  and 
obliged  to  go  with  the  stream.  He  hardly  escaped  being  taken. 


30  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Accompanied  by  Mazeppa  and  by  the  Pole  Poniatowski,  he  ar- 
rived after  two  days'  flight  at  the  banks  of  the  celebrated  Borys- 
thenes,  which  in  the  tenth  century  so  many  Scandinavian  fleets 
had  sailed  down.  He  crossed  the  Dnieper  in  a  little  boat  with 
Mazeppa,  and  continued  his  route  to  Otchakof.  It  was  thus 
that  "  the  last  of  the  Varangians  and  the  last  of  the  free  Cos- 
sacks entered  the  land  of  the  Sultan  as  fugitives."  The  Swedes 
had  lost  about  10,000  men — 3000  were  taken  on  the  field  of 
battle ;  the  bulk  of  the  army,  which  had  continued,  under  Lew- 
enhaupt,  its  march  to  the  Dnieper,  had  to  pause  on  its  banks. 
Menchikof,  sent  there  hastily  by  the  Tzar,  obliged  16,000  more 
Swedes  to  lay  down  their  arms  (Capitulation  of  Perevolotchna). 
Of  the  magnificent  army  which  at  Leipzig  had  made  all  Europe 
tremble,  not  a  battalion  escaped. 

The  evening  after  the  bajtle  the  Tzar  received  in  his  tent 
those  Swedish  generals  whose  names  had  been  cited  among  the 
first  captains  of  the  age.  He  treated  these  glorious  prisoners 
courteously  and  drank  to  the  health  of  "his  masters  in  the  art 
of  war."  He  accepted  the  grades  of  general  and  vice-admiral, 
the  Russian  churches  resounded  with  songs  of  triumph,  the 
Tzar  was  exalted  in  eloquent  sermons,  and  Kourbatof  wrote  to 
him,  "  Rejoice,  because  obedient  to  the  Word  of  God  thou  hast 
exposed  thy  life  for  thy  servants ;  rejoice,  because  thou  hast 
forged  thine  army  by  thy  courage,  as  men  heat  gold  in  a  fur- 
nace ;  rejoice,  because  thou  mayest  hope  for  the  realization  of 
thy  dearest  wish — the  domination  of  the  sea  of  the  Varangians." 
Peter  after  Pultowa,  like  Charles  after  Narva,  tasted  in  his  turn 
the  sweets  of  glory.  But  the  success  of  Pultowa  differed  from 
the  success  of  Narva.  Narva  had  been  only  a  victory  ;  Pultowa 
marks  a  new  era  in  universal  history.  Sweden,  which  under 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  again  under  Charles  XL,  had  played 
in  Europe  the  part  of  a  great  Power,  which  had  even  obtained 
an  importance  out  of  all  proportion  with  her  actual  resources, 
was  suddenly  relegated  to  the  third  rank  among  States.  The 
place  she  had  left  vacant  in  the  North  was  taken  by  a  nation 
which  had  at  its  disposal  far  larger  resources,  besides  a  greater 
power  of  expansion.  The  shores  of  the  Baltic  were  to  pass  into 
its  hands.  Already  Russia  declared  herself,  not  only  a  Power 
of  the  North,  but  a  Power  of  Europe.  Muscovy,  which,  had 
been  formerly  held  in  check  by  little  Sweden,  by  anarchic  Po- 
land, by  decrepit  Turkey,  or  even  by  the  Khan  of  the  Tatars, 
was  destined  to  become  formidable  to  France,  to  England,  and 
to  the  house  of  Austria.  With  Russia,  the  Slav  race,  so  long 
humiliated,  made  a  triumphal  entry  into  the  stage  of  the  world. 
Finally,  Pultowa  was  not  only  a  victory,  it  was  the  proof  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSJA.  sx 

regeneration  of  Russia  ;  it  justified  the  Tzar,  his  foreign  auxilia- 
ries, his  regular  army ;  it  left  his  hands  free  to  reform,  gave  to 
the  empire  a  new  capital,  and  promised  to  Europe  a  new  civilized 
people.  "  Now,"  he  wrote  to  Apraxine  from  the  field  of  battle, 
"  the  first  stone  for  the  foundation  of  St.  Petersburg  is  laid,  by 
the  help  of  God." 


a*  tus  TOR  y  OF  R  USSIA. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PETER  THE  GREAT:  THE  REFORMS. 

General  character  of  the  reforms;  the  instruments  of  Peter  the  Great— Social 
reforms  :  the  tchin  ;  emancipation  of  women — Administrative,  military, 
and  ecclesiastical  reforms — Economic  reforms:  manufactures — Utilitarian 
character  of  the  plans  of  education — Foundation  of  St.  Petersburg  (1703). 


GENERAL   CHARACTER    OF     THE    REFORMS  :   THE     COLLABORATORS 
OF   PETER   THE  GREAT. 

1.  THE  way  for  the  reforms  of  Peter  the  Great  had  been 
made  smooth  by  those  of  Alexis,  and  by  all  the  movement  of  the 
1 7th  century.     Under  the  Ivans,  under  Boris,  under  the  early 
Romanofs,  Russia  had  been  gradually  thrown  open  to  strangers. 
It  by  no  means  followed  that  the  whole  country  was  disposed  to 
follow  Peter  the  Great  in  his  innovations.     Opposed  to  him 
were  those  who  had  refused  to  accept  the  reforms  of  Nicon,  and 
many  who,  while  accepting  them,  had  no  idea  of  going  further. 
The  raskols,  and  certain  members  of  the  State  Church,  were  his 
enemies  ;  the  Russian  people  were  more  averse  to  innovation 
than  any  in  Europe.     "  Novelty  brings  calamity,"  says  a  prov- 
erb ;  the  nobles  were  also  hostile  to  everything  that  could  con- 
tribute to  autocratic  centralization. 

Peter  the  Great  found,  then,  a  steady  resistance  among  the 
majority  of  the  nation  ;  to  conquer  it,  where  persuasion  and  his 
own  example  did  not  suffice,  he  employed  the  energy  of  his 
semi-barbarous  character,  and  the  terrible  resources  of  absolute 
power.  By  main  force  he  dragged  the  nation  in  the  path  of 
progress  ;  at  every  page  of  his  reforming  edicts  we  find  the  knoul 
and  the  penalty  of  death. 

2.  These   innovations  effected  by   the  prince  were  not  in- 
tended to  prejudice  his  own   authority;  nay,  they  had,  we  may 
say,  for  their  sole  end  the  transformation  of  a  prrriarchal  into  a 
modern  despotism.     The  force  of  the  government  was  to  be  in- 
creased without  any  essential  change  in  its  character.  The  Tzar 
remained  as  much  an  autocrat  as  Ivan  the  Terrible,  but  his  au- 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  33 

thority  was  to  be  exercised  by  means  of  more  perfect  instru. 
ments,  and  by  agents  subjected  to  the  disciplines  and  rules  of 
the  West. 

3.  The  mass  of  the  people  still  remained  serfs  and  attached 
*o  the  soil, — twenty  millions  of  human  beings  were  the  property 
of  the  territorial  oligarchy ;  but,  notwithstanding,   the   Russian 
nation  was  to  be  furnished  with  the  instruments  necessary  to 
enter  into  regular  communications  with  the  free  people  of  Eu- 
rope.    Russia  was  to  seem  a  state  centralized  and  civilized  like 
the  France  of  Louis  XIV.,  yet  the  patriarchal  and  Asiatic  prin- 
ciple, which,  confounding  paternal  and  territorial  authority  with 
political  rule,  presided   over  the  relations  of  the  father  with  his 
children,  of  the  Tzar  with  his  subjects,  of  the  proprietor  with 
his  slaves,   of  the  superior   with  his  inferiors,   was  still  unim- 
paired.    On  a  social  organization,  which  seemed  to  date  from 
the   nth  century,  were  to  rise  diplomacy,  a  regular   army,  a 
bureaucratic  hierarchy,   schools  and  academies,  and  the  trade 
and  manufactures  of  a  luxurious  civilization. 

4.  A  fourth  characteristic  of  the  reforms  of  Peter  the  Great 
was  that,  in  order  completely  to  transport  European  civilization 
into  Russia,  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  everything  from  strangers, 
without  always  having  the  time  to  choose   the   institutions  best 
suited  to  his  purpose.    What  was  meant  by  civilization  was  then, 
and  is  still,  the  civilization  of  the  West ;  therefore  Peter  sur- 
rounded himself  with  Dutchmen,  Englishmen,  Scotchmen,  Swiss, 
and  Germans.     For  the  same   reason  he  imported  in  the  mass 
manufactures,  trades,  and  artisans  ;  had  Western  books  trans- 
lated, and  sprinkled  his  administrative  terminology  with  words 
borrowed  from  Sweden  or  Germany.     That  he  might  introduce 
Western  ideas,  he  made  himself  a  Dutchman   and  a  German, 
forbade  his  subjects  to  wear  the  long  garments  peculiar  to  Asia, 
and  wished  them  to  adopt  the  short  trousers,  the  cocked  hat, 
and  buckled  shoes  of  Europe. 

5.  There  was  nothing  servile,  however,  in  this  imitation  ;  it 
was  the  method  of  a  man  of  genius,  who  wished  to  outstrip  time 
and  hasten  reforms  by  a  hundred  years.     He  intended  that  the 
Russians  should  be  the  pupils  and'  not  the  subjects  of  the  Ger- 
mans ;  and  as  under  his  German  dress  he  remained  a  Russian 
patriot,  he  reserved  the  first  posts  in  the  army  and  State  for  the 
natives.     No  doubt  we  may  cite  among  his  fellow-workers  his 
admiral,    the    Genevese   Lefort  ;    the   Scotch   Gordon,   created 

ral  ;  Bruce,  a  Scotchman  born  in  Westphalia,  who  organ- 
ized the  artillery,  directed  the  diplomacy,  and  after  the  publica- 
tion of  the  almanack  passed  with  the  people  for  a  sorcerer  and 
a  magician.  Ostermann,  son  of  a  pastor  in  the  county  of  La 


,4  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Marck,  was  a  skilful  negotiator,  of  whom  Peter  said  that  ha 
never  committed  faults  in  diplomacy  ;  Munich,  a  good  engineer, 
who  later  became  field-marshal,  and  meantime  constructed  for 
Peter  the  canal  of  the  Ladoga,  was  a  native  of  the  county  of 
Oldenburg.  But  among  the  chosen  companions  of  Peter  the 
Great,  in  the  nest  of  "  Peter's  eaglets,"  as  Pouchki'ae  calls  them, 
we  find  many  Russians,  and  in  the  highest  post  among  these 
men  Menchikof,  a  "  new  man,"  who  rose  from  nothing  to  be- 
come prince,  field-marshal,  admiral,  and  conqueror,  but  whose 
.  probity  did  not  stand  as  high  as  his  talents.  Another  was  Boris 
Cheremetief,  a  great  noble,  whose  name  and  exploits  are  still 
preserved  in  the  songs  of  the  people,  who  travelled  in  the  West 
before  Peter,  and  came  back  to  Russia  in  German  clothes,  a 
man  as  honest  as  he  was  brave,  first  in  date  of  the  Russian 
marshals.  There  were  also  Dmitri  Mikhailovitch,  head  of  the 
princely  family  of  Galitsyne,  who  devoted  himself  to  the  re- 
former, though  detesting  "  new  men " ;  his  brother  Michael 
Galitsyne,  who  when  he  became  field-marshal  continued  to  show 
to  his  elder  brother  an  old-fashioned  deference,  and  refused  to 
sit  at  the  same  table  with  him  ;  Jacob  Dolgorouki,  who  could 
brave  the  wrath  of  Peter  and  force  him  to  hear  the  truth ;  Golo- 
vine,  high  admiral  and  diplomatist ;  Apraxine,  admiral,  con- 
queror on  the  Swedish  seas ;  the  diplomatist  Golvokine,  grand 
chancellor ;  Chafirof,  vice-chancellor  of  the  empire  ;  Gregory 
and  Vassili  Dolgorouki ;  Andrew  Matve'ef  ;  the  Kourakines, 
ambassadors,  father  and  son,  to  the  courts  of  the  West.  Not  to 
be  forgotten  are  the  intelligent  and  quick-tempered  Jagoujinski, 
afterwards  procurator-general  of  the  senate  ;  Tolstoi,  an  accom- 
plice of  Sophia,  pardoned  on  account  of  his  high  intelligence, 
an  excellent  negotiator  and  administrator  of  justice  ;  Romoda- 
novski,  the  cruel  director  of  the  State  inquisition  ;  Kourbatof, 
the  financier  of  the  new  regime,  besides  three  Little  Russians, 
three  ecclesiastics,  three  brilliant  pupils  of  the  Academy  of  Kief, 
— Saint  Dmitri  of  Rostof,  Stephen  Javorski,  and  Feofane  Pro- 
kopovitch,  to  whom  we  must  add  the  bishop  Feofilakt  Lopatinski. 
Such  were  the  Russian  men  of  the  vrtmia  of  Peter  the  Great. 


SOCIAL   REFORMS  :   THE   "  TCHIN  ;  "  EMANCIPATION    OF   WOMEN. 

The  most  numerous  class  in  Russia  was  that  on  which  the  re- 
form made  the  State  press  with  a  i_  ily  increasing  weight,  and 
which  paid  by  the  sweat  of  its  brow  for  the  expenses  of  regener- 
ation— the  rural  population.  It  was  subdivided  into  odnovortst, 
peasants  with  a  free  or  even  noble  origin  ;  into  farmers  on  the 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  35 

metayer  system  (polavinkt),  who  cultivated  the  land  of  the  nobles 
and  handed  over  to  them  half  the  products,  but  who  had  re- 
tained their  personal  liberty;  into  peasants  of  the  crown,  of  the 
monasteries  and  of  proprietors,  all  attached  to  the  soil.  The 
edicts  of  Peter  confounded  all  these  classes,  and  subjected  all 
the  cultivators  to  a  capitation  tax  and  a  fixed  residence  :  this 
was  equivalent  to  serfage.  The  reasons  which  had  caused  Go- 
dounof  to  legalize  their  attachment  to  the  soil  still  subsisted  in 
all  their  original  force,  and  were  likely  to  cause  severe  legisla- 
tion. The  tax  on  ihejires  became  the  tax  upon  heads,  and  the 
proprietors,  by  a  considerable  augmentation  of  their  seignorial 
authority,  were  intrusted  with  its  collection.  Peter  the  Great 
merely  promulgated  an  edict  which  sought  to  regulate  the  sale 
of  slaves.  "  If  the  sale  cannot  be  abolished  completely,  slaves 
must  be  sold  by  families  without  separating  husbands  from  wives, 
parents  from  children,  and  no  longer  like  head  of  cattle,  a  thing 
unheard  of  in  the  whole  world."  This  act,  at  least  in  its  philan- 
thropic clauses,  never  received  any  sanction.  Anne  Ivanovna 
later  legalized  this  shameful  abuse  by  collecting  her  dues  on  the 
sale  of  slaves. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  towns  were  divided  into  three  catego- 
ries. To  the  first  belonged  bankers,  manufacturers,  rich  traders, 
physicians,  chemists,  capitalists,  merchants,  jewellers,  workers  in 
metal,  and  artists ;  to  the  second,  small  traders  and  masters  of 
crafts  ;  to  the  third,  the  lowest  class  of  journeymen  and  artisans. 
The  first  two  of  these  divisions  took  the  German  name  of  "  first 
and  second  guilds,"  and  were  invested  with  certain  privileges. 

Foreigners  obtained  the  right  of  freely  engaging  in  trade  or 
commerce,  of  acquiring  real  property,  of  intermarrying  with  Russi- 
ans, of  entering  the  service  of  the  State,  of  practising  their  respec- 
tive modes  of  worship,  and  of  leaving  the  empire  at  will,  on  con- 
dition of  giving  up  the  tenth  of  their  goods. 

The  Russian  nobility  assumed  the  character  of  a  nobility 
based  on  service.  The  two  ideas  of  nobility  and  the  service  of  the 
Tzar  became  correlative.  Every  noble  was  obliged  to  serve, 
and  whoever,  Russian  or  foreigner,  entered  the  service  of  the 
State  became  a  gentleman.  Peter  the  Great  was  as  inexorable  as 
Louvois  in  exacting  service  from  the  aristocracy  :  every  dvorianine 
was  at  the  disposal  of  the  government  till  his  death.  Thus  was 
the  distinction  finally  effaced  between  the  two  kinds  of  lands 
possessed  by  the  nobles,  the  pomiestia,  or  fiefs,  and  the  votchiny 
or  allods  ;  both  were  henceforward  only  held  as  fiefs  of  the  Tzar, 
on  condition  ot  military  service.  Up  to  this  time  the  civil, 
military,  naval,  and  ecclesiastical  hierarchies  had  no  common 
standard.  Peter  established  ia  e:\ch  hierarchy  corresponding 


26  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

grades,  confounded  hereditary  nobility  and  the  nobility  of 
service,  and  distributed  the  officers  of  the  State  among  the 
fourteen  degrees  of  the  Tchin.  These  extended,  in  the  civil 
order,  from  the  registrar  of  the  college  to  the  chancellor  of  the 
empire ;  in  the  military  order,  from  the  cornet  or  ensign  to  the 
field-marshal ;  in  the  fleet,  from  the  standard-bearer  to  the  high 
admiral ;  in  the  court,  from  the  tafeldecker  to  the  grand  chamber- 
lain ;  in  the  Church,  from  the  deacon  to  the  metropolitan. 

Peter  borrowed  from  German  legislation  a  settlement  wholly 
antipathetic  to  the  Russian  laws,  which  insisted  on  equality  in 
the  division  of  property.  He  introduced  the  custom  ("  Majorat  ") 
by  which  the  property  passed  to  the  heir  with  the  title.  In  virtue 
of  this  new  law,  the  land  of  a  noble  belonged  exclusively  to  the 
eldest,  or  to  one  of  the  sons  nominated  heir  by  his  father. 
Peter  saw  in  this  practice,  which  was  to  survive  him  but  a  short 
time,  the  following  advantages  :  the  noble  families  could  no  longer 
ruin  and  impoverish  themselves  by  repeated  partitions  of  the 
property;  the  peasants  would  be  happier  under  the  rule  of  one 
rich  proprietor  than  under  that  of  his  needy  co-heirs ;  the 
younger  branches,  no  longer  reckoning  on  the  paternal  estate, 
would  be  obliged  to  seek  their  livelihood  in  commerce  or  in  the 
service  of  the  State,  "  idleness  being  the  mother  of  all  the  vices." 
The  younger  members  of  the  nobility  were  besides  only  to  be 
admitted  into  the  service  under  certain  conditions  of  elementary 
or  special  instruction,  and  technical  preparation.  Even  marriage 
was  forbidden  to  an  uneducated  gentleman.  The  foundation  of 
the  orders  of  Saint  Andrew  and  Saint  Catherine  finished  the 
destruction  of  the  barrier  of  caste. 

The  seclusion  of  women  was  an  Asiatic  custom  with  which 
Peter  waged  fierce  war.  He  would  abolish  the  terem  locked 
"with  twenty-seven  bolts,"  the  fata  over  the  face,  and  litters  with 
closed  curtains.  Six  weeks  before  every  marriage  the  betrothal 
was  to  take  place,  and  from  that  moment  the  bridal  pair  might 
freely  see  each  other,  and  might  even  break  off  the  engagement 
if  they  were  not  satisfied  on  further  acquaintance.  Fathers  and 
guardians  had  to  swear  that  they  would  not  marry  young  people 
against  their  will  ;  and  masters,  that  they  would  not  force  the 
consent  of  their  slaves.  Midwives  were  forbidden  to  put  to  death 
misshapen  infants.  Peter  the  Great  took  wives  and  daughters 
from  their  domestic  cloisters,  and  brought  them  into  the  life  of 
European  salons.  He  instituted  assemblies,  free  meetings  which 
might  take  place  in  any  house,  where  men  and  women  appeared 
in  European  dress,  where  they  partook  together  of  refreshn 
danced  Polish  or  German  dances,  and  where  French  or  Swedish 
prisoners  served  as  teachers  of  manners.  The  assemblies 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  37 

of  Peter  the  Great  were  at  first  only  a  parody  of  those  of 
Versailles.  Bergholtz  complains  that  men  allowed  themselves 
to  smoke  in  the  presence  of  the  ladies ;  that  the  ladies  sat  apart, 
embarrassed,  dressed  up,  silently  watching  each  other ;  that  the 
drunken  nobles  were  often  carried  away  by  their  drunken 
lackeys.  Did  not  Peter  himself  institute  as  a  punishment  for 
any  breach  of  good  behavior  the  emptying  of  the  "  great  eagle," 
a  huge  goblet  filled  with  brandy  ?  To  amuse  the  new  society 
and  give  life  to  his  capital,  he  invented  masquerades,  cavalcades 
of  disguised  lords  and  ladies,  the  feast  of  fools,  the  Great  Con- 
clave, presided  over  by  the  "  Prince-pope "  surrounded  by 
"  Cardinals  "  dead  drunk.  He  forbade  the  use  of  servile  dimin- 
utives and  prostrations  before  the  Tzar,  and  by  blows  with  his 
cane  he  taught  his  nobility  to  feel  themselves  free  men  and 
Europeans. 


ADMINISTRATIVE,    MILITARY,   AND    ECCLESIASTIC/,      MiiFORMS. 

The  ancient  douma  of  the  boyards  was  replaced  by  the 
"  directing  senate,"  composed  of  nine  members,  which  at  first 
never  acted  save  in  the  absence  of  the  prince.  The  number  was 
afterwards  increased,  and  it  became  permanently  both  the  great 
council  of  government,  high  committee  of  finance,  and  supreme 
court  of  justice.  Peter  commanded  the  Senate  to  be  obeyed 
like  himself,  but  on  all  important  questions  the  Senate  made  its 
report  to  the  Tzar.  He  appointed,  in  connection  with  this  body, 
a  procurator-general,  charged  with  superintending  the  execution 
of  the  laws.  Peter  often  reproached  the  new  senators  with  con- 
ducting affairs  "  after  the  old  fashion,"  with  dragging  out 
deliberations,  and  taking  bribes.  He  had  to  make  a  new  rule, 
in  virtue  of  which  senators  were  forbidden,  under  different 
penalties,  to  cry  out,  to  beat  each  other,  or  to  call  each  other 
thieves. 

Peter  suppressed  the  ancient  Muscovite prikazes.  He  created 
instead,  by  the  advice  of  Leibnitz,  and  after  the  German  model, 
"  colleges  "  of  government  similar  to  those  by  which  the  regent 
Orleans  replaced  the  ministers  of  Louis  XIV.  There  were  ten 
of  these  colleges :  those  of  foreign  affairs,  war,  admiralty, 
treasury,  revenue,  justice,  property  of  the  nobles,  manufactures, 
mines,  and  commerce.  A  collection  of  Swedish  edicts  was  trans- 
lated for  their  use.  As  they  had  few  capable  men,  strangers 
were  employed,  in  the  proportion  of  one  for  each  college,  and 
often  they  were  obliged  to  resort  to  interpreters  to  ena.ble  them 
to  understand  each  other.  Captive  Swedish  officers  and  dra- 


2g  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

goons  might  be  seen  administering  the  empire.  Peter  sent  for 
Slavs  from  Bohemia,  Silesia,  and  Moravia,  as  being  quicker  at 
learning  the  Russian  language.  He  despatched  forty  young 
men  to  Konigsberg  to  study  the  elements  of  administration  and 
finance.  This  autocrat  permitted  his  colleges  to  elect  their 
presidents.  In  1722  the  office  of  president  of  the  college  of 
justice  being  vacant,  he  assembled  at  the  palace  the  senators, 
generals,  officers,  and  a  hundred  members  of  the  nobility,  and 
after  having  taken  their  oaths  made  them  proceed  to  the  election 
in  his  presence. 

Before  Peter  the  Great  the  provincial  governments  were  in 
Viopeless  confusion.  The  governors  of  provinces  and  the  voTe- 
vodes  directed  at  once  war,  finance,  justice,  and  superinten- 
dence of  buildings.  Peter  divided  the  empire  into  twelve 
governments,  subdivided  into  forty-three  provinces ;  the  former 
were  administered  by  governors  and  vice-governors,  the  latter  by 
voTevodes.  These  representatives  of  the  sovereign  were  as- 
sisted by  a  council,  or  landrath,  elected  by  the  nobles.  The 
towns  received  an  autonomous  and  municipal  government ;  the 
citizens  elected  burgomasters,  and  these  a  president  or  mayor. 
The  burgomasters  and  the  mayor  formed  the  rathhaus  or  cor- 
poration of  the  city.  In  special  cases  the  citizens  of  the  first 
and  second  guilds  were  summoned  to  the  council.  All  the  mag- 
istrates of  Russia  were  subject  to  a  chief  magistrate,  chosen 
from  the  municipal  council  of  St.  Petersburg,  of  which  one-half 
was  composed  of  foreigners.  The  chief  magistrate  watched 
over  the  prosperity  of  commerce  and  manufactures,  sanctioned 
the  sentences  of  death  pronounced  by  the  corporations  of  the 
province,  decided  disputes  between  the  rathhaus  and  the  citi- 
zens, confirmed  the  municipal  elections,  and  sent  in  reports  ta 
the  Senate.  He  was  nominated  by  the  Tzar.  The  towns  had 
their  landmiliz.  The  patriarchal  and  socialist  constitution  of 
the  rural  communes  was  not  touched. 

Ignorance,  inexperience,  and  corruption  were  the  vices  of 
the  new  administration.  The  functionaries  had  always  present 
to  their  minds  the  advice  of  the  ancient  Tzars — "  Look  to  thy 
office,  and  indemnify  thyself."  Peter  attacked  with  fury  this 
deeply-rooted  abuse,  practised  by  the  chief  personages  of  the 
the  empire,  headed  by  Menchikof.  The  exactions  of  the 
governor  provoked  a  revolt  at  Astrakhan.  Another  governor 
of  the  same  city  was  condemned  by  Peter  to  be  torn  by  pigs. 
Gagarine,  governor  of  Siberia,  and  Lapoukhine,  of  Revel,  were 
decapitated.  Chafirof  was  pardoned  on  the  scaffold.  Nes- 
terof,  after  having  made  the  denunciation  of  thieves  a  profes- 
sion, was  himself  broken  on  the  wheel  as  a  thief.  One  day 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  2g 

Peter  made  one  of  his  nobles  show  him  the  accounts  of  his  ex- 
penditure, and  proved  to  him  that  he  himself  robbed  the  State, 
and  was  robbed  in  turn  by  his  steward.  The  Tzar  beat  him  with 
his  own  hand,  and  said  to  him,  "  Now  go  and  find  your  steward, 
and  settle  accounts  with  him."  It  is  said  that  Menchikof  him- 
self was  not  safe  against  the  imperial  correction.  The  recruits 
were  the  chief  sufferers  from  their  extortions.  These  unhappy 
men,  who  were  torn  from  their  native  villages  and  chained  like 
galley-slaves,  were  thrown  into  prison  on  arriving  at  their  halt- 
ing-place, were  fed  upon  mushrooms  which  their  captains  made 
them  graze  on  in  the  forests,  and  naturally  died  by  hundreds 
before  reaching  their  regiments.  Peter  was  obliged  to  invite 
his  subjects  to  denounce  the  thieves  by  promising  to  give  the 
accusers  the  tchin  and  the  fortune  of  the  accused. 

The  code  of  Alexis  Mikhai'lovitch  was  no  longer  suitable  to 
the  Russia  of  Peter  the  Great.  The  latter  wished  to  adopt  the 
Swedish  code,  and  to  modify  what  was  inapplicable  in  it  to  the 
Russians  by  means  of  ancient  Muscovite  laws,  or  new  legisla- 
tion. This  project  could  not  be  realized.  In  criminal  cases  he 
still  employed  torture,  though  with  mitigations.  He  replaced 
the  old  pravege  by  labor  in  the  public  works.  He  introduced  a 
written  procedure  in  the  tribunals,  which  had  all  the  faults  of  an 
inquisitorial  procedure.  Justice  was  administered  in  various  dis- 
tricts, now  by  tribunals  properly  so  called,  now  by  the  voievodes, 
the  landrichter,  or  by  the  magistrates  of  the  towns.  At  Peters- 
burg sat  the  supreme  court,  consisting  of  delegates  from  the 
Senate. 

The  Petersburg  police  was  controlled  by  the  general  politz- 
meisfer,  that  of  Moscow  by  the  ober-politz-meister.  In  the  large 
towns  there  was  an  inspector  of  police  for  every  ten  houses  ;  all 
the  citizens  over  twenty  years  of  age  had  to  enter  the  service  of  the 
watch.  The  governors,  voievodes,  commissioners  of  the  coun- 
try, and  all  who  held  authority  were  responsible  for  the  public 
safety.  The  Russia  of  that  date  needed  strict  superintendence. 
Moscow,  whose  streets  were  common  sewers,  began  to  be  paved 
with  wood.  Servants,  under  penalty  of  fines,  stripes,  or  the 
knout,  were  enjoined  to  keep  the  house-front  clean.  Beggars 
multiplied  ;  well-to-do  citizens  were  not  ashamed  to  ask  for 
alms,  or  to  send  their  children  to  beg  in  the  streets  ;  they  were 
in  future  to  be  arrested  and  taken  before  the  police.  People 
who  pretended  to  be  in  the  public  service  and  were  furnished 
with  false  credentials,  and  imposed  on  the  credulity  of  the  peas- 
ants, were  sought  out  and  punished.  Hospitals  were  established 
for  the  sick,  workhouses  for  vagabonds,  mad  people  were  housed 
together,  coiners  and  forgers  were  rigorously  proceeded  against, 


30  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Most  difficult  of  all  to  deal  with  were  the  brigands.  Brigand- 
age was  habitual  in  Russia,  and  was  favored  by  the  vast  and 
vacant  wilds,  the  deep  forests,  the  passive  temper  of  the  peas- 
ants, who  did  not  dare  to  arm  for  the  defence  of  one  of  their 
members,  and  would  allow  him  to  be  despoiled  and  tortured  in 
presence  of  the  whole  village  by  a  few  bandits.  The  brigands 
formed  themselves  into  great  troops,  armed  and  disciplined  in 
the  European  manner,  furnished  with  cavalry  and  artillery ;  they 
pillaged  the  Crown  taverns,  burned  the  villages,  invad'ed  the 
dwellings  of  the  nobles,  and  took  the  small  towns  by  assault. 
Their  recruits  were  Cossacks,  fugitive  peasants,  soldiers  who 
had  deserted,  unfrocked  priests ;  gentlemen  and  even  noble 
ladies  were  seen  riding  at  their  head,  thus  augmenting  their 
revenues  by  robbery.  Battles  had  to  be  fought  before  security 
could  be  restored. 

The  open  or  sullen  opposition  his  reforms  met  with  caused 
Peter  to  create  a  State  inquisition.  This  opposition  came  to 
light  on  all  occasions.  The  ladies  of  honor,  who  wore  the 
European  costume  when  the  Tzar  was  present,  threw  it  off  with 
contempt  when  he  went  away.  Insulting  placards  were  affixed 
to  the  walls.  Even  in  the  bosom  of  his  own  family  the  Tzar 
met  with  hostilty.  He  instituted  the  bureau  of  reformation 
(Pre'obrajenskoe'  prikaz),  or  secret  court  of  police,  which  has  left  a 
terrible  memory.  To  ruin  his  enemy  a  man  had  only  to  raise 
the  cry  of  slovo  i  dielo  (word  and  deed),  immediately  the  accuser 
and  accused  were  arrested  and  conducted  to  the  "  hall  of  the 
question,"  which  the  latter  seldom  left  unconvicted. 

In  the  matter  of  finance  Peter  replaced  the  tax  on  fires, 
which  gave  rise  to  perpetual  disputes,  by  a  poll-tax.  Ecclesias- 
tics, nobles,  broken  soldiers,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Baltic  prov- 
inces, Bachkirs,  and  Lapps  were  alone  exempted  from  it.  Even 
free  peasants  were  liable.  Kourbatof  introduced  the  tax  of  the 
eagle  paper  (gerbova'ia  boumaghd],  or  stamped  paper.  But  in  the 
midst  .of  the  terrible  necessities  of  war  Peter  had  recourse  to 
other  expedients.  The  officials  were  often  deprived  of  part  of 
their  pay.  The  raskolniks  were  doubly  taxed.  Those  who 
wore  beards  had  to  pay  from  30  to  100  roubles,  according  to 
their  fortune.  The  peasants  were  taxed  two  deniers  for  their 
beards  when  they  entered  the  towns.  Baths,  mills,  huts,  and 
bees  were  taxed. 

One  day  Peter  ordered  all  oak  coffins  at  the  makers'  to  be 
seized  and  sold  for  his  profit.  The  crown  had  for  a  long  while 
absorbed  the  commerce  of  soda,  potash,  and  of  tar,  which  were 
the  produce  of  the  forests  of  the  north.  The  revenues  of  the 
State,  in  fifteen  years  alone,  from  1710  to  1725,  rose  from  three 
to  ten  million  roubles. 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  3  , 

After  the  dissolution  of  the  streltsi,  the  regular  army  was 
composed  of  infantry  and  dragoons,  dressed  in  European  uni- 
forms, and  raised  to  210,000  men.  The  peasantry  were  sub- 
jected to  a  system  of  conscription,  which  was  to  be  for  long 
a  source  of  despotism  and  tyranny.  At  this  period  was  formed 
a  whole  popular  literature  of  "  lamentations  of  recruits."  The 
irregular  troops  of  the  Cossacks  and  the  tribes  of  the  east  fur- 
nished endless  numbers  of  soldiers.  A  maritime  conscription 
was  established  along  the  banks  of  the  lakes,  rivers,  and  the  sen- 
Soon  the  Russian  fleet  numbered  48  ships  of  the  line,  800  boats 
of  a  lower  class,  and  28,000  sailors. 

On  the  death  of  the  patriarch  Adrian,  who  had  little  sympa- 
thy with  the  reforms  (1700),  Peter  conferred  on  Stephen  Javor- 
ski  the  title  of  "  Superintendent  of  the  Patriarchal  Throne." 
Peter  had  resolved  to  abolish  this  institution  of  Godounof,  and 
to  give  to  the  Church  herself  the  collegiate  organization  with 
which  he  was  at  that  time  so  fascinated.  The  preamble  of  the 
edict  instituting  the  Holy  Synod,  which  was  compiled  by  Feo- 
fane  Prokopovitch,  is  very  curious  :  "  The  collegiate  organiza- 
tion will  not  cause  the  country  to  fear  the  troubles  and  seditions 
that  may  arise  when  only  one  man  finds  himself  at  the  head  oi 
the  Church.  The  simple  people  are  not  quick  to  seize  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  spiritual  and  imperial  power  ;  struck  with 
the  virtue  and  the  splendor  of  the  supreme  pastor  of  the  Church, 
they  imagine  that  he  is  a  second  sovereign,  equal  and  even  su- 
perior in  power  to  the  autocrat.  If  a  dispute  takes  place  between 
the  Patriarch  and  the  Tzar,  they  are  disposed  to  take  the  side 
of  the  former,  believing  that  they  thus  embrace  the  cause  of 
God."  This  mistrust  of  the  spiritual  power  is  again  found  in 
the  Oukaze,  where  bishops  are  recommended  to  avoid  pride  and 
show,  never  to  allow  themselves  to  be  supported  under  the  arm 
in  walking,  unless  they  are  ill,  and  to  permit  no  prostrations  be- 
fore them.  In  the  same  manner  as  Peter  had  suppressed  the 
hetmanate  and  established  the  College  of  Little  Russia,  he  sup- 
pressed the  patriarchate,  and  founded  the  Holy  Synod.  He 
wished  to  be  sole  emperor  in  Moscow,  as  in  the  Ukraine. 

The  Holy  Synod  was  composed  of  a  certain  number  of 
bishops,  among  whom  a  procurator-general,  often  a  soldier,  rep- 
resented the  Tzar.  The  Holy  Synod  was  to  be  the  instrument 
of  reform  in  the  Church.  Each  bishop  was  ordered  to  keep  a 
school  in  his  palace  ;  the  sons  of  the  popes  who  refused  to  be 
educated  were  to  be  taken  as  soldiers.  The  grave  question  of 
monasteries  was  re-opened,  but  Peter  did  not  yet  dare  to  under- 
take the  liquidation  of  their  property.  As  Russia  needed  to  be 
peopled,  no  Russian  was  allowed'to  become  a  monk  till  he  was 


£2  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

thirty.  No  servant  of  the  State  might  enter  a  cloister  without 
leave.  As  the  monks  showed  themselves  more  and  more  hos- 
tile to  reform,  they  were  forbidden  to  shut  themselves  up  to 
write,  or  to  have  ink  or  pens  in  their  cells.  They  were,  how- 
ever, compelled  to  work  at  some  trade.  Hospitals  and  schools 
•were  given  into  their  charge,  and  also  broken-down  soldiers,  who 
found  in  the  monastery  an  honorable  asylum.  The  bishops,  on 
the  contrary,  were  encouraged  by  Peter  to  write.  Stephen 
Javorski  published  his  book  called  '  The  Signs  of  the  Antichrist,' 
to  refute  Talitski,  who  had  seen  in  the  reforms  of  Peter  the 
omens  of  the  end  of  the  world.  As  Voltaire  relates,  Talitski 
was  put  to  death,  and  Javorski  rewarded.  'The  Stone  of  the 
Faith,'  another  of  his  works,  was  directed  against  Protestantism, 
while  Saint  Dmitri  of  Rostof  wrote  his  '  Researches  on  the 
Raskolnik  Church  of  Brynsk.' 

Assailed  at  once  by  the  religions  of  the  West  and  by  the 
raskol  sects,  the  orthodox  Church  was  forced  to  defend  herself. 
The  raskols  were  about  this  time  divided  into  communities  with 
priests  and  communities  without  priests  (bezpopovchtchina).  The 
most  fanatical  raskolniks  fled  into  the  deep  forests,  and  there 
founded  hermitages  and  even  centres  of  population,  which  es- 
caped for  a  long  while  the  knowledge  of  government.  Tracked 
and  driven  to  extremity,  certain  enthusiasts  burned  themselves 
in  a  sort  of  auto  daft.  Many  of  these  shepherds  of  the  desert, 
like  Daniel  Vikoulof  and  the  brothers  Denissof,  made  themselves 
famous  by  polemical  works.  Peter  wished  to  relax  the  sys- 
tems of  preceding  regimes,  and  protected  all  peaceable  subjects 
who  did  not  interfere  with  politics.  Passing  though  the  deserts 
of  the  Vyga,  he  found  there  a  colony  of  industrious  raskolniks, 
ordered  them  to  be  left  in  peace,  and  begged  them  to  pray  for 
him.  "  God,"  he  said,  "  has  given  the  Tzar  power  over  the 
nations,  but  Christ  alone  has  power  over  the  consciences  of 
men."  He  contented  himself  with  doubling  the  taxes,  and  im- 
posing a  peculiar  dress  on  the  raskolniks  of  Moscow.  Being 
however,  a  true  believer,  he  regarded  the  faith  of  the  raskol  as 
an  error,  and  did  not  wish  it  to  spread.  Penalties  were  enforc- 
ed against  its  propagators,  and  precautions  taken  with  icgard  to 
their  listeners.  The  proper  attendance  every  Sunday  at  church 
and  an  Easter  Communion  became  a  matter  of  obligation. 

He  followed  the  same  policy  with  regard  to  Western  relig- 
ions, allowed  foreigners  to  have  their  churches  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  himself  attended  the  French  church,  where  his  chair 
is  still  preserved.  The  Ncvski  Prospect,  bordered  with  dissent- 
ing churches,  was  the  "  prospe.ct  of  tolerance."  He  protected 
the  Capuchins  established  at  Astrakhan,  and  even  tried  to 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


33 


on  good  terms  with  the  Jesuits  ;  but  as  they  continued  to  work 
at  their  propaganda,  they  were  banished  in  1689,  then  recalled, 
then  again  definitely  expelled  in  1710.  "  He  endured  the  Capu- 
chins," says  Voltaire,  "  as'being  monks  of  no  consequence,  but 
regarded  the  Jesuits  as  dangerous  political  enemies."  The 
friend  of  the  Dutch  and  the  English  persecuted  the  foreign 
Protestants  who  insulted  the  orthodox  faith  by  word  or  deed. 
A  Russian  woman,  Nastasia  Zima,  having  spread  the  principles 
of  Luther,  was  conducted,  with  her  husband  and  six  other 
neophytes,  before  the  terrible  secret  chamber,  and  was  cruelly 
tortured. 


ECONOMIC   REFORMS  :   MANUFACTURES. 

Peter  the  Great  had  toiled  so  hard  to  establish  himself  on 
the  Baltic  because  he  felt  that  the  White  Sea,  frozen  over  for  so 
many  months  in  the  year,  was  insufficient  to  secure  to  Russia 
uninterrupted  communication  with  the  West.  When  St.  Peters- 
burg was  founded,  he  wished  to  suppress  Arkhangel  for  the 
benefit  of  the  new  port,  and  forbade  the  merchants  to  carry  their 
merchandise  down  the  Dwina.  This  project  met  with  the  most 
lively  opposition.  Apraxine  assured  him  that  such  a  measure 
would  be  the  ruin  of  Russian  commerce.  The  Dutch  traders 
and  the  Hanseatic  towns  represented  that  the  money  they  had 
spent  in  establishing  themselves  at  Arkhangel  would  be  lost, 
that  it  would  be  necessary  to  build  vessels  for  the  Baltic  on  an 
entirely  different  model,  that  they  were  obliged  to  pay  Sound 
dues,  and  that  in  case  of  a  war  the  smallest  merchant  ships 
would  there  need  a  convoy.  The  Russians  who  were  accus- 
tomed to  go  to  Arkhangel  showed  great  repugnance  to  the  jour- 
ney to  St.  Petersburg,  across  a  wide  space  without  forage,  and 
where  they  would  find  no  inns  such  as  had  been  established  for 
centuries  on  the  route  to  the  White  Sea.  It  was  necessary  to 
make  a  complete  revolution  in  the  habits  of  Russian  commerce, 
in  the  distribution  of  the  centres  of  industry  and  of  the  depots. 
The  conductors  of  the  caravan,  in  despair  at  the  length  of  the 
voyage,  often  deserted,  abandoning  tre  wagons,  or  pillaging 
the  merchandise.  Peter  the  Great  ^elded,  leaving  time  to 
justify  his  preference  for  the  new  city.  He  authorized  trade 
both  by  way  of  Arkhangel  and  St.  Petersburg,  contenting  him- 
self with  raising  by  a  fourth  the  tariF  of  customs  of  the  former 
town.  Above  all,  he  resolved  to  connect  the  city  of  the  Neva 
with  the  great  river  artery  of  Russia,  the  Volga.  To  this  end 
he  created  the  canal  of  the  Ladoga,  projected  a  communication 


54  HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

of  the  White  Sea  with  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  and  hoped  to  unite 
the  Black  Sea  with  the  Caspian  by  means  of  a  canal  between 
the  Don  and  the  Volga. 

Peter  negotiated  treaties  of  commerce  with  many  European 
States,  stirred  up  the  national  agriculture,  whose  progress  had 
been  hindered  by  the  slavery  of  the  people,  promulgated  an 
edict  which  forced  them  to  reap  with  scythes,  instead  of  the  old 
hooks,  encouraged  the  cultivation  of  the  vine  and  the  mulberry 
in  the  regions  of  the  south-east,  ordered  tobacco  to  be  planted, 
introduced  new  kinds  of  cattle  into  the  central  provinces  (such 
as  that  of  Kholmogory),  stimulated  sheep-farming,  which  was 
necessary  for  wool  factories,  sent  for  Silesian  shepherds,  and 
made  the  Russians  go  to  learn  their  trade  in  Silesia,  and 
created  besides  the  imperial  stud.  He  took  measures  to  pre- 
serve the  forests,  and  sought  for  beds  of  combustible  minerals. 
To  counteract  the  indolence  of  such  nobles  as  might  have  mines 
upon  their  lands,  he  declared  that,  in  the  case  of  their  remain- 
ing unworked,  strangers  should  have  leave  to  work  them,  paying 
only  a  small  premium  to  the  proprietor.  He  decreed  stripes 
and  the  penalty  of  death  against  any  one  who  should  dare  to 
interfere  with  the  mining  labors  and  researches.  Under  him 
began  the  fortunes  of  the  Demidofs,  the  great  metallurgists,  a; 
in  the  reign  of  Ivan  IV.  the  fortunes  of  the  Strogonofs.  He 
founded  and  encouraged  his  courtiers  to  found  manufactures  of 
chemical  productions ;  of  cloth,  from  the  managers  of  which  he 
purchased  the  materials  which  he  wanted  for  the  uniforms  of 
the  army ;  of  sail-cloth,  for  which  the  navy  would  furnish  a 
ready  market.  The  French  were  specially  skilled  in  making 
use  of  the  Russian  wool.  The  Russians  owe  them  the  first 
manufactories  of  tapestries;  a  Frenchman  named  Manvriou 
opened  a  stocking  manufactory  at  Moscow.  The  Englishman 
Humphrey  introduced  an  improvement  in  the  fabrication  of 
Russian  leather ;  the  Tzar  required  every  town  to  send  a  certain 
number  of  shoemakers  to  take  lessons  in  their  art  at  Moscow, 
threatening  them,  if  they  continued  to  work  in  their  old  way, 
with  confiscation  and  the  galleys.  The  admiral  Apraxine  manu- 
factured silk  brocades.  A  mougik  invented  a  lacquer  superior 
to  anything  in  Europe,  except  that  of  Venice.  Thanks  to  the 
versatility  of  the  national  genius,  economic  progress  would  have 
immensely  developed  if  the  Tzar  had  been  able  to  secure  the 
Russian  merchants  against  the  cupidity  of  the  great  and  the  ex- 
actions of  the  officials,  a  clanger  already  noted  by  Fletcher  in 
the  sixteenth  century.  Notwithstanding  this  drawback,  more 
than  two  hundred  mills  were  opened  in  this  reign. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  35 

UTILITARIAN    CHARACTER    OF   THE    ESTABLISHMENTS    FOR 
INSTRUCTION. 

Peter  the  Great  took  great  pains  with  the  education  of  his 
people.  He  felt  that  the  surest  means  of  obtaining  those  who 
would  help  him  and  would  continue  his  work  was  gradually  to 
initiate  the  nation  into  his  new  ideas,  and  little  by  little  to 
reconcile  them  to  reform.  He  especially  insisted  on  the  edu- 
cation of  the  sons  of  nobles  and  priests,  for  the  means  of  in- 
structing the  mass  of  the  people  had  long  been  wanting.  A 
certain  number  of  elementary  schools  were,  however,  founded 
in  all  the  provinces,  and  the  pupils  of  the  mathematical  schools 
of  St.  Petersburg  were  sent  there  as  masters.  These  schools 
of  Peter's  had  all  a  practical  character  and  a  present  utility. 
Classical  studies  were  neglected,  and  he  did  not  trouble  himself 
to  create  supplementary  establishments  to  the  Greco-Latin 
academy  at  Moscow.  In  his  fierce  struggle  with  the  forces  of 
the  past  he  hastened  to  throw  Russia  open  to  his  natural  auxilia- 
ries, the  ideas  and  sciences  of  the  West.  The  schools  he  multi- 
plied were  special  schools — a  naval  academy,  a  school  of  engi- 
neers, a  school  of  book-keeping.  The  literature  he  encouraged 
was  a  literature  of  translation,  which  enabled  a  huge  mass  of 
European  ideas  to  be  introduced  in  the  lump  ;  or  else  a  polemic 
literature,  to  plead  the  cause  of  reform  before  the  opinion  of  Rus- 
sians and  foreigners.  It  was  for  this  reason  he  had  an  enormous 
number  of  technical  books  translated,  employing  for  the  purpose 
the  professors  of  the  Greco-Latin  academy,  the  brothers  Likhoudi, 
who  had  retired  to  Novgorod,  and  even  the  members  of  the 
synod.  They  worked  at  Moscow,  and  many  books  were  tran- 
slated abroad,  some  at  first  into  Tcheque,  so  that  the  Musco- 
vites might  more  easily  reproduce  them  in  their  own  tongue. 
History,  geography,  jurisprudence,  political  economy,  naviga- 
tion, military  sciences,  agriculture,  and  languages,  were  soon 
represented  in  Russia  by  numerous  books,  translations  from 
Western  languages.  Peter  himself  gave  his  brigade  of  writers 
advice  which  shows  his  practical  sense,  and  even  his  instinc- 
tive literary  taste.  "  You  must,"  he  said  to  Zotof,  "  beware  of 
translating  word  for  word  without  knowing  the  complete  mean  • 
ing  of  the  text.  You  must  read  with  care,  become  penetrated 
with  the  sense  of  your  author,  must  be  able  to  think  his  thoughts 
in  Russian,  and  only  after  that  try  to  reproduce  them."  He 
also  recommended  them  to  refrain  from  long  dissertations  and 
useless  digressions,  "  with  which  the  Germans  fill  their  books  to 
make  them  appear  thicker,  and  which  only  serve  to  waste  time  and 


36  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

to  disgust  the  reader."  On  the  other  hand,  he  forbade  the  sup- 
pression of  some  passages  in  Puffendorf,  where  Russian  barba 
rism  is  denounced.  His  subjects  must  learn  to  blush  for  their 
rudeness  before  they  could  cure  themselves  of  it.  He  caused 
books  to  be  printed  in  Holland,  in  which  he  attempted  to  teach  the 
Europeans  what  Russia  was,  and  to  appreciate  her  reforms ; 
whilst  he  published  others  in  Russia  to  make  his  subjects  ac- 
quainted with  Europe.  He  had  recourse  to  Saint  Dmitri,  Feo- 
fane,  and  Feofilakt,  who  by  their  polemical  writings  combated 
superstitions  and  sects  hostile  to  the  State.  Other  writers 
turned  into  ridicule  on  the  stage,  in  what  were  called  operettas, 
all  the  enemies  of  reform,  fanatical  raskolniks,  the  deacon  who 
wept  because  his  son  was  torn  from  him  and  sent  to  school, 
the  employes  who  fished  in  troubled  waters,  the  partisans  of  the 
ancient  customs,  who  regretted  the  "  good  old  times,"  when  Ger- 
man garments  were  unknown,  and  men  wore  long  beards.  Na- 
talia, Peter's  sister,  associated  herself  in  his  work,  by  compos- 
ing Russian  plays.  The  merchant  Passochkof  wrote  his  book 
on  '  Poverty  and  Riches,'  a  sort  of  domostroi^  where  all  the 
changes  in  manners  since  the  time  of  the  priest  Silvester  can  be 
followed.  Passochkof  dared  to  lift  his  voice  in  favor  of  the 
oppressed  peasant,  to  demand  the  establishment  of  a  tribunal 
before  which  all  Russian  subjects  should  be  equal,  a  regular  or- 
ganization of  justice  and  administration,  which  should  protect 
the  people  against  those  who  rob  in  public  (brigands  and 
thieves)  and  those  who  steal  in  secret  (employes  and  officials). 
He  expected  everything  of  Peter.  "  Unhappily,"  he  says,"  our 
great  monarch  is  almost  alone,  with  ten  others,  in  pulling  up- 
wards, while  millions  of  individuals  pull  downwards.  How 
/hen  can  we  hope  for  a  good  result  ?  " 

Peter  needed  means  of  rapid  publication.  Now  Russian  print- 
ing had  made  little  progress  since  the  i6th  century ;  it  had  tried 
specially  to  imitate  the  ancient  Slavonic  manuscripts,  and  its 
method  was  extremely  slow.  Peter  abandoned  the  Slavonic 
alphabet,  no  longer  in  use  except  for  the  Church  books ;  he  was 
the  creator  of  the  Russian  alphabet  properly  so  called,  the  civil 
alphabet.  He  improved  the  machines  and  the  types,  imported 
Dutch  printers,  and  made  printing  an  instrument  of  a  powerful 
and  rapid  propaganda.  In  his  reign  there  were  two  printing 
presses  instead  of  one  at  Moscow,  four  at  St.  Petersburg,  and 
others  at  Tchernigof,  Novgorod  the  Great,  and  Novgorod-Seve- 
roki.  He  founded  the  Gazette  of  St.  Petersburg,  the  first  public 
newspaper  in  Russia. 

A  prince  who  had  studied  medicine  and  surgery  in  the  West, 
who  sometimes  practised  on  his  courtiers,  took  out  a  tooth  or 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


37 


Tanced  an  abscess,  could  not  neglect  an  art  so  necessary  to  his 
vast  empire,  where  the  mortality  of  infants  was  a  bar  to  the  in- 
crease of  population.  He  entrusted  to  Doctor  Bidloo  the  man- 
agement of  the  hospitals,  and  the  instruction  of  fifty  young  men. 
In  1718  he  put  forth  an  edict  enjoining  the  collection  of  valuable 
minerals,  of  extraordinary  bones  that  might  be  found  in  the 
fields,  of  antique  inscriptions  on  stone  or  metal,  or  any  mon- 
strosities of  birth  occurring  among  men  or  animals.  "  There 
are  certain  to  be  some  of  these  births,"  says  the  ordinance,  "  but 
ignorant  people  make  mysteries  of  them,  believing  that  the  birth 
of  these  monsters  is  due  to  some  diabolic  influence.  This  is  im- 
possible, for  it  is  God  and  not  the  devil  who  is  the  creator  of  all 
things."  Peter  had  a  taste  for  geography :  in  1719  he  fitted  out 
an  expedition  to  Kamscnatka,  to  solve  the  question  asked  by 
Leibnitz,  Is  Asia  united  to  America?  In  1720  he  opened  a 
school  of  cartography.  The  science  of  history  also  has  deep  ob- 
ligations to  him  :  in  1722  he  ordered  a  collection  to  be  made,  in 
the  archives  of  the  monasteries,  of  the  chronicles  and  letters  of 
the  Tzars,  and  had  copies  taken  of  them.  Polykarpof  wrote  a 
History  of  Russia  from  the  i6th  century,  for  which  the  Tzar 
gave  him  a  reward  of  200  roubles.  Finally,  in  1724,  Peter  the 
Great,  already  correspondent  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  in 
Paris,  founded  that  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  assigned  it  a  revenue 
of  25,000  roubles  on  the  revenues  of  the  customs  of  Narva,  Dor- 
pat,  and  Pernau,  desiring  it  above  all  to  devote  itself  to  trans- 
lations, and  to  teach  its  pupils  practical  sciences  and  languages. 
The  utilitarian  character  of  Peter's  creations  is  found  even  in 
his  Academy.  As  it  was  not  possible  at  that  time  to  coujit  on 
the  Russians  to  form  a  learned  body,  the  first  academicians  were 
necessarily  foreigners.  Germany  furnished  Wolff  and  Hermann  ; 
France,  Bernouilli  and  De  1'Isle.  Thus  a  country  which  as  yet 
had  neither  secondary  schools  nor  universities  was  given  an 
academy. 


FOUNDATION   OF  ST.    PETERSBURG  (1703). 

St.  Petersburg  had  just  been  founded.  Its  situation,  as 
Goethe  remarks,  "  recalls  that  of  Amsterdam,  or  of  Venice,  the 
Italian  Amsterdam."  The  wide  and  majestic  Neva,  which  is- 
sues from  the  great  lakes  of  the  north,  there  divides  into  four 
arms,  the  great  and  little  Neva,  and  the  great  and  little  Nevka. 
If  we  add  to  these  her  numerous  affluents,  the  Fontanka,  the 
Okhta,  and  the  two  Tchernaiias,  we  shall  at  present  find  about 
fourteen  watercourses,  a  lake,  eight  canals,  and  nineteen  islands. 


3g  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

It  is  the  aquatic  city  par  excellence,  and  is  exposed  to  terrible  in- 
undations when  the  prodigious  reservoirs  of  the  Ladoga  and 
Onega  overflow.  No  building  is  ever  made  there  without  first 
strengthening  the  foundation  by  driving  in  innumerable  piles 
of  wood.  When  Peter  the  Great  first  cast  his  eyes  over  the 
country,  after  the  capture  of  Nienschantz.  there  were  only  dark 
forests,  vast  marshes,  dreary  wastes,  where,  according  to  the 
poet,  "  a  Tchoud  fisherman,  a  sorrowful  son  of  his  stepmother 
Nature,  might  occasionally  be  seen  alone  on  the  marshy  shore, 
casting  his  worn-out  line  into  these  nameless  waters."  The 
Finnish  names  then  borne  by  the  islands,  on  which  palaces  were 
afterwards  to  rise,  are  very  significant ;  there  were  the  Isle  of 
Brushwood,  the  Isle  of  Birches,  the  Isle  of  Goats,  the  Isle  of 
Hares,  the  Isle  of  Buffaloes,  Isle  Michael  (a  name  for  the  bear), 
and  the  Wild  Isle.  In  Enigary,  or  "  the  Isle  of  Hares,"  Peter 
built  in  1703  the  new  fortress  (Saint  Peter  and  Saint  Paul). 
There  he  assembled  regular  soldiers,  Cossacks,  Tatars,  Kal- 
mucks, Ingrian  or  Carelian  natives,  and  peasants  of  the  interior, 
in  all  more  than  40,000  men.  No  tools  were  provided  for  their 
first  labors  ;  the  mougik  dug  the  soil  with  sticks  or  his  nails,  and 
carried  the  earth  in  his  caftan/  He  had  to  sleep  in  the  open  air 
among  the  marshes ;  he  often  lacked  food,  and  the  workmen 
died  by  thousands.  Afterwards  the  service  was  made  more 
regular.  Peter  installed  himself  in  the  celebrated  little  wooden 
house  on  the  right  bank,  watching  the  building,  sometimes  pilot- 
ing with  his  own  hand  the  first  Dutch  ships  which  ventured  into 
these  waters,  sometimes  giving  chase  to  Swedish  vessels,  which 
came-  to  insult  the  infant  capital.  On  the  Isle  of  Buffaloes,  on 
the  northern  bank  of  the  Neva,  afterwards  the  Vassili-Ostrof, 
numerous  edifices  rose ;  the  southern  bank,  which  became  the 
real  site  of  the  town,  was  at  that  time  neglected.  It  only  con- 
tained the  Admiralty,  to  which  Anne  Ivanovna  added  a  spire  ; 
the  church  of  Saint  Isaac,  then  built  of  wood,  now  of  marble  and 
bronze  ;  that  of  Saint  Alexander  Nevski,  where  Peter  the  Great 
deposited  the  remains  of  the  first  conqueror  of  the  Swedes  ;  the 
house  of  Apraxine,  where  Elizabeth  built  the  Winter  Palace,  the 
already  splendid  hotels  of  the  Millionaia,  and  where  the  Nevski 
Prospect,  the  most  magnificent  boulevard  in  Europe,  was  to  run. 
The  city  was  built  by  dint  of  edicts.  Finns,  Esthonians,  Tatars, 
Kalmucks,  Swedish  prisoners,  and  merchants  of  Novgorod  were 
transplanted  thither;  and  in  1707  they  were  aided  by  30,000 
day  laborers  from  the  country.  To  attract  all  the  masons  of  the 
empire,  it  was  forbidden  on  pain  of  exile  and  confiscation  to  con- 
struct stone  houses  anywhere  but  at  St.  Petersburg.  Every 
proprietor  owning  five  hundred  peasants  was  obliged  to  raise  a 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


39 


stone  house  of  two  stories  ;  those  who  were  poor  clubbed  to« 
gether  to  build  one  among  themselves.  Every  boat  that  wanted 
to  enter  had  to  bring  a  certain  number  of  white  stones,  for  stone 
was  lacking  in  these  wastes.  Forage  was  also  \vanting,  and  to 
save  forage  Peter  proscribed  the  use  of  carriages,  and  encour- 
aged navigation  by  the  river  and  canals ;  every  inhabitant 
must  have  his  boat,  the  court  could  only  be  approached  by 
water. 

In  1706  Peter  wrote  to  Menchikof  that  all  was  going  on 
wonderfully,  and  that  "he  seemed  here  in  paradise."  He  deco- 
rated the  church  of  the  fortress  with  carvings  in  ivory,  the  work 
of  his  own  hands ;  hung  it  with  flags  conquered  from  the 
Swedes  ;  consecrated  there  his  little  boat,  "  ancestor  of  the  Rus- 
sian fleet  "  ;  and,  breaking  through  the  tradition  which  insisted 
on  the  princes  being  buried  at  Saint  Michael  at  Moscow,  chose 
out  at  Saint  Peter  and  Saint  Paul  his  own  tomb  and  that  of  his 
successors.  "  Before  the  new  capital,"  says  Pouchkine,  "  Mos- 
cow bowed  her  htad,  as  an  imperial  widow  bows  before  a  young 
Tzarina." 

St.  Petersburg  had  another  enemy  besides  the  Swedes — the 
inundations.  The  soil  was  not  yet  raised  by  the  incessant  heap- 
ing up  of  materials ;  the  granite  quays  did  not  yet  confine  the 
formidable  river.  In  1705  nearly  the  whole  town  was  flooded  ; 
in  1721  all  the  streets  were  navigable,  and  Peter  was  nearly 
drowned  in  the  Nevski  Prospect.  The  enemies  of  reform,  ex- 
asperated by  the  desertion  of  Moscow,  rejoiced  over  these  dis- 
asters, and  predicted  that  this  German  town,  built  by  foreign 
hands  and  soiled  by  the  presence  of  heretic  temples,  would  dis- 
appear beneath  the  floods.  One  day  the  place  of  this  cursed 
city  should  be  sought  in  vain.  Even  at  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Peter,  it  was  the  general  opinion  that  after  his  death  the  court 
and  the  nobility  would  return  to  Moscow,  and  that  the  city  and 
the  fleet  created  by  the  Tzar  would  be  abandoned.  They  were 
mistaken  ;  the  town  that  he  had  flung  like  a  forlorn  hope  on  the 
newly-conquered  soil  remained  the  seat  of  the  empire.  Russia 
is  almost  the  only  State  that  has  built  her  capital  on  her  very 
frontiers.  St.  Petersburg  was  not  only  to  be  the  "  window  " 
open  to  the  West,  but  it  was  to  be  also  the  centre  of  the  Rus- 
sian regeneration.  More  freely,  more  completely  than  at  Mos- 
cow the  Holy,  where  everything  recalled  the  traditions  and 
recollections  of  the  past,  Peter  could  enthrone  at  St.  Petersburg 
the  sentiments  of  toleration  for  the  Protestant  and  Catholic  re- 
ligions, and  sympathy  for  strangers,  who  were  always  detested 
at  Moscow.  He  could  more  easily  persuade  the  nobles  to  adopt 
German  fashions,  to  speak  Western  languages,  to  cultivate 


40  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

sciences  and  useful  arts,  to  discard  with  the  national  caftan  the 
old  Russian  prejudices.  At  Moscow,  the  City  of  the  Tzars,  for- 
eigners were  confined  in  the  German  slobode ;  at  St.  Petersburg, 
the  City  of  the  Emperors,  the  Russian  and  the  stranger  would 
meet  and  mingle. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PETER  THE  GREAT  :  LAST  YEARS  (l 709-! 725). 

War  with  Turkey :  treaty  of  the  Pruth  (1711) — Journey  to  Paris  (1717)— 
Peace  of  Nystad  (1721) — Conquests  on  the  Caspian — Family  affairs;  Eu- 
doxia  ;  trial  of  Alexis  (1718) ;  Catherine. 


WAR  WITH  TURKEY:  TREATY  OF  THE  PRUTH  (1711). 

CHARLES  XII.,  who  had  allowed  himself  to  be  detained  in 
Poland  during  the  five  years  that  followed  Narva,  was  to  languish 
at  Bender  during  five  other  years  that  followed  Pultowa  (1709- 
13).  Peter  turned  this  new  delay  to  advantage  with  as  much 
energy  as  the  former.  Charles's  Polish  king  Leszczinski  was 
obliged  to  retire  into  Pomerania,  and  Augustus  of  Saxony  re- 
entered  Warsaw.  In  the  north  Peter  completed  the  conquest  of 
Livonia  and  Esthonia,  took  a  slice  i,ut  of  Finland,  thus  widening 
the  opening  he  was  trying  tj  secure  on  the  Baltic,  and  captured 
Riga,  Diinamunde,  Pernau,  Revel,  Viborg,  and  Kixholm  (1710). 
He  could  not  conquer  Courland,  a  subject  state  of  Poland,  but 
he  paved  the  way  for  its  union  with  Russia  by  marrying  the 
Duke  to  Anne  Ivanovna,  daughter  of  his  brother  Ivan. 

The  agents  of  Sweden  and  of  Stanislas,  Ddsaleurs,  ambassa- 
dor of  France,  and  the  Khan  of  the  Tatars,  all  urged  the  Divan 
to  go  to  war.  Achmet  III.  longed  to  recapture  Azof.  Peter 
learned  that  his  ambassador  had  been  confined  in  the  Seven 
Towers,  and  that  Baltagi-Mahomet  was  assembling  an  immense 
army  in  the  plains  of  Adrianople.  The  Tzar  received  this  dec- 
laration of  war  almost  with  joy ;  the  whole  of  Russia  trembled 
with  gladness  at  the  thought  of  treading  in  the  steps  of  her  an- 
cient princes,  of  marching  to  the  "  Sovereign  City  "  (Tzargrad), 
of  freeing  the  Christians  of  the  East,  of  exterminating  the  old 
enemies  of  the  Slav  race,  and  of  eclipsing  the  glory  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible.  The  Eastern  world  was  shaken  to  its  depths  :  Kan- 
temir,  Hospodar  of  Moldavia,  Brancovane,  H^spodar  of  Walla- 
chia,  Servians,  Montenegrins,  and  Greeks,  all  ardently  desired 
a  liberator.  Carried  away  by  his  enthusiasm,  Peter  committed, 
in  1711,  the  same  fault  as  Charles  XII.  in  1709.  He  counted 
on  the  doubtful  help  that  he  might  find  in  these  barbarous  and 


42  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

thinly-peopled  countries,  and  did  not  wait  for  the  more  effective 
contingent  of  30,000  men  promised  him  by  Augustus.  He 
crossed  the  Dniester,  found  Moldavia  almost  destitute  of  inhab- 
itants, devastated  by  locusts,  without  a  commissariat,  while  the 
Hospodars  were  undecided  and  powerless  as  Mazeppa.  Kan- 
temir,  deserted  by  most  of  his  boyards,  appeared  near'y  alone  in 
the  Russian  camp.  Brancovane,  Hospodar  of  Wallachia,  de- 
clared for  the  Sultan.  Peter  found  himself  on  the  banks  of  the 
Pruth,  with  38,000  weary  and  starving  soldiers,  surrounded  by 
jx>,ooo  Turks  or  Tatars.  The  bravery  displayed  by  this  hand- 
*ul  of  men  in  a  fight  in  which  7000  Janissaries  perished,  made 
the  Grand  Vizier  pause  and  reflect.  He  heard  that  Renne, 
Peter's  1  utenant,  had  taken  Brallof  and  menaced  the  bridges 
thrown  across  the  Danube. 

Notwithstanding  this  success,  the  greatest  consternation 
re  gned  in  the  Rissian  camp,  which  wisencu  b  red  with  wounded 
i  en  and  vomen.  It  was  Catherine,  the  uture  empress,  who 
r  vived  their  ouia^e.  She  collecte  '  all  he  money  and  jewels 
that  could  b  -ound  in  the  camp  as  a  present  for  the  Grand  Vizier, 
and  e.su  .ded  the  Tzar  t  -  cend  envoys  to  the  Turkish  entrench- 
ments. These  envoys  had  orders  to  m^ke  any  sacrifice  de- 
m  .nded  by  the  Turk  •  to  restore  Azof,  Livonia,  even  Esthonia 
and  Carelia,  but  to  hold  fast  Ingri  4,  the  loss  f  which  would  in- 
volve that  o*  the  new  capital,  and  rather  cacrifice  even  Pskof. 
Peter  was  ready  to  yield  n  the  Polish  question.  IT  the  Turks 
demanded  that  thev  shoul "  surrender  at  discretion,  the  Lussians 
•  were  prepared  to  force  a  passage,  and  to  fight  to  the  'ast  man." 
The  Vizier's  demands  were  smaller  than  were  anticipated  :  he 
contented  himse  f  with  the  restitution  of  Azof,  the  destruction  of 
the  fortresses  erected  on  the  Turkish  territory,  and  the  promise 
that  Charles  XII.  should  be  left  in  peace  when  he  returned  to 
his  own  kingdom.  Such  was  the  celebrated  Treaty  of  the  Pruth 
or  Falksen,  wh'ch  caused  un  versal  jo  in  the  Russian  army,  but 
which  always  Mt  a  trace  »^f  sadnes^  in  Peter  the  Great.  To 
have  come  as  dei;verer  of  the  Christian  world  and  to  be  forced 
to  capitulate,  to  surrender  Azof,  h's  first  conquest,  to  annihilate 
his  fleet  on  the  Black  Sea,  which  had  cost  him  so  many  efforts  ! 
He  took  his  revenge  on  another  side  ! 

JOURNEY  TO    PAR      (-717) — °EArE  OF  NYSTAD    (1721) CON- 

QTJE  TS  ON  T*IE    CASPIAN. 

In  1 7  T2  and  1713,  whi!  ance  was  passing  through  a  su- 
preme crisis  in  the  war  of  .he  Spanis  Succession,  the  Russians, 
with  their  Danish  and  Saxon  allies,  were  expelling  the  Swede* 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


43 


from  Pomerania.  In  May  1713  a  fleet  of  200  Russian  ships, 
commanded  by  Apraxine,  with  Peter  for  vice-admiral,  left  the 
Neva,  took  Helsingfors,  capital  of  Finland,  and  Abo,  the  library 
of  which  was  sent  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  disembarked  troops 
who  defeated  the  Swedes  at  Tammersfors.  The  following  year 
the  Russians  again  defeated  the  enemy's  fleet  at  Hankiil,  and 
occupied  the  isles  of  Aland.  Even  Stockholm  was  threatened,  the 
Russians  not  being  more  than  fifteen  miles  from  the  Swedish 
capital.  The  capture  of  Nyslott  completed  the  conquest  of 
Finland,  and  Charles  XII.,  who  hastened  from  Bender,  could 
save  neither  Stralsund  nor  Wismar.  After  long  hesitation,  the 
King  of  Prussia  had  joined  his  enemies,  and  the  last  Swedish 
fortresses  in  Pomerania  had  fallen.  The  Elector  of  Hanover, 
King  of  England,  also  turned  against  him,  and  took  Werden,  a 
possession  of  Charles  on  the  Weser.  With  Sweden  deprived  of 
her  provinces  in  the  German  empire,  the  results  of  the  Treaty  of 
Westphalia  were  imperilled.  The  war  in  the  North,  formerly 
localized  in  the  Eastern  Baltic,  became  a  European  war,  and 
threatened  the  equilibrium  of  the  Continent.  Russian  armies, 
for  the  first  time,  poured  into  Northern  Germany.  Peter,  who 
had  married  one  of  his  nieces  to  the  Duke  of  Courland,  found  a 
husband  for  the  other,  Catherine  Ivanovna,  in  the  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg,  and  lent  his  support  to  help  this  prince  to  reduce 
his  nobility  to  obedience.  North  Germany  seemed  ready  to  fall 
under  the  Muscovite  yoke,  as  in  the  seventeenth  century  she  had 
passed  under  the  Swedish  rule.  The  allies  of  the  Tzar  began 
to  fear  his  ambition.  The  Mecklenburg  nobles  took  their  re- 
venge by  everywhere  stirring  up  enemies  against  him.  Berns- 
dorff  induced  George  of  Hanover  to  break  off  his  alliance  with 
the  Tzar,  and  two  other  Mecklenburgers  obtained  the  promise 
of  the  King  of  Denmark  to  close  the  gates  of  Wismar  on  Peter. 
Peter  felt  that  he  also  must  find  support,  and,  as  the  question 
had  now  become  European,  must  seek  European  allies.  It  v.-ag 
at  this  juncture  that  Baron  Gortz  undertook  to  reconcile  him 
with  Charles  XII.,  whose  courage  was  to  be  used  to  overthrow 
the  King  of  England,  and  to  replace  the  Stuart  dynasty  on  the 
throne.  Peter  wished,  moreover,  to  enter  into  relations  with 
France.  In  1711  he  had  sent  Gregory  Volkof  to  Louis  XIV., 
to  ask  his  mediation,  but  the  Grand  Monarque  thought  himself 
too  deeply  involved  with  Sweden,  though  Charles  had  but 
scantily  fulfilled  his  own  obligations.  After  the  death  of  Louis 
XIV.  the  Duke  of  Orleans  became  Regent.  Peter  decided  to 
visit  Versailles,  and  Zotof,  his  agent  at  the  Court  of  France,  as- 
sured him  of  the  good-will  of  the  Duke.  The  Tzar  had  there- 
fore grounds  to  hope  for  the  conclusion  of  a  close  alliance  with 


44 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


a  powerful  kingdom,  and  perhaps  to  look  forward  to  the  marrl 
age  of  his  daughter  Elizabeth  with  the  young  King  Louis  XV. 
The  circumstances  under  which  Peter  made  his  second  journey 
to  the  West  were  all  unlike  those  of  his  former  tour.  He  was 
no  longer  the  young  prince,  only  half  civilized,  master  of  a 
nearly  unknown  State  in  Eastern  Europe,  but  the  conqueror  of 
Pultowa  and  of  Hankiil,  the  master  of  the  Baltic  and  Northern 
Germany,  the  reformer  of  a  numerous  people,  the  founder  of  a 
new  capital  and  a  new  empire,  the  head  of  a  great  European 
nation. 

"  This  monarch,"  says  Saint  Simon,  "  astonished  Paris  by  his 
extreme  curiosity  on  all  points  of  government,  commerce,  edu- 
cation, and  police, — a  curiosity  which  disdained  nothing,  but 
probed  everything.  All  his  conduct  displayed  the  breadth  of 
his  views  and  the  acuteness  of  his  reasoning.  His  manner  was 
at  once  the  most  dignified,  the  proudest,  the  most  sustained,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  least  embarrassing.  He  had  the  sort  of 
familiarity  that  springs  from  boundless  liberty,  but  he  was  not 
exempt  from  a  trace  of  the  old-world  rudeness  of  his  country, 
which  made  him  abrupt  and  even  uncourteous,  and  with  nothing 
certain  about  his  wishes  but  the  fact  that  not  one  of  them  was  to 
be  contradicted.  His  habits  at  meals  were  rough  ;  the  revelry 
that  followed  was  even  more  barbaric.  He  seldom  tried  to  hide 
in  his  establishment  the  freedom  and  the  self-will  of  a  king. 
The  wish  to  be  at  his  ease,  dislike  of  being  made  a  spectacle, 
the  habit  of  liberty  for  which  he  was  accountable  to  none,  made 
him  prefer  hired  carriages,  evenjfiacres.  He  would  jump  into 
the  first  empty  carriage  he  met  with,  without  caring  to  whom  it 
belonged,  and  have  himself  driven  about  the  town  or  beyond 
the  walls.  He  was  a  very  tall  man,  well  made,  though  rather 
thin,  his  face  somewhat  round,  with  a  wide  forehead,  beautiful 
eyebrows,  a  short  nose,  thick  at  the  end  ;  his  lips  were  rather 
thick,  his  skin  brown  and  ruddy.  He  had  splendid  eyes,  large, 
black,  piercing,  and  well  opened  ;  his  expression  was  dignified 
and  gracious  when  he  liked,  but  often  wild  and  stern,  and  his 
eyes,  and  indeed  his  whole  face,  were  distorted  by  an  occasional 
twitch  that  was  very  unpleasant.  It  lasted  only  a  moment,  and 
gave  him  a  wandering  and  terrible  look,  then  he  was  himself 
again.  His  air  expressed  intellect,  thoughtfulness,  and  great- 
ness, and  had  a  certain  grace  about  it.  He  wore  a  linen  collar, 
a  round  peruke,  brown  and  unpowdered,  which  did  not  reach  his 
shoulders  ;  a  brown  juste-au-corps,  with  gold  buttons,  a  vest, 
breeches,  stockings,  and  neither  gloves  nor  cuffs  ;  the  star  of 
his  order  on  his  coat,  and  the  ribbon  underneath  it ;  his  coat 
was  often  unbuttoned,  his  hat  lay  on  the  table  and  never  on  hie 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  4g 

head,  even  out  of  doors.  In  this  simplicity,  however  shabby 
might  be  his  carriage  or  scanty  his  suit,  his  natural  air  of  great- 
ness could  not  be  mistaken." 

Peter  visited  both  the  Regent  and  the  King,  took  Louis  XV. 
in  his  arms,  to  trie  great  consternation  of  the  courtiers,  and 
wrote  to  his  wife  Catherine  :  "  The  little  king  is  scarcely  taller 
than  our  dwarf  Loaki ;  his  face  and  figure  are  distinguished 
and  he  is  tolerably  intelligent  for  his  age."  The  Tzar, 
despised  all  that  was  merely  fashionable  and  unproductive 
luxury,  and  occupied  himself  entirely  with  government,  com- 
merce, science,  and  military  affairs.  He  neglected  to  call  on 
the  princes  of  the  blood,  but  entered  the  shops  of  coach-builders 
and  goldsmiths.  He  tasted  the  soup  of  the  Invalides,  drank 
their  health,  struck  them  on  the  shoulder,  and  treated  them  as 
comrades.  The  Gobelins,  the  Observatory,  the  King's  garden, 
the  collection  of  plans  in  relief  of  fortified  places,  the  works  of 
the  Pont  Tournant,  and  the  machine  at  Marly,  captivated  his 
attention.  A  medal  was  struck  for  him  at  the  Mint  with  his 
own  effigy  and  the  motto  "  Vires  acquirit  eundo"  He  was  pres- 
ent at  a  meeting  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  which  elected 
him  a  member,  and  corrected  with  his  own  hand  a  map  of  his 
dominions  which  was  shown  to  him.  He  embraced  a  bust  of 
Richelieu  at  the  Sorbonne,  and  wished  to  see  Madame  de  Main- 
tenon  as  a  relic  of  the  great  reign. 

Things  did  not  run  quite  as  smoothly  as  he  wished  in  the 
matter  which  had  chiefly  brought  him  to  France.  He  sought  an 
ally  against  George  I. ;  but  the  English  alliance  was  then  the 
corner-stone  of  the  French  foreign  policy.  "  The  Tzar," 
says  Saint  Simon,  "had  an  intense  desire  to  unite  him- 
self with  France.  Nothing  could  have  been  better  for  our 
commerce,  or  for  our  position  with  regard  to  Germany,  the 
North,  and  the  whole  of  Europe.  Peter  held  England  in 
check  by  her  fears  for  her  commerce,  and  King  George 
by  his  fears  for  his  German  territories.  He  made  Holland  treat 
him  with  respect,  and  kept  the  Emperor  in  great  order.  .  .  . 
No  one  can  deny  that  he  made  a  grand  figure  both  in  Europe 
and  Asia,  and  that  France  would  have  gained  enormously  by  an 
alliance  with  him.  .  .  .  We  repented  long  ago  of  our  fatal  in- 
fatuation for  England,  and  our  silly  contempt  for  Russia." 

Notwithstanding  the  mad  confidence  of  the  Regent  in  the 
Abbe'  Dubois,  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Peter  the  Great  concluded 
at  Amsterdam,  after  the  return  of  the  Tzar  to  his  dominions,  a 
treaty  of  commerce  with  France  (1717).  The  two  Powers,  now 
joined  by  Prussia,  declared  that  they  specially  united  to  guar- 
antee the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  the  eventual  peace  of  the 


|6  ffIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

North ;  they  laid  down  the  basis  of  a  defensive  alliance,  the 
ways  and  means  hereafter  to  be  considered.  Peter  afterwards 
found  himself  slightly  compromised  in  the  plans  of  Gortz  and 
Alberoni,  which  caused  a  coolness  between  them.  A  regular 
communication  between  the  two  countries  was,  however,  inaugu- 
rated. First  Kourakine  and  then  Dolgorouki  were  nominated 
ambassadors  at  Paris,  while  Camprcdon  represented  France  at 
St  Petersburg.  More  than  once  negotiations  were  set  on  foot 
for  Elizabeth's  marriage,  sometimes  with  Louis  XV.,  sometimes 
with  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  or  some  other  French  prince.  France 
lent  her  good  offices  to  Russia,  in  the  matter  of  peace  with 
Sweden. 

Gortz  was  on  the  point  of  reconciling  Peter  with  Charles, 
and  a  congress  had  already  opened  in  the  isles  of  Aland,  be- 
tween Bruce  and  Ostermann  on  the  one  hand  and  Gortz  and 
Gyllenburg  on  the  other,  when  the  King  of  Sweden  was  killed 
in  Norway  (1718).  An  aristocratic  reaction  broke  out  at  Stock- 
holm :  Charles  Frederic  of  Holstein-Gottorp,  nephew  of  Charles 
XII.,  was  excluded  from  the  throne,  and  the  crown  was  offered  to 
the  youngest  sister  of  the  late  king,  Ulrica-Eleonora,  wife  of  Fred- 
eric of  Hesse-Cassel,  who  was  regarded  as  more  pliable.  An 
aristocratic  constitution  was  established  which  deprived  the  crown 
of  nearly  all  its  prerogatives,  and  left  Sweden  a  prey  to  fifty-three 
years  of  anarchy  and  insignificance.  Authority  passed  into  the 
hands  of  a  diet  composed  of  the  deputies  of  the  four  orders 
(nobles,  clergy,  citizens,  and  peasants),  but  in  which  the 
nobles  had  a  decided  majority.  Gortz  was  recalled  to  Stock- 
holm and  condemned  to  death,  and  his  policy  was  abandoned. 
The  Diet  revived,  on  the  contrary,  the  alliance  with  Hanover, 
and  resolved  to  continue  the  war  with  Russia,  with  the  proba- 
ble support  of  the  English  fleet.  Peter  accepted  the  challenge, 
and  waged  with  his  enemies  a  war  of  extermination.  In  1719 
his  army  landed  on  the  shores  of  Sweden  itself,  and  burned  two 
towns  and  a  hundred  and  twenty-nine  villages.  Apraxine  ex- 
tended his  ravages  to  within  seven  miles  of  Stockholm.  In  1720 
the  devastation  recommenced,  in  the  very  presence  of  the  Eng- 
lish fleet,  which  did  not  dare  to  pursue  the  Russians  into  the 
recesses  of  the  Swedish  coast.  In  1721  the  Diet  decided  to 
treat.  Peter  kept  Livonia,  Esthonia,  Ingria,  part  of  Finland, 
and  Carelia.  Such  was  the  Peace  of  Nystad,  which  avenged 
Ivan  the  Terrible  and  Alexis  MikhaKlovitch. 

When  the  Tzar  felt  the  weight  of  this  twenty-two  years'  war 
lifted  from  his  shoulders,  he  returned  to  St.  Petersburg  to  an- 
nounce  the  happy  news  of  peace  to  his  people,  and,  mounted  on 
a  platform,  he  drank  to  the  health  of  his  subjects.  A  whole  week 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA.  47 

W4s  given  up  to  fetes  and  masquerades.  Peter,  in  his  joy, 
burned  12,000  roubles'  worth  of  powder,  put  on  a  fancy  dress, 
danced  on  the  table,  and  "  sang  songs."  The  Senate  united  with 
the  Holy  Synod  in  a  great  council,  decreed  to  the  Tzar  the  title  of 
"  Great,  Father  of  his  Country,  and  of  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias." 
It  was  thus  that  the  son  of  Alexis  became,  according  to  the 
popular  songs,  "  the  first  emperor  of  the  country."  Feofane  Pro- 
kopovitch  preached  one  of  his  most  beautiful  sermons  on  this 
occasion. 

Peter's  great  desire  was  to  make  Russia  the  centre  of  com- 
munication between  Asia  and  Europe.  He  had  conquered  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic,  but  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  find  an 
equivalent  for  Azof  and  throw  open  at  least  one  of  the  seas  of 
the  East.  Persia,  mistress  of  the  Caspian,  was  then  a  prey  to 
anarchy  under  a  weak  prince,  who  was  attacked  by  rebels  on  all 
sides.  Russian  merchants  had  been  robbed,  and  Peter  took  ad- 
vantage of  this  pretext  for  war  to  seize  Derbend,  and  himself  com- 
manded the  expedition  which  descended  the  Volga,  from  Nijni 
to  Astrakhan  (1722).  The  operations  still  continued  after  his 
departure  :  the  Russians  took  Bakou,  interfered  in  the  internal 
affairs  of  Persia,  promised  help  to  the  Shah  against  his  enemies, 
and  occupied  Daghestan,  Ghilan,  and  Mazanderan,  -with  Recht 
and  Asterabad. 


FAMILY  AFFAIRS  :  EUDOXIA  ;  TRIAL  OF  ALEXIS  (1718)  ;  CATHERINE. 

The  last  years  of  Peter  the  Great  were  saddened  by  terrible 
domestic  tragedies.  He  had  been  married,  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen, to  Eudoxia  Lapoukhine,  the  daughter  of  a  very  conserva- 
tive family.  As  she  shared  the  views  of  her  relations,  Peter  soon 
began  to  hate  her.  After  the  capture  of  Azof  he  signified  that 
he  did  not  wish  on  his  return  to  find  her  at  the  palace,  and 
she  was  obliged  to  retire  to*  the  Pokrovski  monastery  at  Souz- 
dal.  Soon  afterwards  he  obtained  a  divorce,  in  order  to  marry 
Catherine.  Banished  and  divorced,  Eudoxia  still  retained  her 
power.  In  the  eyes  of  the  people,  and  of  a  large  part  of  the 
clergy,  she  remained  the  Tzar's  only  lawful  wife  ;  she  was  the 
mother  of  the  Tzarevitch  Alexis,  over  whose  mind  and  character 
she  had,  during  the  frequent  absences  of  the  Tzar,  exercised  the 
most  fatal  influence.  After  the  dismissal  of  Eudoxia,  Peter  paid 
more  attention  to  the  education  of  his  heir,  and  gave  him  foreign 
masters.  It  was  too  late  :  Alexis  was  already  a  young  man. 
Narrow-minded,  indolent,  lazy,  feeble,  and  obstinate,  the  son  of 
the  reformer  was  a  pure  Lapoukhine.  Whilst  Peter  was  expos- 


43  HISTORY  OF  RUSSFA. 

ing  himself  on  battle-fields  in  Finland,  Lithuania,  and  the  Ukraili^ 
Alexis  was  surrounded  by  monks,  devotees,  and  visionaries  ;  the 
way  to  his  heart  lay  in  the  abuse  of  the  reforms  and  the  new 
laws.  Against  his  own  wishes  he  was  forced  to  marry  Charlotte 
of  Brunswick  at  Torgau,  but  consoled  himself  with  the  idea  that 
he  would  one  day  have  the  heads  of  the  authors  of  the  marriage. 
When  his  confidant  tried  to  make  him  fear  that  he  would  only 
alienate  the  nobles,  "  I  spit  upon  them,"  he  replied  •  "  the 
people  are  on  my  side.  When  my  father  dies.  I  shall  have  only 
to  say  a  word  in  the  ear  of  the  archbishops,  who  will  tell  their 
priests,  who  will  whisper  it  to  their  parishioners,  and  I  shall  be 
made  Tzar,  even  were  it  in  spite  of  myself."  During  his  travels 
in  Germany  he  would  learn  nothing,  he  wounded  his  hand  that 
he  might  not  be  obliged  to  draw,  and  alleged  his  feeble  health 
as  an  excuse  for  living  in  idleness.  Peter  tried  to  bring  him  to 
reason.  "  Disquiet  for  the  future  destroys  the  joy  caused  by  my 
present  successes.  I  see  that  you  despise  all  that  can  make  you 
worthy  to  reign  after  me.  What  you  term  incapacity  I  call  re- 
bellion, for  you  cannot  excuse  yourself  on  the  ground  of  the 
feebleness  of  your  mind  and  the  weakness  of  your  health.  We 
have  only  struggled  from  obscurity  through  the  toils  of  war, 
which  has  taught  other  nations  to  know  and  respect  us,  and  yet 
you  will  not  even  hear  of  military  exercises.  If  you  do  not  alter 
your  conduct,  know  that  I  shall  deprive  you  of  my  succession.  I 
have  not  spared,  and  I  shall  not  spare,  my  own  life  for  my  country 
and  my  people  :  do  you  think  that  I  shall  spare  yours  ?  I  would 
rather  have  a  stranger,  who  was  worthy,  for  my  heir,  than  a  good- 
for-nothing  member  of  my  own  family."  Alexis  still  persisted  that 
he  had  neither  health  nor  memory,  and  would  prefer  becoming 
a  monk.  His  confidant,  Kikine,  advised  him  to  dissemble, 
and  to  allow  himself  to  be  shut  up  in  a  convent  :  "  You  can 
come  out  of  it,"  he  said  ;  "  they  do  not  nail  the  khlobouquc  on 
your  head."  During  his  father's  travels  in  the  West,  the  Tzare'- 
vitch  fled  to  Germany  with  his  mistress,  the  serf  Euphrosyne. 
He  went  to  the  court  of  Vienna,  which  promised  to  provide  him 
with  a  secret  and  secure  asylum.  It  was  in  this  manner  that  he 
was  successively  confined  in  the  castle  of  Ehrenberg,  in  the 
Tyrol,  and  of  Sant*  Elmo,  near  Naples.  His  father's  agents, 
who  had  instantly  started  in  pursuit,  ended  by  tracing  him,  and 
Tolstoi  obtained  an  interview  with  Alexis,  who  was  assured  of  par- 
don, and  persuaded  to  return  to  Moscow.  The  Tzur  immediately 
assembled  the  three  orders  at  the  Kremlin,  arraigned  the  prisoner 
before  it,  and  obliged  him  to  sign  a  formal  renunciation  of  the 
crown.  Alexis  had  also  to  denounce  his  accomplices,  and  "n  the 
course  of  the  interrogation  some  terrible  disclosures  were 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  49 

made  to  Peter.  His  son  was  the  centre  of  a  permanent  con- 
spiracy against  his  reforms,  the  hope  of  all  who  after  his  death 
would  seek  to  destroy  his  work.  If  Alexis  had  consented 
to  enter  the  cloister,  it  was  in  the  expectation  of  one  day 
leaving  it,  his  renunciation  of  the  throne  could  not  have 
been  sincere  :  he  did  not  belong  to  himself,  he  belonged 
to  the  enemies  of  his  father,  who  would  understand  how  to 
absolve  him  from  his  vows.  Peter  learnt,  among  other  things, 
that  Alexis  had  solicited  at  Vienna  the  armed  protection  of 
the  Emperor,  that  he  had  intrigued  with  Sweden,  and  that,  on 
the  occasion  of  a  sedition  in  the  Russian  army  of  Mecklenburg, 
he  entered  into  relations  with  the  leaders,  and  only  awaited  a 
letter  to  hasten  to  the  camp.  He  had  longed  for  the  death  of 
his  father,  and  his  confessor,  Varlaam,  had  said,  "  We  all  desire 
it."  The  threads  of  the  plot  between  the  palace  of  the  Tzare'- 
vitch  and  the  convent  of  the  divorced  Tzarina  were  soon  grasped. 
Eudoxia  was  treated,  not  as  a  nun,  but  as  a  Tzarina ;  she  had 
her  court  of  malcontents,  wore  a  secular  costume,  was  mentioned 
in  the  prayers  like  a  sovereign.  Dositheus,  Archbishop  of  Ros- 
tof,  had  predicted  to  her  the  approaching  death  of  the  Tzar,  and 
to  hasten  it  the  Archimandrite  Peter  made  hundreds  of  prostra- 
tions before  the  holy  images.  A  certain  Glebof,  who  had  es- 
tablished a  correspondence  in  cypher  with  the  Tzarina,  avowed 
he  was  her  lover,  and  that  he  was  to  marry  her  after  the  death 
of  the  Tzar.  Her  relations,  her  brother  Abraham  Lapoukhine, 
among  others,  were  concerned  in  these  intrigues  and  hopes. 
Peter  crushed  with  cruel  penalties  this  nest  of  conspirators. 
Glebof  was  impaled,  Dositheus  broken  on  the  wheel,  Lapoukhine 
tortured  and  beheaded,  thirty  people  put  to  death  or  exiled, 
Eudoxia  whipped  and  confined  in  New  Ladoga.  The  affair  of 
the  TzareVitch  had  changed  its  character  after  all  these  revela- 
tions ;  there  could  now  be  no  question  of  clemency.  Peter  had 
no  longer  to  deal  with  a  lazy  and  disobedient  son,  but  with  a 
traitor  who  had  become  the  chief  of  his  enemies  within  and  the 
ally  of  those  without,  and  who  had  sought  foreign  aid.  Peter  had 
to  choose  between  his  reforms,  for  Alexis  had  openly  promised 
to  abandon  St.  Petersburg,  the  navy,  the  Swedish  conquests, 
and  to  return  to  Moscow.  There  was  no  hope  now  of  putting 
him  in  a  condition  where  he  would  be  harmless  after  the  death 
of  his  father.  Alexis  knew  they  could  not  "  nail  the  khloboitque 
on  his  head,"  and  the  seclusion  of  a  convent  had  not  prevented 
Eudoxia  from  indulging  in  secular  hopes.  Henceforth  Alexis 
only  found  in  his  father  an  inexorable  judge.  Twice  he  suffered 
the  knout ;  and  a  tribunal  composed  of  the  highest  officials  of 
the  State  condemned  him  to  death.  The  difficulty  seemed  to 


50  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

lie  in  the  execution  of  the  sentence,  but  two  days  after  the  sen- 
tence  was  passed  it  became  known  that  he  had  ceased  to  live. 
Divers  rumors  as  to  the  manner  of  his  death  were  circulated  in 
the  Memoirs  of  the  time  :  some  say  it  was  caused  by  a  sudden 
apoplexy,  or  a  disarrangement  of  his  entrails,  arising  from  deep 
emotion  ;  some  that  he  was  beheaded  with  an  axe,  struck  down 
with  a  club,  suffocated  under  cushions,  strangled  with  his  cravat: 
some  reports  put  him  to  death  by  poison,  others  that  his  veins 
were  opened.  All  that  is  certain  is,  that  on  the  morning  of  the 
fatal  day  the  Tzar  compelled  his  son  to  appear  before  a  com- 
mission of  nine  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  State.  About  what 
then  took  place  these  nine  men  were  forever  silent ;  but  it 
seems  now  to  have  been  ascertained  that  in  order  to  wring  fresh 
confessions  from  the  Tzare'vitch  the  knout  was  again  applied  to 
him,  and  that  he  died  from  the  consequences  of  the  torture. 

Peter  had  already  another  family.  In  1702,  at  the  sack  of 
Marienburg,  the  Russians  had  made  prisoner  a  young  girl,  about 
whose  condition,  origin,  and  nationality  original  authorities  dif- 
fer. It  seems  most  probable  that  she  was  a  Livonian,  one  of  a 
family  of  serfs  called  Skavronski ;  that  she  was  a  servant  at  the 
house  of  the  pastor  Gliick,  and  that  she  had  been  betrothed  to  a 
Swedish  dragoon.  It  was  thus  that  in  obscurity  and  dishonor 
her  imperial  destiny  began.  The  captive  passed  from  hand  to 
hand,  and  was  successively  mistress  of  Cheremetief  and  of  Men- 
chikof,  who  ceded  her  to  Peter  the  Great.  Though  ignorant 
and  completely  illiterate,  she  fascinated  the  Tzar  by  the  vivacity 
of  her  mind,  the  correctness  of  her  judgment,  and  something 
free  and  adventurous  about  her  which  contrasted  with  the  man- 
ners of  the  Russian  terem,  and  marked  out  this  Lutheran  slave 
as  the  future  Empress  of  Russia.  Their  marriage,  secretly  con- 
tracted, received  a  final  consecration  under  the  fire  of  the  Otto- 
man batteries  on  the  Pruth.  In  memory  of  the  services  then 
rendered  by  Catharine  to  the  Tzar  and  to  the  country,  Peter 
founded  the  Order  "  for  love  and  fidelity,"  and  solemnly  married 
her  in  1712.  He  did  not,  however,  dare  to  take  her  with  him 
in  his  journey  to  France.  The  contrast  would  have  been  too 
obvious  at  Versailles  between  the  ladies  of  the  proud  French 
nobility  and  this  foreign  slave ;  between  the  cultivated  wit  of  a 
Se'vigne'  and  a  Deffand  and  this  empress  who  could  not  sign  her 
name  ;  between  the  refinements  of  the  French  fine  ladies  and 
the  awkward  wench  described  by  the  Margravine  of  Baireuth. 

"The  Tzarina,"  says  the  German  princess,  "was  small  and 
clumsily  made,  very  much  tanned,  and  without  either  grace  or 
an  air  of  distinction.  You  had  only  to  see  her  to  know  that  she 
was  low-born.  From  her  usual  costume  you  would  have  taken 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  5 1 

^^**  f    *•  •*•  ^    „     ~-     — 

her  for  a  German  comedian.  Her  dress  had  been  bought  at  a 
second-hand  shop ;  it  was  very  old-fashioned,  and  covered  with 
silver  and  dirt.  She  had  a  dozen  orders,  and  as  many  portraits 
of  saints  or  reliquaries,  fastened  all  down  her  dress,  in  such  a 
way  that  when  she  walked  you  would  have  thought  by  the  jing- 
ling that  a  mule  was  passing."  In  1721  Peter  promulgated  the 
celebrated  edict  which  recognized  the  right  of  the  Russian  sov- 
ereign to  nominate  his  successor,  thus  derogating  from  the  he- 
reditary principle  which  seems  the  very  essence  of  the  monar- 
chy. Peter  invoked  the  precedent  of  Ivan  the  Great,  and  the 
"  Absalomian  revolt "  of  Alexis.  To  justify  this  measure  of  the 
Tzar,  Feofane  Prokopovitch  wrote  his  book,  called  'Justice 
founded  on  the  Will  of  the  Sovereign,  (Pravda  voli  monarchal). 
By  Catharine  Peter  had  had  two  sons,  Peter  and  Paul,  who  died 
when  children,  and  two  daughters — Anne,  married  to  the  Duke 
of  Holstein,  and  Elizabeth,  who  became  Tzarina.  Besides  these, 
Alexis  had  left  a  son  by  Charlotte  of  Brunswick,  afterwards 
Peter  II.,  who  was  then  named  last  in  the  public  prayers.  In 
1723  Peter  the  Great  published  a  manifesto,  recalling  the  ser- 
vices Catharine  had  rendered,  and  solemnly  crowned  her  Em- 
press. This  was  the  culmination  of  her  strange  destiny.  Soon 
it  began  to  change  ;  the  Emperor  thought  he  had  discovered 
proofs  of  her  infidelity,  and  spoke  of  repudiating  her.  Anyhow, 
he  had  not  yet  exercised  the  right  of  naming  his  successor, 
claimed  two  years  before.  His  health  was  broken  by  his  toils 
and  his  excesses,  and  he  no  longer  took  any  care  of  himself. 
One  day  he  flung  himself  into  icy  water  up  to  his  waist  to  save 
a  boat  in  distress,  felt  an  attack  of  illness  coming  on,  caught  cold 
again  in  the  "benediction  of  the  waters,"  and  died  without  being 
able  either  to  speak  or  write  his  last  wishes.  He  was  then  only 
fifty-three  years  of  age. 

He  was  above  all  a  man  of  war,  marked  as  such  by  his  tall 
figure,  his  robust  limbs,  his  nervous  and  sanguine  temperament, 
and  his  arm  as  strong  as  a  blacksmith's.  His  life  was  a  strug- 
gle with  the  forces  of  the  past,  with  the  ignorant  nobles,  with  the 
fanatical  clergy,  with  the  people  who  plumed  themselves  on 
the-ir  barbarism  and  national  isolation,  with  the  Cossack  and 
Strelitz,  representatives  of  the  old  army,  and  with  the  raskol, 
representative  of  the  old  superstition.  This  combat,  which  shook 
Russia  and  the  world,  he  found  repeated  in  his  own  family.  It 
began  with  his  sister  Sophie,  and  continued  with  his^wife  Eu- 
doxia  and  his  son  Alexis.  Entirely  given  up  to  his  terrible  task, 
Peter  all  his  life  disdained  pomp,  luxury,  and  every  kind  of  dis- 
play. The  first  Emperor  of  Russia,  the  founder  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, forgot  to  build  himself  a  palace  ;  his  favorite  residence  o* 


e  2  ffIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USS1A. 

v  >   -   . 

Peterhof  is  like  the  villa  of  a  well-to-do  citizen  of  Saardam.  His 
table  was  frugal,  and  what  he  sought  in  his  orgies  of  beer  of 
brandy  was  a  stimulant  or  a  distraction.  The  people  have  pre- 
s«rved  his  memory  in  their  songs  or  popular  traditions  ;  they 
flight  in  repeating,  "  he  worked  harder  than  a  bourlak?'  This 
*«ell-filled  life  was  like  a  fever  of  perpetual  activity,  in  which 
Veter,  with  Russia,  panted  and  exhausted  himself.  Is  it  won- 
derful that  he  roughly  hurled  all  obstacles  out  of  his  way  ?  His 
/movement  was  prompt  and  his  hand  heavy ;  the  staff  of  Ivan 
IV.  seems  to  have  passed  into  his  grasp.  We  have  seen  him 
strike  with  his  cane  the  greatest  lords,  Prince  Menchikof  among 
the  number.  He  bent  to  his  will  men,  things,  nature,  and  time  ; 
he  realized  his  end  by  despotic  blows.  For  a  long  while  yet 
Russian  and  foreign  historians  will  either  hesitate  to  pass  a 
final  judgment  on  him,  or  will  advance  contradictory  opinions. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


53 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  WIDOW  AND  GRANDSON  OF  PETER  THE  GREAT  :    CATHERINE  I. 

(1725-1727)    AND    PETER    II.    (1727-1730). 

The  work  of  Peter  the  Great  continued  by  Catherine — Menchikof  and  the 
Dolgorouki — Maurice  de  Saxe  in  Courland. 


THE  WORK  OF  PETER  THE  GREAT  CONTINUED  BY  CATHERINE. 

AT  the  death  of  Peter  the  Great  the  nation  was  divided  into 
two  parties  :  one  supported  his  grandson,  Peter  Alexievitch  (then 
twelve  years  old),  the  other  wished  to  proclaim  Catherine  the 
Livonian.  The  Galitsynes,  the  Dolgoroukis,  Repnine,  and  all 
Old  Russia  desired  to  place  the  crown  on  the  head  of  Peter 
AlexieVitch ;  but  those  who  owed  their  elevation  to  Peter  I., 
those  who  were  involved  in  the  trial  of  his  son, — Prince  Men- 
chikof, Admiral  Apraxine,  Boutourline  (Colonel  of  the  Guard), 
the  Chancellor  Golovkine,  Jagoujinski  (Procurator-General  of  the 
Senate),  the  German  Ostermann,  Tolstoi  (who  had  induced 
Alexis  to  quit  the  Castle  of  Sant'  Elmo),  the  Bishop  Feofane 
(author  of  the  Pravda  voli  monarchei  ),  and  the  members  of  the 
tribunal  which  had  condemned  the  Tzarevitch — all  felt  their 
only  hope  of  salvation  lay  in  Catherine.  They  were  the  more 
capable  and  the  more  enlightened  ;  they  held  the  power  actually 
in  their  hands — directed  the  administration  and  commanded  the 
army.  Their  adversaries  felt  that  they  must  be  content  with  a 
compromise.  Dmitri  Galitsyne  proposed  to  proclaim  Peter  II., 
but  only  under  the  guardianship  of  the  Empress-widow.  Tolstoi 
opposed  this,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  the  most  certain  means 
of  arming  one  party  against  the  other,  of  giving  birth  to  troubles, 
of  offering  hostile  factions  a  pretext  for  raising  the  people  against 
the  regent.  He  proved  that,  in  the  absence  of  all  testamentary 
disposition,  Catherine  had  the  best  right  to  succeed  Peter  I. 
She  had  been  solemnly  crowned,  and  had  received  the  oaths  of 
her  subjects  ;  she  was  initiated  into  all  the  State  secrets,  and  had 
learned  from  her  husband  how  to  govern.  The  officers  and  re- 
giments of  Guards  loudly  declared  in  favor  of  the  heroine  of  the 


S4  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA, 

Pruth.  It  was  at  last  decided  that  she  should  reign  alone,  and 
absolute,  by  the  same  title  as  the  dead  Tzar.  No  doubt  it  was 
a  novelty  in  Russia — a  novelty  even  greater  than  the  regency  of 
Sophia.  Catherine  w  ;  not  only  a  woman,  but  a  foreigner,  a 
captive,  a  second  wife,  hardly  considered  as  a  wife  at  all.  There 
was  more  than  one  rotest  against  a  decision  which  excluded 
the  grandson  of  Peter  the  Great  from  the  throne,  and  many 
raskolniks  suffered  torture  rather  than  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  a  woman. 

Menchikof,  one  of  the  early  lovers  of  Catherine,  found  himself 
all-powerful.  He  was  able  to  stop  the  trial  for  maladministra- 
tion commenced  against  him  by  the  late  Tzar,  and  obtained  the 
gift  of  Batourine,  the  ancient  capital  of  Mazeppa,  which  was 
equivalent  to  the  whole  principality  of  the  Ukraine.  His  des- 
potic temper  and  his  bad  character  made  him  hated  by  his  com- 
panions. Discord  broke  out  among  the  "  eaglets  "  of  Peter  the 
Great.  Jagoujinski  went  to  weep  publicly  over  the  tomb  of  the 
Tzar.  Tolsto'i  was  afterwards  sent  to  Siberia.  Catherine  suc- 
ceeded, however,  in  bridling  the  ambition  of  her  favorite,  and 
refused  to  sacrifice  her  other  councillors  to  him. 

This  regime  was  the  continuation  ot  that  of  Peter.  It  disap- 
pointed the  pessimist  predictions  which  announced  the  abandon- 
ment of  St.  Petersburg  and  the  fleet,  and  the  return  to  Moscow. 
Most  of  the  schemes  of  the  reforming  Tzar  were  carried  out. 
The  Academy  of  Sciences  was  inaugurated  in  1736  ;  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Gazette  was  carefully  watched  over  ;  the  Order  of 
Alexander  Nevski  was  founded ;  Behring,  the  Danish  captain, 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  scientific  expedition  to  Kamschatka , 
Chafirof,  recalled  from  banishment,  was  ordered  to  write  the 
History  of  Peter  the  Great ;  Anne  Petrovna  solemnly  married 
the  Duke  of  Holstein,  to  whom  she  had  been  betrothed  by  her 
father.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Senate  and  the  Holy  Synod  lost 
their  title  of  "  directing,"  and  affairs  of  State  had  to  be  con- 
ducted in  the  "  Secret  High  Council,"  composed  of  Menchikof, 
of  the  Admiral  Apraxine,  of  the  Chancellor  Golovkine,  TolstoY, 
Dmitri  Galitsyne,  and  of  the  Vice-Chancellor  Ostermann,  which 
met  under  the  presidency  of  the  Empress. 

On  her  death-bed,  Catherine  nominated  Peter  AlexieVitch, 
her  husband's  grandson,  as  her  successor,  and,  in  default  of 
Peter,  her  two  daughters  Anne  of  Holstein  and  Elizabeth. 
During  the  minority  of  the  young  Emperor  the  regency  was  ex- 
ercised by  a  council  composed  of  the  two  Tzarfani,  of  the  Duke 
of  Holstein.  of  Menchikof,  and  of  seven  or  eight  of  the  principal 
dignitaries  of  the  empire. 

Menchikof  had  taken  measures  to  keep  his  high  appointment 


PfIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  5  5 

under  the  new  reign,  and  even  to  increase  his  power.  He  had 
obtained  from  Catherine  the  promise  that  she  would  consent  to 
the  young  prince's  betrothal  to  his  own  daughter,  though  she 
was  the  elder  by  two  years.  He  assigned  his  own  palace  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  river  as  the  Emperor's  residence,  and  surrounded 
him  by  men  devoted  to  his  own  interests.  He  caused  himself 
to  be  made  Generalissimo,  and  signed  his  letters  to  his  sovereign 
with  the  words,  "  Your  father."  He  had  the  members  of  his  own 
family  inscribed  in  the  almanac  with  those  of  the  imperial  house, 
and  his  daughter  mentioned  in  the  public  prayers.  He  even 
planned  to  marry  Natalia  AlexieVna  to  his  son  at  the  same  time 
that  his  daughter  became  the  wife  of  the  Emperor.  Peter  II. 
soon  began  to  be  impatient  of  the  government  of  the  General- 
issimo. Menchikof  had  given  him  as  tutor  the  Vice-Chancellor 
Ostermann,  but  the  young  prince  detested  study,  and  preferred 
to  hunt  with  his  favorite,  Ivan  Dolgorouki.  The  clever  Oster- 
mann took  care  to  make  Menchikof  responsible  for  his  appoint- 
ment as  tutor,  and  to  excuse  himself  as  best  he  could  to  the 
prince.  One  day  the  Emperor  sent  a  present  of  nine  thousand 
ducats  to  his  sister  Natalia.  Menchikof  had  the  insolence  to 
take  them  from  the  princess,  saying  that  "  the  Emperor  was 
young,  and  did  not  yet  know  how  to  use  money  properly."  This 
time  Peter  rebelled,  and  the  prince  appeased  him  with  great 
difficulty.  Another  enemy  of  the  Generalissimo,  who  managed 
playfully  to  undermine  his  popularity,  was  Elizabeth,  the  young 
aunt  of  Peter  II.,  and  the  daughter  of  Peter  the  Great.  She 
was  then  seventeen  years  old,  bright,  gay,  and  careless,  with  a 
pink-and-white  complexion  and  blue  eyes  ;  and  she  laughed  the 
intolerable  guardiai  out  of  power.  An  illness  of  Menchikof,  by 
keeping  him  away  from  court,  paved  the  way  for  his  fall.  Peter 
II.  accustomed  himself  to  the  idea  of  getting  rid  of  him. 
When  the  prince  recovered  and  began  as  usual  to  oppose  his 
wishes,  Peter  quitted  Menchikof's  palace,  caused  the  furniture 
belonging  to  the  Crown  to  be  removed  from  it  and  placed  in  the 
imperial  palace,  treated  his  fiancee  with  marked  coldness,  and 
finally  commanded  the  Guards  to  take  no  orders  but  from  their 
colonels.  This  was  the  prelude  to  a  public  disgrace.  In 
September  1727  Menchikof  was  arrested,  despoiled  of  all  his 
dignities  and  decorations,  and  banished  to  his  own  lands. 

The  Dolgoroukis  profited  by  the  revolution  they  had  prepared, 
but  immediately  committed  the  same  fault  as  Menchikof,  and 
surrounded  Peter  with  the  same  officious  attentions.  Like 
Menchikof,  they  banished  all  who  offended  them  (even  Oster- 
mann, to  whom  the  Emperor  began  to  be  attached  ;  and  the 
old  Tzarina  Eudoxia  Lapoukhine,  who  had  been  recalled 


56  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

from  the  prison  in  Ladoga.)  Using  as  a  pretext  some  insulting 
placards  recalling  tho  services  of  Menchikof,  they  exiled  him  to 
Berezof  in  Siberia,  where  he  died  in  1729.  Unwarned  by  his 
example,  they  imposed  on  the  prince  a  new  bride — Catherine 
Dolgorouki,  the  sister  of  his  favorite  Ivan.  Their  administra- 
tion then  assumed  the  character  of  a  reaction  against  the  reforms 
of  Peter  the  Great.  Ostermann  and  all  the  faithful  servants, 
foreign  or  Russian,  of  the  "  Giant  Tzar,"  saw  with  sorrow  the 
return  of  the  court  to  Moscow,  and  its  indifference  to  all  Euro- 
pean affairs.  In  order  the  better  to  keep  their  master  to  them- 
selves, the  Dolgoroukis  flattered  his  tastes  for  frivolity  and 
dissipation,  and  organized  great  hunting  parties  which  lasted  for 
whole  weeks.  Peter  wouH  have  wearied  of  them  in  the 
end  as  he  did  of  Menc  .ikof.  He  had  already  replied  to  his 
aunt  Elizabeth,  who  complained  that  she  was  left  without  money, 
"  It  is  not  my  fault ;  they  never  execute  my  orders,  but  I  shall 
find  means  of  breaking  my  fetters."  The  crisis  happened,  but 
not  as  had  been  expected.  In  January  1730  the  young  Emperor 
caught  cold  at  the  ceremony  of  the  benediction  of  the  waters, 
and  died  suddenly  of  small-pox.  He  was  seventeen  years  old. 

The  two  reigns  of  Catherine  and  Peter  II.,  which  only  lasted 
in  all  five  years,  were  peaceful. 

In  1726  Russia  had  concluded  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the 
Court  of  Vienna,  and  found  herself  involved,  in  1727,  in  the  war 
of  the  quadruple  alliance.  Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  Kou 
rakine  and  of  Campredon,  the  failure  of  the  projected  marriage 
of  Louis  XV.  and  Elizabeth  had  produced  a  coldness  between 
France  and  Russia.  The  most  curious  episode  in  the  foreign 
relations  was  the  attempt  of  Maurice  de  Saxe,  -llegitimate  son 
of  the  king  Augustus,  to  get  possession  of  the  Duchy  ^f  Courland. 
The  offer  of  his  hand  had  been  accepted  by  the  Duchess  Anne 
Ivanovna,  now  a  widow ;  he  had  been  elected  at  Mittau  by  the 
deputies  of  the  nobility.  Neglecting  the  protest  of  the  Polish 
diet  and  the  remonstrances  of  France  and  Russia,  he  raised 
troops  with  the  money  produced  by  the  sale  of  the  diamonds 
belonging  to  an  abbess  of  Quedlimburg,  and  a  French  comedian, 
his  mother  Aurora  von  Konigsmark,  and  his  mistress  Adrienne 
Lecouvreur,  and  began  to  put  the  duchy  in  a  state  of  defence. 
He  was  disavowed  by  his  father,  and  Cardinal  Fleury  did  not 
dare  to  support  him  even  indirectly.  Menchikof,  left  more  free 
since  the  death  of  Catherine  I.,  was  himself  a  candidate  for  the 
Duchy.  He  sent  Lascy,  at  the  head  of  8ooc  men,  to  expel  the 
Saxon  adventurers  ;  and  the  future  victor  of  Fontenoy  could 
only  collect  247  men  in  the  isle  of  Usmau's,  and  was  obliged,  in 
his  retreat,  to  swim  across  an  arm  of  the  sea.  His  election  was 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


57 


annulled,  his  father  publicly  called  him  a  galopin,  and  Courland 
once  more  fell  back  under  Russian  influence. 

A  treaty  with  Prussia  was  signed  under  Peter  II.,  in  virtue 
of  which  the  two  Powers  engaged  at  the  death  of  Augustus  to 
support  the  candidate  whom  they  might  choose  for  Poland.  The 
Emperor  Charles  VI.  and  the  "sergeant-king"  sounded  Russia 
about  an  eventual  dismemberment  of  the  republic  of  Poland. 
This  is  the  first  time  the  question  of  partition  was  mooted. 

In  Asia,  Jagoujinski  concluded  on  the  Boura  a  treaty  of 
commerce  with  the  Celestial  Empire,  in  the  name  of  Peter  II. 
Every  three  years  Russian  caravans  might  goto  Pekin  and  trade 
without  paying  dues.  Russia  might  keep  four  priests  at  Pekin, 
and  six  young  men  to  learn  Chinese.  Kiakhta,  on  the  Russian 
territory,  and  Maimaitchine,  on  the  Chinese  territory,  were  the 
authorized  depots. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  TWO  ANNES  t   REIGN    OF   ANNE    IVANOVNA,  AND    REGENCY    OF 
ANNE    LEOPOLDOVNA  (1730-1741). 

Attempt  at  an  aristocratic  constitution  (1730):  the  "  Bironovchtchina" — 
Succession  of  Poland  (1733-1735)  and  war  with  Turkey  (1735-1739) — Ivan 
VI. — Regency  of  Biren  and  Anne — Revolution  of  1741. 


ATTEMPT  AT  AN    ARISTOCRATIC   CONSTITUTION    (1730)  :   THE 
"  BIRONOVCHTCHINA." 

THE  untimely  death  of  the  last  male  heir  of  Peter  I.  had 
taken  all  the  world  by  surprise.  It  was  so  sudden  that  no  party 
had  been  formed  to  determine  the  succession.  Peter  had  left 
two  daughters,  Elizabeth  and  Anne,  Duchess  of  Holstein,  who 
died  in  1728,  and  was  represented  by  her  son,  afterwards  Peter 
III.  The  Tzar's  brother,  Ivan  AlexieVitch  V.,  had  also  left  two 
daughters,  Anne  Ivanovna,  Duchess  of  Courland,  and  Catherine 
Ivanovna,  Duchess  of  Mecklenburg;  the  wishes  of  some  even 
turned  towards  the  late  Emperor's  grandmother,  the  Tzarina 
Lapoukhine.  Alexis  Dolgorouki,  father  of  the  friend  of  Peter 
II.,  had  yet  a  bolder  idea;  he  claimed  the  throne  for  his  daugh- 
ter Catherine,  although  she  was  not  even  Peter's  wife,  but  only 
\\\s>  fiancte,  and  had  the  audacity  to  boast  of  a  "  certain  will  "  of 
the  sovereign,  instituting  her  his  heir.  This  proposal  naturally 
fo>md  little  favor  in  the  Secret  High  Council,  and  was  rejected 
with  contempt,  even  by  a  part  of  the  house  of  Dolgorouki,  whose 
chiefs  did  not  relish  the  notion  of  being  the  subjects  of  their 
niece.  Another  step  was  decided  on.  In  the  absence  of  the 
prudent  Ostermann,  who  summoned  to  his  aid  a  pretended  ill- 
ness, and  the  fact  of  his  being  a  foreigner,  the  Secret  High 
Council  was,  with  the  addition  of  the  marshals  Dolgorouki  and 
Galitsyne,  almost  entirely  composed  of  the  great  Russian  no- 
bility. It  found  itself,  as  the  principal  organ  of  government,  in- 
vested with  the  chief  power,  and  master  of  the  position.  It  re- 
solved to  profit  by  these  circumstances  to  limit  the  supreme 
authority,  to  give  to  the  Russian  aristocracy  a  sort  of  constitu- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


59 


tional  charter,  and  to  impose  on  the  sovereign  who  might  be 
elected  a  kind  vipacta  conventa,  such  as  existed  in  the  republic 
of  Poland.  Elizabeth  and  the  Duchess  of  Holstein,  being  the 
nearest  to  the  throne,  would  no  doubt  manifest  the  greatest  re- 
luctance to  accept  these  conditions.  Thus  it  was  necessary  to 
turn  to  another  branch  of  the  family  of  Romanof,  to  the  line  of 
Ivan,  and  offer  the  crown  to  a  princess  who,  having  no  hopes  of 
gaining  the  throne,  would  be  ready  to  accede  to  all  the  Council 
wished.  The  Council  then  resolved  to  open  negotiations  with 
Anne  Ivanovna,  and  to  propose  to  her  the  following  terms  :— i. 
The  High  Council  should  always  be  composed  of  eight  members 
to  be  renewed  by  co-option,  and  to  be  consulted  by  the  Tzarina 
in  all  affairs  of  Government.  2.  Without  the  consent  of  the 
Council  she  was  to  make  neither  peace  nor  war,  to  impose  no 
taxes,  to  alienate  no  crown  lands,  to  nominate  to  no  post  nor 
any  rank  above  that  of  colonel.  3.  She  was  to  put  to  death  no 
member  of  the  nobility,  nor  confiscate  the  property  of  any  noble, 
without  a  regular  trial.  4.  She  was  neither  to  marry  nor  to 
choose  a  successor  without  the  consent  of  the  Council.  "  And," 
adds  the  draft  of  the  letter  laid  before  her  for  signature,  and 
containing  the  points  indicated,  "  in  case  of  my  ceasing  to  fulfil 
my  engagements,  I  shall  forfeit  the  crown  of  Russia."  This 
was  the  si  non  non  of  the  Cortez  of  Aragon.  If  this  constitution 
had  been  carried  out,  Russia  would  have  become  an  oligarchic 
republic  instead  of  an  autocratic  empire,  a  sort  Qipospolite  where 
nothing  would  have  remained  of  the  work  of  the  Ivans  and 
Peter  the  Great.  The  High  Council  likewise  proposed  to  fix  the 
seat  of  government  at  Moscow. 

This  constitution,  which  assured  to  the  Russian  nobles  the 
inviolability  of  their  persons  and  property  (the  English  habeas 
corpus  and  right  of  taxation),  raised,  however,  a  general  outcry. 
What !  impose  on  Russia  the  same  anarchic  institutions  that  the 
three  Northern  powers  had  maintained  in  Poland  ?  All  the  guar- 
antees, all  the  rights,  all  the  authority  were  reserved  to  the 
members  of  the  High  Council.  Instead  of  one  Tzar  they  would 
have  eight.  And  who  were  these  eight  ?  Golovkine  and  Os- 
termann  excepted,  they  were  all  Galitsynes  and  Dolgoroukis — 
two  Galitsynes  and  four  Dolgoroukis ;  the  empire  was  to  be  the 
property  of  the  two  families.  If  the  monarchical  instincts  of 
the  greater  number,  and  the  aristocratic  jealousy  of  many  others, 
were  excited,  the  partisans  of  reform  were  troubled  at  finding  in 
the  supreme  council  only  the  members  of  the  old  noblesse,  and 
the  upholders  of  the  ancient  order  of  things.  The  discontent 
broke  forth  in  murmurs  and  turmoils  ;  the  High  Council  was 
obliged  to  take  severe  measures  against  meetings — a  singular 


60  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

inauguration  of  the  reign  of  liberty,  which  proved  how  little  sym- 
pathy the  attempt  of  the  nobles  met  with  from  the  nation. 

A  few  days  later  the  High  Council  convoked  the  general 
assembly  to  listen  to  the  letter  in  which  Anne  Ivanovna  an- 
nounced her  acceptance  of  all  the  conditions.  "  There  was  no 
one  present,"  says  Archbishop  Feofane,  "  who  heard  the  letter 
who  did  not  tremble  in  .all  his  limbs.  Even  those  who  had  hoped 
much  from  this  reunion  lowered  their  ears  like  poor  asses  :  there 
was  a  '  hush  '  and  a  general  murmur,  but  none  dared  to  speak 
or  cry  out."  The  five  hundred  people  present  silently  affixed 
their  signatures.  The  new  Empress  made,  however,  her  solemn 
entrance  into  Moscow.  Vassili  Loukitch  and  his  party  consti- 
tuted themselves  the  guards  of  the  Empress,  surrounded  her 
jealously,  and  saw  that  no  enemy  of  the  constitution  came  near 
her.  The  malcontents,  with  Feofane  at  their  head,  agitated  the 
clergy  and  the  people.  They  found  means  to  pass  some  notes  to 
the  Empress,  acquainting  her  with  the  situation,  and  imploring 
her  to  act  energetically.  Children  or  ladies-in-waiting  served  as 
go-betweens.  On  the  25th  of  February,  1731,  the  members  of 
the  Council  were  deliberating,  when  they  were  suddenly  sum- 
moned before  the  Empress.  They  were  much  astonished  to  find 
an  assembly  composed  of  eight  hundred  persons,  belonging  to 
the  senate,  the  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  to  the  different  admin- 
istrations, who  laid  before  Anne  a  petition  that  she  would  ex- 
amine the  complaints  addressed  to  the  High  Council  about  the 
new  constitution.  At  the  lower  end  of  the  hall  the  officers  of 
the  guard  cried  out  in  excitement,  "  We  do  not  want  them  to 
lay  down  the  law  to  the  Empress.  Let  her  be  an  autocrat  like 
her  predecessors  ! "  Others  offered  "  to  lay  at  her  feet  the 
heads  of  her  enemies."  She  calmed  their  agitation,  and  pro- 
rogued the  sitting  till  the  afternoon,  when  the  deputies  presented 
a  formal  request  for  the  re-establishment  of  autocracy.  The 
Empress  was  astonished,  and  exclaimed,  "  What !  the  conditions 
sent  me  at  Mittau,  were  they  not  the  will  of  the  whole  nation  ?  " 
"  No,  no,"  they  cried.  "  Then,"  she  said,  turning  to  Vassili 
Loukitch,  "  you  have  deceived  me." 

Such  was  the  check  received  by  the  first  liberal  constitution 
that  had  ever  been  tried  in  Russia.  "  The  table  was  prepared," 
said  Prince  Dmitri  Galitsyne,  "  but  the  guests  were  not  worthy. 
I  know  that  I  shall  pay  for  the  failure  of  this  enterprise  ;  so  be 
it.  I  shall  suffer  for  my  country,  I  have  not  long  to  live,  and 
those  who  cause  me  to  weep  will  one  day  weep  themselves." 
The  Galitsynes  and  Dolgoroukis  did  indeed  expiate  this  generous 
attempt,  in  which  unhappily  they  had  taken  no  thought  of  the 
time  nor  the  country.  Anne's  vengeance  was  cunning,  refined 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  6 1 

and  gradual  She  began  by  banishing  them  to  their  property  ; 
then,  seeing  that  no  one  protested,  exiled  them  to  Si\.,*.ia. 
Finally,  encouraged  by  the  universal  silence,  she  crowned  her 
revenge.  The  marshals  Dolgorouki  and  Galitsyne  died  in 
prison  ;  Vassili  Loukitch  and  two  other  Dolgoroukis  were  be- 
headed ;  Ivan,  the  former  favorite,  was  broken  on  the  wheel 
at  Novgorod.  With  these  sufferings  is  associated  the  touching 
and  tragic  history  of  Natalia  Cheremetief,  betrothed  wife  of  Ivan 
Dolgorouki,  who,  having  accepted  his  hand  in  the  days  of  his 
prosperity,  persisted  in  sharing  his  misfortunes. 

Anne  Ivanovna  was  then  thirty-five  years  of  age.  In  her 
youth  she  had  lived  in  the  dreary  court  of  Mittau,  a  bride  sought 
for  her  duchy,  the  political  plaything  of  the  four  Northern  courts, 
despised  by  Menchikof,  and  receiving  orders  and  reproaches 
from  Moscow.  The  bitterness  of  her  regrets  and  her  disappoint- 
ments was  painted  in  her  severe  countenance,  and  reflected  in 
her  soured  and  coldly  cruel  character.  A  head  taller  than  the 
gentlemen  of  her  court,  with  a  hard  and  masculine  beauty,  and 
the  deep  voice  of  a  man,  she  was  imposing,  and  even  terrible. 
The  aristocratic  attempt  of  1730  had  made  her  mistrust  the 
Russians,  and  she  felt  that  a  project  less  exclusive  and  more 
clever  than  that  of  the  High  Council  would  perhaps  have  had  a 
chance  with  the  Russian  nation.  By  precaution,  and  from  taste, 
she  surrounded  herself  with  Germans,  Biren  or  Biron  at  the 
head  of  them,  a  Courlander  of  low  extraction,  whom  the  ducal 
nobility  had  refused  to  admit  amongst  them,  and  whom  she 
created  Duke  of  Courland  and  Prince  of  the  Holy  Empire.  She 
made  Lcewenvald  manager  of  court  affairs,  Ostermann  chief  of 
the  foreign  administration,  Korff  and  Kayserling  of  the  em- 
bassies ;  Lascy,  Munich,  Bismark,  and  Gustaf  Biren  of  the  army. 
It  was  in  Germany  that  she  chose  to  seek  for  her  successor, — 
Anne,  daughter  of  Catherine  Ivanovna,  Princess  of  Mecklen- 
burg, wilh  her  husband,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  Severn,  and 
their  little  emperor,  Ivan  VI.  The  Germans  ruled  in  Russia, 
just  us  the  Tatars  had  formerly  done  ;  and  a  new  word,  Bir- 
onovchtchina,  expressive  of  the  new  regime,  was  coined  on  the 
model  of  the  old  Tatarchlchina.  But  if  the  Germans  were 
triumphant,  was  it  not  the  fault  of  the  Russians  themselves  ? 
The  "  eaglets  "  of  Peter  the  Great  had  torn  each  other  to  pieces. 
Menchikof  had  ruined  Tolstoi  and  Jagoujinski,  and  was  in  his 
turn  destroyed  by  the  Dolgoroukis,  themselves  victims,  with  the 
Galitsynes,  of  the  national  hate.  Besides  all  this,  the  strangers 
who  took  their  posts  and  filled  the  place  they  had  left  vacant 
were  far  more  laborious  and  more  exact  than  the  natives.  The 
Russians  had  still  to  pass  through  a  hard  school  to  acquire  the 
Dualities  they  lacked. 


6  2  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

The  new  government  was  pitiless  towards  the  Russians  : 
Feofilakt  Lopatinski  was  deposed  and  imprisoned  in  Viborg,  for 
having  edited  Stephen  Javorski's  book  against  the  Protestants 
('  The  Stone  (Peter)  and  the  Faith  ') ;  and  Volynski,  one  of  those 
who  had  most  loudly  protested  in  favor  of  autocracy,  had  the 
misfortune  to  offend  the  favorite  by  his  anti-German  sentiments, 
and  was  cruelly  tortured  and  beheaded.  Thousands  of  execu- 
tions and  banishments  decimated  the  upper  classes,  and  a  merci- 
less collection  of  arrears  of  taxes,  which  Russian  indolence  had 
allowed  to  accumulate,  desolated  the  country,  while  the  peasants 
beheld  their  last  head  of  cattle,  their  last  tool,  sizeed  by  the 
government  for  payment.  The  new  despotism  methodically 
organized  its  means  of  oppression.  No  doubt  it  suppressed  the 
High  Council,  in  order  to  restore  the  epithet  of  il  directing  "  to 
the  senate,  but  in  reality  it  was  the  Cabinet  composed  of  the 
ministers,  and  presided  over  by  the  Empress,  that  regulated  all 
affairs.  The  old  "  Prikaz  of  Reformation  "  was  re-established 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Secret  Court  of  Chancery,"  and  the 
cruel  Ouchakof  placed  at  the  head.  As  the  Empress  had  con- 
fidence only  in  her  guards,  two  new  regiments,  the  Isma'ilovski^ 
and  the  horse  guards,  were  created.  Foreign  officers  were 
everywhere,  and  the  brothers  of  the  German  favorites  distributed 
among  themselves  the  ranks  of  colonel  and  lieutenant-colonel. 

Reassured  as  to  the  solidity  of  her  throne,  Anne  only  thought 
how  to  make  up  for  the  time  she  had  wasted  in  ennui  and  regret. 
She  surrounded  herself  with  jesters,  and,  as  if  to  humiliate  the 
nation,  she  forced  Nastasia  and  Anisia,  two  Russian  princesses, 
and  a  Volkonski  and  a  Galitsyne,  two  Russian  princes,  to  gulp 
balls  of  pastry,  or  to  crouch  in  the  position  of  hens  sitting  on 
eggs,  for  the  amusement  of  the  court.  Balls,  fetes,  and  mas- 
querades followed  each  other  without  interruption.  The  Em- 
press set  the  example  of  unbridled  luxury,  till  then  unheard  of 
in  Russia,  and  ruinous  to  a  poor  country.  Up  to  that  time  the 
greatest  nobles  and  ladies  had  taken  no  heed  of  the  caprices  of 
fashion  ;  they  replaced  their  clothes  when  they  became  old,  and 
wore  without  shame  the  garments  of  their  grandparents.  Manstein 
informs  us  that,  under  Anne,  a  courtier  with  a  revenue  of  two 
or  three  thousand  roubles  cut  but  a  poor  figure  ;  costumiers  got 
rich  in  two  or  three  years  ;  people  carried  their  patrimony,  often 
the  price  of  whole  villages,  on  their  backs  ;  they  played  heavily 
at  faro  and  at  quinzf.  In  the  luxury  with  which  the  court  of 
Anne  dazzled  Russia,  there  was  a  mixture  of  antique  barbarism 
and  bad  German  taste  which  moved  the  mirth  of  Western 
travellers.  For  one  well-dressed  woman  there  were  ten  who 
made  themselves  frightful  objects.  "  Among  the  men,"  says 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  63 

Manstein,  "  the  most  gorgeous  coat  was  often  accompanied  by 
an  ill-combed  wig  ;  a  beautiful  piece  of  stuff  was  spoilt  by  a 
clumsy  tailor  ;  or,  if  the  dress  chanced  to  be  successful,  the 
equipages  were  defective  ;  a  superbly  dressed  man  would  arrive 
in  a  shabby  old  vehicle  drawn  by  two  screws."  "  The  favorite 
Biren,"  relates  Prince  Dolgoroukof,  "  loved  bright  colors,  there- 
fore black  coats  were  forbidden  at  court,  and  everyone  appeared 
in  brilliant  raiment  :  nothing  was  seen  but  light  blue,  pale 
green,  yellow,  and  pink.  Old  men  like  Prince  Tcherkasski,  or 
the  Vice-Chancellor  Ostermann,  arrived  at  the  palace  in  rose- 
color  costumes."  This  was  of  slight  importance.  Russian 
taste  would  be  formed  in  time,  especially  by  the  help  of  another 
school.  The  Germans  prepared  the  way  for  the  French.  From 
the  point  of  view  of  dress  and  domestic  economy,  the  Biron- 
ovchtchina  marks  an  important  revolution  in  Russia. 

Manners  were  still  very  gross.  Anne  amused  herself  with 
low  buffoonery.  Manstein  says  she  liked  Italian  and  German 
comedies  for  the  sake  of  the  frequent  blows  with  a  stick. 
Volynski,  a  Cabinet  minister,  thrashed  the  poet  Trddiakovski. 
There  were  complaints  that  in  the  army  the  superior  officers 
obliged  the  military  doctors  to  serve  them  as  cooks  or  hair- 
dressers. The  exposure  on  poles  of  the  heads  or  quarters  of 
traitors  had  only  just  been  suppressed  by  Peter  II.  Jagoujinski. 
the  Procurator-General  of  the  Senate,  got  so  intoxicated  that  he 
ventured  to  insult  the  old  Ostermann  before  the  Empress,  who 
shook  with  laughter.  Soltykof,  Governor  of  Moscow,  denounced 
Tchikirine,  the  official  who,  "forgetting  that  he  was  in  the  house 
of  her  Majesty,  had  refused  to  get  drunk." 

It  is  an  important  fact  that  the  German  masters  of  Russia 
resolved  to  maintain  the  reforms  of  Peter.  After  her  corona- 
tion, Anne  returned  to  Saint  Petersburg. 

She  abolished  entail,  which  Peter  the  Great  had  unfortu- 
nately borrowed  from  Western  nations,  and  which  had  produced 
sad  results  in  Russia.  The  fathers  of  families  taxed  their 
peasants  to  wring  out  portions  for  the  younger  sons  ;  if  they 
bequeathed  the  land  to  the  eldest,  they  gave  the  cattle  to  th& 
other  sons.  On  the  other  hand,  the  time  devoted  to  the  educa- 
tion and  the  military  service  of  the  young  nobles  was  more 
clearly  defined.  From  the  age  of  seven  to  that  of  twenty  the 
young  noble  was  to  study,  and  from  twenty  to  forty-five  he 
was  to  serve  the  State.  Examinations  were  established,  to 
test  the  progress  of  the  boys  ;  from  twelve  to  sixteen  they  had 
to  appear  before  a  board,  and  whoever  after  the  second  exami- 
nation was  found  ignorant  of  the  catechism,  arithmetic,  and 
geometry,  was  forced  to  become  a  sailor.  These  rigorou^ 


64  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

measures  prove  how  indifferent  the  mass  of  the  nobles  ther 
were  to  the  advantages  of  education.  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  rule  of  the  Germans,  rough  instructors  though  they  were, 
had  a  salutary  influence  on  Russian  civilization.  On  the  sug- 
gestion of  Munich,  the  "  corps  of  cadets  "  for  360  young  nobles 
was  founded  at  St.  Petersburg.  General  education  held  a  larger 
place  in  his  programme  than  purely  military  instruction.  Boys 
were  prepared  for  the  civil  service  as  well  as  for  the  army. 
Orthography,  style,  rhetoric,  jurisprudence,  ethics,  heraldry, 
arithmetic,  fortifications,  artillery,  geography,  general  history, 
and  the  history  of  Germany  (not  Russia)  were  all  taught.  The 
most  industrious  and  the  most  distinguished  pupils  might,  after 
they  had  finished  the  preliminary  courses,  follow  those  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences. 


SUCCESSION    OF    POLAND    (l733~I73S)  AND    WAR    WITH    TURKEY 


With  regard  to  the  East,  the  government  of  Anne  Ivanovna 
resolved  to  abandon  the  Persian  provinces  conquered  by  Peter 
the  Great  where  the  climate  had  proved  fatal  to  the  Russian 
armies. 

In  1733,  after  the  death  of  Augustus  II.,  the  question  of  the 
succession  of  Poland  was  re-opened.  Prussia,  which  desired  to 
weaken  Poland,  did  not  wish  to  support  either  the  French  candi- 
date, Leszczinski,  or  the  Saxon  candidate,  Augustus  III.  Aus- 
tria, on  the  contrary,  which  would  gladly  have  beheld  Poland 
sufficiently  strong  to  aid  her  against  the  Turks,  declared  for 
Augustus.  Russia,  whose  object  it  was  to  remain  mistress  in 
Poland  and  Courland,  cared  little  who  was  elected,  provided  it 
was  neither  a  powerful  prince  nor  a  client  of  France.  Now 
Louis  XV.  thought  himself  bound  in  honor  to  maintain  the 
cause  of  his  father-in-law,  Stanislas  Leszczinski,  the  forme  tprotfgt 
of  Charles  XII.  The  Power  whose  interests  in  this  affair  almost 
corresponded  with  those  of  Russia  was  therefore  the  house  of 
Austria.  The  Austro-  Russian  alliance,  inaugurated  under  Cath- 
erine I.,  was  cemented  under  Anne  Ivanovna.  Prussia,  whose 
project  of  partition  had  been  set  aside,  remained  neutral.  The 
struggle  between  France  and  Russia  began  by  a  diplomatic 
rivalry.  We  find  at  Berlin  La  Che'tardie  pitted  against  Jagou- 
jinski  ;  at  Stockholm,  Saint  Se've'rin  against  Michael  Bestoujef; 
at  Copenhagen,  Ple'lo  against  Alexis  Bestoujef  ;  at  Constanti- 
nople, Villeneuve  against  Neplouef  ;  at  Warsaw,  Monti,  against 
IxEwenwald.  France  hoped  to  support  her  candidate  by  Swedish 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  (7SSIA.  6S 

and  Turkish  diversions,  and  to  render  the  neutrality  of  Prussia 
more  favorable  ;  in  Poland  she  worked  as  hard  to  persuade  as 
Russia  to  intimidate. 

Even  at  St.  Petersburg,  the  French  ambassador,  Magnan, 
neglected  nothing  to  gain  over  the  Empress  and  her  favorite  to 
a  more  peaceful  policy,  but  the  struggle  was  inevitable.  Whilst 
a  false  Leszczinski,  the  Chevalier  de  Thiange,  ostentatiously 
embarked  at  Brest,  the  real  Stanislas  disguised  as  a  commercial 
traveller,  crossed  Europe,  and  entered  Warsaw  at  night.  Sixty 
thousand  nobles  declared  in  his  favor  on  the  field  of  election, 
and  there  were  only  four  thousand  dissidents.  He  was  there- 
fore legitimate  King  of  Poland,  yet  the  Russian  army  was  invad- 
ing the  territory  of  the  republic.  Then  Stanislas  called  the 
pospolite  to  arms,  and  retired  into  the  maritime  fortress  of 
Dantzig  to  await  succor  from  France.  After  his  departure,  the 
malcontents,  under  the  protection  of  20,000  Russian  bayonets, 
proclaimed  Augustus  III.  Stanislas  found  himself  besieged  in 
Dantzig  by  Marshal  Munich,  who,  without  waiting  for  the  artil- 
lery, took  the  faubourg  of  Schotlandia  by  assault.  The  King  of 
Prussia  refused  a  passage  through  his  territory  to  the  Russian 
guns,  and  the  French  frigates  were  watching  the  sea  ;  but  not- 
withstanding the  blockade,  Munich  received  his  cannon,  and  by 
the  capture  of  Sommerschantz  cut  off  the  communications  of 
Dantzig  with  Wechseliniinde  and  the  mouth  of  the  Vistula  ;  he 
then  threw  1500  bombs  into  the  town.  He  failed,  however,  in 
a  bloody  midnight  attack  on  the  fort  of  Hagelsberg.  The 
French  troops  came  up,  led  by  Count  de  Plelo  and  Lamothe  de 
la  Peyrouse,  but  only  numbered  2000  men.  Plelo  was  killed, 
and  the  Count  de  Lamothe,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  Wechsel- 
miinde,  had  to  capitulate.  Dantzig  opened  her  gates.  Stanislas 
had  already  fled,  disguised  as  a  peasant.  Such  was  the  first 
contest  between  the  French  and  the  Russians.  Lady  Rondeau 
gives  an  account  of  the  presentation  of  the  Count  de  Lamothe 
and  his  officers  to  the  Tzarina;  the  soldiers  were  quartered  in 
the  camp  of  Koporie,  in  Ingria  ;  and  Anne  did  all  she  could  to 
make  them  desert  and  to  draw  them  into  her  service.  Monti, 
the  French  ambassador  at  Warsaw,  was  taken  prisoner  at  Dant- 
zig, and  in  spite  of  his  diplomatic  character  was  retained  in 
captivity. 

The  war  of  the  Polish  Succession  was  ended  in  Poland  ;  it 
began  on  the  Rhine  and  in  Italy,  and  it  was  the  house  of  Austria 
that  paid  for  it.  The  French  excited  against  her  the  electors 
of  Cologne,  Mayence,  Bavaria,  and  the  Palatinate  ;  took  Kehl 
and  Philippsburg,  and  deprived  her  of  the  Duchy  of  Parma  and 
the  kingdom  of  Naples.  In  virtue  of  the  treaty  of  alliance  of 


66  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

1726,  the  Emperor  demanded  help  of  the  Tzarina.  Lascy,  at 
the  head  of  20,000  men,  crossed  Silesia,  Bohemia,  and  Fran- 
conia,  diplaying  a  Russian  army  for  the  first  time  before  the 
eyes  of  Western  Germany;  and  on  the  i5th  of  August,  1735, 
formed  a  junction  with  the  Austrian  troops  between  Heidelberg 
and  Ladenberg,  two  miles  from  the  French  outposts.  The 
Peace  of  Vienna,  however,  put  an  end  to  hostilities.  The  French 
had  revenged  themselves  on  Austria,  which  ceded  Lorraine  and 
part  of  Italy,  not  on  Russia,  which  had  taken  Dantzig  under 
their  very  eyes.  The  efforts  of  the  French  ambassador  Ville- 
neuve,  of  the  renegade  Bonneval,  and  of  the  Hungarian  Ragotski, 
raised  the  Turks.  The  result  of  the  war  with  Poland  was  a  war 
in  the  East,  to  which  events  almost  added  a  Swedish  war. 

In  the  East  also,  Russia  had  Austria  for  an  ally.  Cam- 
paigns against  the  Turks,  across  the  desert  steppes  of  the 
South,  offered  the  same  difficulties  as  in  1711,  as  everything  had 
to  be  carried  with  the  army,  even  wood  and  water.  In  spite  of 
all  Munich's  efforts,  the  Russian  cavalry  was  very  second-rate. 
The  arm}',  encumbered  with  baggage,  moved  slowly  over  the  in- 
terminable plains ;  it  seemed  lost  among  the  vastness  of  its  con- 
voys. A  simple  sergeant  had  ten  chariots,  an  officer  thirty,  the 
general  Gustaf  Biren  300  beasts  of  burden.  There  were  al- 
ways 10,000  sick  men  in  the  army,  which,  in  spite  of  the  dispen- 
sation of  the  Holy  Synod,  exhausted  itself  by  a  rigorous  observ- 
ance of  fasts  and  days  of  abstinence. 

In  1736  Lascy  took  Azof,  Munich  forced  the  lines  of  Perekop, 
pillaged  Bakhtchi-Se'ral',  the  capital  of  the  khans,  and  laid  waste 
the  Western  Crimea  in  such  a  way  that  the  prosperity  of  the 
country  has  never  recovered  it.  In  1737  Lascy  devastated  the 
eastern  part  of  the  peninsula,  whilst  Munich  took  Otchakof ;  in 
1739,  the  latter  gained  a  splendid  victory  at  Stavoutchani, 
captured  Khotin,  crossed  the  Pruth,  boasted  of  having  avenged 
the  defeat  of  Peter  the  Great,  and  entered  the  capital  of  Mol- 
davia. During  this  time  the  Austrians  were  constantly  beaten. 
They  feared  the  Russians  as  neighbors  of  their  orthodox  prov- 
inces of  Transylvania  and  Illyria,  more  than  they  did  the  Turks. 
They  insisted  on  the  conclusion  of  peace,  nr.d  at  Belgrade  (1739) 
they  ceded  to  Turkey  all  Servia,  with  Orsova  and  Wallathia ; 
the  Russians  only  obtained  a  tongue  of  land  between  the  Bug 
and  the  Dnieper,  contented  themselves  with  the  demolition  of 
Azof,  and  surrendered  all  their  conquests.  This  war  had  cost 
them  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  men.  The  King  of  France 
had  just  proved  that  he  knew  how  to  reach  his  enemies,  even 
though  separated  from  him  by  vast  spaces.  Anne  Ivanovna 
found  herself  obliged  to  ask  his  mediation  to  prevent  a  war  with 


HTSTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  67 

Sweden,  and  to  conclude  peace  with  the  Turks.  At  the  instance 
of  Ostermann,  and  by  orders  of  Louis  XV.,  Saint  Seve'rin 
negotiated  at  Stockholm,  and  Villeneuve  at  Constantinople. 
The  Empress  showed  her  gratitude  to  the  latter  by  offering  him 
15,000  thakrs.  He  would  only  accept  the  cross  of  Saint  An- 
drew. Kantemir,  Russian  ambassador  at  Paris,  still  continued 
to  warn  his  court  that  "  Russia  being  the  only  Power  which  could 
counterbalance  that  of  France,  the  latter  would  lose  no  oppor- 
tunity of  diminishing  her  strength." 


IVAN   VI, — REGENCY   OF   BIREN    AND  ANNE — REVOLUTION   OF 

1741. 

The  weight  of  the  taxes,  the  rigor  with  which  they  were  col- 
lected, and  the  frequent  conscriptions  maddened  the  peasants, 
whilst  the  disgrace  of  Feofilakt,  of  Tatichtchef,  of  Roumantsof 
and  Makarof  (old  servants  of  Peter  the  Great),  as  well  as  the 
sacrifice  of  Volynski,  of  Galitsyne,  and  the  Dolgoroukis,  seemed 
to  threaten  the  whole  nation.  Soon  the  echoes  of  the  general 
discontent  reached  the  Secret  Court  of  Police.  The  people  at- 
tributed all  their  misfortunes  to  the  reign  of  a  woman,  and  re- 
peated the  proverb,  "  Cities  governed  by  women  do  not  endure  ; 
the  walls  built  by  women  are  never  high."  Others  said  the  corn 
did  not  grow  because  a  woman  ruled.  They  began  to  regret  the 
iron  despotism  of  Peter  I.,  and  a  popular  song  exhorts  him  to 
leave  his  tomb  and  chastise  "  Biren,  the  cursed  German."  The 
raskolniks  had  predicted  that  in  1733  the  wrath  of  God  would 
fall  on  men,  and  that  Anne  would  be  taken  and  judged  at  Mos- 
cow. She  reigned,  however,  till  1740,  at  which  time  her  health 
began  to  give  way.  Biren's  scheme  was  to  obtain  from  Anne 
Ivanovna  the  investiture  of  the  regency  during  the  minority  of 
the  little  Emperor  Ivan  of  Brunswick.  Alexis  Bestoujef,  who 
owed  his  fortune  to  Biren,  assured  him  of  the  support  of  Munich 
and  of  the  Cabinet-minister  Tcherkasski.  The  Germans  of  the 
court  said,  with  Mengden,  "  If  the  Duke  of  Courland  is  not  ap- 
pointed regent,  the  rest  of  us  Germans  are  lost."  The  Empress 
signed  the  nomination  of  Biren,  and  died  the  next  day.  Her 
last  words  to  her  favorite  were,  "  Nt '  bo'is  "  (fear  nothing). 

Biren,  however,  had  his  own  reasons  for  feeling  uncomfort- 
able. The  Russians  were  indignant  at  having  a  master  imposed 
on  them  who  was  a  foreigner  and  a  heretic,  without  morality  and 
without  talent,  and  whose  only  claim  was  a  criminal  union  which 
dishonored  the  memory  of  their  Empress.  If  a  foreign  regent 
was  necessary,  why  not  have  the  father  of  the  Emperor  ?  Th« 


68  ffIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

long  minority  of  a  child  only  three  months  old  at  the  death  of 
Anne  alarmed  every  one,  and  the  thoughts  of  many  turned  to- 
wards the  daughter  of  Peter  the  Great,  and  her  grandson  Peter 
of  Holstein.  The  reign  of  the  Germans  still  continued  ;  besides 
Biren,  the  empire  had  to  obey  the  Prince  Antony  of  Brunswick 
Bevern,  and  his  wife  Anne  Leopoldovna  of  Mecklenburg, 
governed  in  their  turn  by  Anne's  favorite  the  Saxon  Lynar,  and 
the  prince's  mistress,  Julia  Mengden.  Happily,  however,  these 
foreign  masters  never  thought  of  combining.  The  parents  of 
the  Emperor  bore  the  authority  of  Biren  with  impatience  ;  and 
the  latter,  discontented  with  their  conduct,  spoke  of  sending  for 
Peter  of  Holstein,  giving  him  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and 
marrying  his  son  to  Elizabeth.  The  fate  of  Menchikof  and  the 
Dolgoroukis  was  lost  on  him.  His  clumsy  nonentity  embar- 
rassed Ostermann  and  Munich  ;  and  the  latter,  in  an  interview 
with  Anne  Leopoldovna,  promised  her  to  get  rid  of  the  tyrant. 
His  aide-de-camp,  Manstein,  has  given  us  a  graphic  account  of 
this  coup  (T/tat.  One  night  in  November,  Biren,  who  suspected 
nothing,  and  who  in  the  evening  had  dined  in  company  with 
Munich,  was  taken  from  his  bed,  the  Duchess  of  Courland  was 
thrust  almost  naked  from  the  palace,  all  his  friends  were  ar- 
rested, and  he  was  sent  to  Pelim,  in  Siberia. 

Mttnich  had  given  liberty  and  power  to  the  parents  of  the 
Emperor ;  how  could  they  reward  him  ?  Like  Menchikof,  he 
wished  to  be  Generalissimo,  but  Antony  of  Brunswick  coveted 
the  place.  Munich  then  contented  himself  with  the  title  of  First 
Minister;  and  Ostermann  was  recompensed  by  being  nomi- 
nated High  Admiral.  Antony,  Anne,  and  Ostermann  soon 
united  against  their  liberator ;  and  Munich,  filled  with  disgust, 
sent  in  his  resignation.  The  Germans,  when  they  attained  the 
supreme  power,  conducted  themselves  exactly  like  the  "  eaglets  " 
of  Peter  the  Great :  they  mutually  banished  and  exterminated 
each  other.  The  father  and  mother  of  the  Emperor,  left  in 
possession  of  the  field,  continued  to  dispute  the  authority,  and  to 
reproach  each  other  with  their  mutual  infidelities.  Ostermann 
supported  Antony  against  Anne.  The  incapacity  of  the  Regent 
was  beyond  belief.  Not  having  the  energy  to  dress  herself, 
Anne  Leopoldovna  would  lie  for  whole  days  on  a  couch,  her 
head  covered  with  a  hankerchief,  conversing  with  her  intimate 
friends.  The  divisions  and  indifference  of  the  government 
threw  open  the  way  to  its  numerous  enemies  ;  they  only  wanted 
a  chief  who  would  attack  the  Brunswickers  as  they  had  success- 
fully attacted  Biren. 

Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Peter  the  Great,  who  had  been 
narrowly  watched  under  the  hard  rule  of  Anne  Ivanovna  and 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  69 

Biren,  raised  her  head  under  this  weak  government.  Twenty- 
eight  years  old,  tall  and  very  pretty,  with  great  quickness  of 
mind  though  very  ignorant,  lively  and  joyous,  a  bold  rider  and 
fearless  on  the  water,  with  soldier-like  manners,  she  had  all  the 
qualities  necessary  to  a  party  leader.  Her  confidants,  Alex- 
ander and  Peter  Schouvalof,  Michael  Voronzof,  Razoumovski, 
Schwartz,  and  the  doctor  Lestocq,  all  urged  her  to  action. 
The  Regent  feared  her,  but  did  not  dare  to  act  on  the  advice 
of  Osterrnann.  It  was  known  at  the  palace  that  after  the 
downfall  of  Biren  three  regiments  of  Guards  had  hastened  to 
swear  fealty  to  her,  believing  the  next  step  would  be  the  proc- 
lamation of  Peter  the  Great's  daughter  ;  and  that  at  Cronstadt 
the  soldiers  had  said,  "  Will  no  one  put  himself  at  our  head  in 
favor  of  Elizabeth  Petrovna  ?  "  She  accepted  the  office  of  god- 
mother to  their  children,  visited  the  Guards  in  their  barracks, 
and  invited  them  to  her  house.  When  she  passed  through  the 
streets  in  her  sledge,  the  common  grenadiers  climbed  on  the 
back  of  the  carriage  and  whispered  familiarly  in  her  ear.  The 
French  ambassador,  La  Chetardie,  had  orders  to  favor  any 
revolution  in  Russia  that  would  destroy  the  influence  of  the 
Germans,  and  break  the  alliance  with  Austria.  He  aided 
Elizabeth  with  advice  and  money,  and  hoped  to  obtain  for  her 
the  support  of  a  Swedish  diversion.  The  Swedes  had  repented 
of  their  quiescence  during  the  late  wars  with  Poland  and  Turkey, 
and  were  disposed  to  take  their  own  grievances  and  those  of 
Elizabeth  as  a  pretext  for  declaring  war  against  the  Regent. 
The  Swedish  ambassador,  Nolken,  only  stipulated  that  at  her 
accession  the  Tzarevna  should  promise  to  restore  part  of  the 
conquests  of  Peter  the  Great.  This  she  declined  to  do  ;  but 
the  Swedes,  nevertheless,  began  hostilities,  and  issued  a  mani- 
festo to  the  "  glorious  Russian  nation,"  which  they  wished  to 
deliver  from  German  ministers,  and  from  the  "heavy  oppression 
and  cruel  foreign  tyranny,"  so  as  to  enable  it  freely  to  elect  "  a 
legitimate  and  just  government."  This  diversion  precipitated 
the  crisis.  The  court  was  by  this  time  too  well  accustomed  to 
plots  for  the  conspirators  to  delay  ;  and,  besides,  the  regiments 
counted  on  by  Elizabeth  had  orders  to  proceed  to  the  frontier. 
She  had  only  the  choice  between  the  throne  and  the  convent. 
In  the  night  of  the  25th  of  October  she  went  with  three  of  her 
friends  to  the  quarters  of  the  Preobrajenski.  "  My  children," 
she  said  to  them,  "you  know  whose  daughter  I  am.'"'  "  Mother. 
we  are  ready ;  we  will  kill  them  all."  She  forbade  bloodshed, 
and  added,  "  I  swear  to  die  for  you  ;  will  you  swear  to  die  for 
me?"  They  all  swore.  Anne  Leopoldovna,  Prince  Antony, 
the  young  Emperor  in  his  cradle,  Munich,  Ostermann?  Lcewen- 


7  0  HISTOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

wald,  and  the  Mengdens,  were  arrested  during  the  night 
Elizabeth  was  proclaimed  absolute  Empress,  and  the  nobles  of 
the  empire  hastened  to  give  in  their  adhesion  to  the  new  revolu- 
tion. Ivan  VI.  was  confined  at  Schliisselburg ;  Anne,  with  her 
husband  and  children,  at  Kholmogory,  where  she  died  in  1746. 
A  tribunal  was  held,  and  the  Dolgoroukis  were  among  the 
judges.  Ostermann  was  condemned  to  be  broken  on  the  wheel, 
Munich  to  be  quartered,  and  the  others  to  decapitation.  The 
Empress,  however,  spared  their  lives.  Ostermann  was  exiled  to 
Berezof,  and  Munich  to  Pelim,  where  he  lived  in  the  house  he 
had  planned  for  Biren.  Many  of  the  exiles  of  the  preceding 
reign  were  recalled,  and  the  Birens  were  allowed  to  reside  in 
laroslavl. 


H2S7'GKY  OF  RUSSfA. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
ELIZABETH  PETROVNA  (1741-1762). 

Reaction  against  the  Germans:  war  with  Sweden  (1741-1743) — Succession  of 
Austria:  war  against  Frederic  II.  (1756-1762) — Reforms  under  Elizabeth  : 
French  influence. 


REACTION    AGAINST    THE    GERMANS  :    WAR  WITH     SWEDEN 
(1741-1743.) 

WHEN  Elizabeth  had  been  crowned  at  Moscow,  she  sent  to  Hoi- 
stein  for  the  son  of  her  sister,  Anne  Petrovna,  and  of  the  Duke 
Charles  Frederic.  The  grandson  of  Peter  the  Great  embraced 
orthodoxy,  took  the  name  of  Peter  Feodorovitch,  was  proclaimed 
heir  to  the  throne,  and  in  1744  the  Empress  married  him  to  the 
Princess  Sophia  of  Anhalt-Zerbst,  afterwards  Catherine  II. 
Thus  the  power  which  had  been  diverted  to  the  Ivanian  branch 
of  the  Romanof  dynasty,  to  Anne  of  Courland  and  her  great- 
nephew  of  Brunswick,  returned  to  the  immediate  family  of  Peter 
the  Great  in  the  person  of  Elizabeth  as  Empress,  and  of  her 
nephew  of  Holstein  as  heir  to  the  throne. 

The  revolution  of  1741  meant  much  more  than  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  Petrovian  for  the  Ivanian  branch  ;  it  signified 
the  triumph  of  the  national  over  the  German  party,  the  reaction 
of  the  Russian  element  against  the  hard  tutelage  of  the  strangers, 
and  thus  it  was  understood  by  the  people.  The  orthodox  clergy, 
persecuted  by  the  heretics,  took  its  revenge  in  the  sermons  of 
Ambrose  louchke'vitch,  Archbishop  of  Novgorod,  against  the 
"  emissaries  of  the  devil,"  and  against  "  Beelzebub  and  his 
angels."  The  poet  Lomonossof  hails  in  Elizabeth  the  Astrasa 
who  "  had  brought  back  the  golden  age,"  the  Moses  who 
"had  snatched  Russia  in  one  night  from  her  Egyptian 
slavery,"  the  Noah  "  who  had  saved  her  from  the  foreign  deluge." 
Citizens  and  soldiers  rose  against  the  Germans ;  there  were  re- 
volts at  St.  Petersburg,  and  in  the  army  of  Finland,  against  the 
foreign  officers,  on  whom  the  men  wished  to  inflict  the  punish- 
ment of  Ostermann  and  Munich.  At  court,  Finch,  the  English 
ambassador,  Botta,  the  Austrian  ambassador,  Lynar,  the  Saxon 


j  a  UISTOR  Y  OF  R  USS/A. 

ambassador,  had  compromised  themselves  under  the  preced- 
ing dynasty ;  therefore  all  the  sympathies  of  the  nation  and 
the  Tzarina  were  for  Mardefeld,  ambassador  of  Prussia,  and 
especially  for  La  Che*tardie,  whom  they  looked  on  as  one  of 
the  authors  of  the  revolution,  and  whose  hands  the  officers  of  the 
Guard  came  to  kiss,  addressing  him  as  "  their  father."  The 
Austro-Russian  alliance,  consolidated  under  Catherine  I.  and 
Anne  Ivanovna,  seemed  broken. 

This  good  understanding  between  the  courts  of  France  and 
Russia  was  imperilled  by  the  affairs  of  Sweden.  The  Cabinet  of 
Versailles  had  not  been  able  to  persuade  its  Scandinavian  ally 
into  war  except  by  hints  of  cessions  of  territory  by  the  new 
Empress.  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Peter  the  Great,  could  not  re- 
nounce the  conquests  of  her  father,  which  even  Anne  Leopoldovna, 
a  foreign  princess,  had  maintained  at  the  cost  of  war.  The 
Swedes,  who  pretended  to  have  taken  up  arms  in  favor  of  Eliza- 
beth, continued  the  war  against  their  former prottgee.  This  war 
had  no  result  except  to  show  the  weakness  of  the  Sweden  of 
Charles  XII.  against  regenerate  Russia.  The  Scandinavian 
armies  proved  themselves  very  unworthy  of  their  former  reputa- 
tion. Elizabeth's  generals,  Lascy  and  Keith,  subdued  all  the 
forts  in  Finland.  At  Helsingfors  17,000  Swedes  laid  down  their 
arms  before  a  hardly  more  numerous  Russian  force.  By  the 
treaty  of  Abo,  the  Empress  acquired  South  Finland  as  far  as  the 
river  Kiiimen,  and  caused  Adolphus  Frederic,  Administrator  of 
the  Duchy  of  Holstein,  and  one  of  her  allies,  to  be  elected  Prince 
Royal  of  Sweden,  in  place  of  the  Prince  Royal  of  Denmark 
0743)- 


SUCCESSION  OF  AUSTRIA:   WAR  AGAINST  FREDERIC  II.  (1756-1762). 

The  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession  had  broken  out  in 
Europe.  For  whom  would  Russia  declare — for  Maria  Theresa, 
or  for  France  and  her  allies  ?  Bestoujef,  disgraced  by  Biren, 
who  had  returned  to  his  post  under  the  protection  of  Lestocq, 
Vice-Chancellor,  and  later  Chancellor,  of  the  empire,  was  on  the 
side  of  Austria.  Voronzof,  Vice-Chancellor,  trimmed  between 
both  parties ;  La  Che'tardie  and  Mardefeld,  ambassadors  of 
Louis  XV.  and  Frederic  II.,  intrigued  with  Lestocq  and  the 
mother  of  Sophia  of  Anhalt  (now  become  the  TzareVna,  or 
Grand  Duchess  Catherine)  to  draw  Elizabeth  into  the  Franco- 
Prussian  Alliance,  and  to  overthrow  Bestoujef.  The  Chancellor 
neglected  nothing  to  destroy  his  enemies.  He  had  his  black 
cabinet,  where  he  looked  over  the  despatches  of  the  foreign  am- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


73 


bassadors  ;  he  found  means  to  place  under  the  eyes  of  the 
sovereign  extracts  from  the  letters  of  La  Chetardie  proving  that 
Lestocq  was  a  pensioner  of  France,  and  that  La  Chetardie  had 
spoken  insultingly  of  Elizabeth  in  his  political  correspondence. 
The  French  ambassador  received  orders  to  quit  the  capital  within 
twenty-four  hours,  and  Russia  within  eight  days,  and  the  Grand 
Duchess's  mother  was  sent  back  to  Germany.  Later  Lestocq 
was  summoned  before  a  commission,  put  to  the  torture,  and 
banished  to  Ouglitch.  Bestoujef  triumphed  ;  it  seemed  as  if 
Russia  was  going  to  interfere  on  behalf  of  Maria  Theresa  :  but 
in  his  turn,  Botta,  the  Austrian  ambassador,  allowed  himself  to  be 
drawn  into  an  affair  which  was  quite  as  disastrous  ;  compromised 
by  the  conduct  of  the  malcontents,  he  saw  his  accomplice, 
Madame  Lapoukhine,  knouted  and  mutilated,  and  was  sent  back 
to  Austria.  Times  passed  on.  Russia,  satisfied  with  the  sort  of 
intimidation  that  she  exercised  over  all  the  European  courts,  did 
not  care  to  go  into  action.  Bestoujef  and  the  Vice-Chancellor 
Voronzof  played  with  the  various  courts,  the  one  holding  out 
hopes  to  Austria,  the  other  allowing  himself  to  be  cajoled  by 
D'Allion,  La  Chetardie's  successor. 

France,  abandoned  by  her  allies,  had  transported  the  war  into 
the  Low  Countries,  where  Maurice  de  Saxe,  the  former  Duke  of 
Courland,  gained  a  series  of  victories.  In  1746  an  Austro- Rus- 
sian treaty  of  alliance  was  concluded  ;  England  promised  sub- 
sidies to  Elizabeth,  but  it  was  not  till  1748  that  30,000  Russians 
under  Repnine,  crossed  Germany  and  took  up  a  position  on  the 
Rhine.  They  only  served  to  hasten  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 
(1748),  and  returned  to  Russia  without  having  fired  a  shot  or 
risked  the  prestige  of  the  empire. 

D'Allion  had  been  recalled  in  1747,  and  had  no  successor  at 
St.  Petersburg.  However,  the  same  Bestoujef  who  had  caused 
La  Che'tardie  to  be  expelled,  and  concluded  the  Austrian 
alliance,  had  proclaimed  as  far  back  as  1744  that  Prussia  was 
more  dangerous  than  France,  "  because  of  her  near  neighbor- 
hood and  her  late  accession  of  strength."  Elizabeth  hated 
Frederic  :  "The  King  of  Prussia,"  she  said  to  Lord  Hyndford, 
"  is  certainly  a  bad  prince,  who  has  no  fear  of  God  before  his 
eyes;  he  turns  holy  things  into  ridicule,  he  never  goes  to  church, 
he  is  the  Nadir-Shah  of  Prussia."  He  had  no  religion,  he  had 
not  been  consecrated,  he  did  not  spare  epigrams  about  the 
Empress.  The  "  self-sufficient  neighbor "  had  shown  off  his 
importance  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  had  opposed  the  admission 
of  a  Russian  plenipotentiary  to  the  congress.  Other  things  led 
to  a  sort  of  diplomatic  rupture.  Finally,  on  the  6th — i7th  of  May, 
1756,  the  Chancellor  read  to  the  Empress  a  statement  of  foreign 


74 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


affairs.  He  reminded  her  that  the  new  growth  of  the  Prussian 
power  was  unfavorable  to  Russia,  and  pointed  out  how  Frederic 
II.,  who  had  raised  his  army  from  80,000  to  200,000  soldiers, 
who  had  deprived  Austria  of  Silesia,  who  from  the  "  great 
revenues  "  of  the  latter  province  and  the  "  millions  levied  on 
Saxony"  had  constituted  a  great  war  fund  for  himself,  who 
coveted  Hanover  and  Courland,  and  hoped  for  the  dismember- 
ment of  Poland,  had  consequently  become  "  the  most  dangerous 
of  neighbors."  He  concluded  by  proving  the  necessity  of  reduc- 
ing the  forces  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  of  supporting  the 
States  menaced  by  him.  This  patriotic  disgust,  this  wholesome 
mistrust  of  Bestoujef,  might  well  have  become  the  traditional 
policy  of  Russia. 

At  this  moment  it  was  still  believed  at  St.  Petersburg  that 
in  this  war,  as  in  the  last,  Prussia  would  be  the  ally  of  France, 
against  Austria  and  England.  The  reversal  of  French  policy  had 
not  been  expected.  Bestoujef  was  in  too  great  haste  to  conclude 
a  treaty  of  subsidies  with  England.  Voronzof  warned  the 
Empress  to  beware  lest  the  Russian  troops  should  be  employed 
in  favor  of  that  very  Prussia  whom  she  wished  to  fight.  The 
event  justified  his  prediction,  confounded  the  plans  and  the 
provisions  of  Bestoujef,  and  paved  the  way  for  his  fall.  When 
Prussia  allied  herself  to  England,  and  Austria  to  France,  Russia 
found  herself  indirectly  also  allied  to  the  latter  Power.  Diplo- 
matic relations  between  the  courts  were  renewed.  It  was  then 
than  the  secret  missions  of  Valcroissant,  of  the  Scotch  Douglas, 
and  the  mysterious  Chevalier  d'Eon  took  place  ;  that  L'Hopital 
became  the  French  ambassador  in  Russia,  and  that  a  private 
correspondence  was  exchanged  between  Louis  XV.  and  the 
Empress  Elizabeth. 

Frederic  was  alarmed  on  hearing  the  decision  of  Russia ;  he 
feared  nothing  so  much  as  the  invasion  of  her  "  undisciplined 
hordes."  It  was  to  secure  the  friendship  of  "  these  barbarians  " 
that  he  had  arranged  in  1744  the  marriage  of  Peter  Feodorovhch 
and  of  Sophia  of  Anhalt.  His  invasion  of  Saxony  put  the  Russian 
army  in  motion.  In  1757,  the  year  of  Rosbach,  83,000  Musco- 
vites, under  the  Generalissimo  Apraxine,  crossed  the  frontier  of 
Prussia,  occupied  the  province  of  Eastern  Prussia,  slowly  ad- 
vanced in  the  direction  of  the  Oder,  and  crushed  the  corps  of 
Lewald  at  Gross-Jagersdorff.  The  Prussian  loss  was  4600 
killed,  600  taken  prisoners,  and  29  guns.  Instead  of  following 
up  his  advantages,  Apraxine  retraced  his  steps,  and  recrossed 
the  Niemen.  The  ambassadors  of  France  and  Austria  suspected 
treachery,  and  clamored  for  his  dismissal  from  the  chief  com- 
mand. His  papers  were  examined,  and  were  found  gravely  to 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  j  g 

compromise  the  Grand  Duchess  Catherine  and  the  Chancellor 
Bestoujef-Rioumine.  The  latter  was  exiled,  .and  his  place  filled 
by  Voronzof. 

In  1758  Fermor  again  invaded  the  Prussian  states,  took 
Konigsberg,  and  bombarded  Kiistrin  on  the  Oder.  Frederic 
II.  hastened  to  Silesia,  made  a  junction  with  Dohna,  and  thus 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  32,000  men,  in  presence  of  89,000 
Russians,  near  the  village  of  Zorndorff.  In  spite  of  the  stoical 
bravery  of  the  Muscovites,  and  the  defeat  of  the  Prussian  left 
wing,  their  inexperience,  the  weakness  of  their  commander,  and, 
the  superiority  of  the  cavalry  of  Zeidlitz  caused  them  to  be  beaten. 
They  lost  20,000  men,  100  cannon,  and  30  flags.  But  Frederic 
II.  had  not  yet  reached  his  aim,  as  his  enemies  were  by  no  means 
annihilated,  and  were  able  to  make  an  imposing  retreat. 

In  1759,  Soltykof,  Fermor's  successor,  returned  to  the  Oder, 
defeated  the  Prussians  at  Paltzig,  near  Ziillichau,  and  made  his 
entry  into  Frankfort.  Frederic  again  came  to  the  help  of  his 
lieutenants,  and  encountered  the  Russians  near  Kiinersdorff. 
This  time  his  army  was  simply  crushed  under  the  enormous 
weight  of  the  Muscovite  masses.  He  lost  8000  men  and  172 
guns.  He  himself  escaped  with  great  difficulty  from  the  field 
of  battle,  with  forty  hussars.  Only  3000  men  remained  to  him 
of  an  army  of  48,000.  "  A  cruel  misfortune,"  he  wrote  to  Fin- 
kenstein :  "  I  shall  never  survive  it.  The  consequences  are 
worse  than  the  battle  itself.  I  no  longer  see  any  resource,  and, 
to  say  the  truth,  I  think  all  is  lost."  It  was  at  this  moment  that 
he  thought  of  suicide.  The  disaster  of  Kiinersdorff  weighed  on 
him  during  the  remainder  of  the  war.  Henceforth  he  could  only 
hold  himself  on  the  defensive,  without  daring  to  descend  into 
the  plain. 

The  allies  were  not  less  exhausted  than  Frederic.  Elizabeth 
alone  declined  to  speak  of  peace  till  she  had  "  reduced  the 
forces "  of  Frederic,  and  secured  the  annexation  of  Eastern 
Prussia.  In  1760  the  Russians  entered  Berlin  after  a  short  re- 
sistance, pillaged  the  State  coffers  and  the  arsenals,  and  de- 
stroyed the  manufactories  of  arms  and  powder.  The  following 
year  they  conquered  Pomerania,  and  Roumantsof  took  Kolberg. 
Frederic  II.  would  have  been  lost  if  this  terrible  war  had  con- 
tinued ;  he  was  saved  by  the  sudden  death  of  Elizabeth.  Still 
his  power  was  much  weakened.  The  Empress  had  left  Prussia 
less  dangerous  and  threatening  than  she  had  found  it* 


OF  XUSSfA. 


REFORMS   UNDER    ELIZABETH  :    FRENCH   INFLUENCE. 

The  reign  of  Elizabeth  was  marked  by  an  increase  of  orthodox 
zeal.  In  spite  of  her  dissolute  manners,  she  was  much  influenced 
by  the  priests,  though  she  still  clung  to  her  old  superstitions. 
In  1742  the  Holy  Synod  ordered  the  suppression  of  the  Armenian 
churches  in  the  two  capitals,  and  hoped  likewise  to  suppress  the 
dissenting  churches  on  the  Nevski  Prospect.  In  the  Tatar 
regions  some  of  the  mosques  were  closed,  and  the  erection  of 
new  ones  forbidden.  The  intolerance  of  the  bishops  and  mis- 
sionaries caused  the  Pagan  or  Mussulman  tribes  of  the  Mord- 
vians,  the  Tcheremisses,  the  Tchouvaches,  and  the  Mechtcheraks 
to  revolt.  The  Jews  were  expelled  on  the  ground  that  they  were 
"  the  enemies  of  Christ  our  Saviour,  and  did  much  evil  to  our 
subjects."  To  the  observation  of  the  Senate  that  she  was  ruin- 
ing commerce  and  the  empire,  Elizabeth  replied,  "  I  desire  no 
gain  from  the  foes  of  Christ."  The  fanaticism  of  the  raskolniks 
rose  by  contact  with  the  fanaticism  of  the  officials.  Fifty-three 
men  burned  themselves  at  once  near  Oustiougue,  and  172  near 
Tomsk  in  Siberia. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  morals  of  the  clergy  were  corrected, 
and  attention  paid  to  their  education.  The  monasteries  were 
enjoined  to  send  pupils  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Academy  of  Mos- 
cow, which  complained  that  at  present  its  number  consisted  of 
five.  Rebellion  and  drunkenness  were  repressed  by  stripes 
and  chains.  The  fair  of  the  priests  was  put  down,  and  all  popes 
who  hired  themselves  out  in  public  were  whipped.  The  laws  of 
Peter  I.  against  persons  who  walked  about  and  talked  in  church 
were  revived.  The  tobacco  pouches  of  those  who  smoked  were 
confiscated.  Inspectors  nominated  by  the  bishops  besought  the 
peasants  to  clean  their  holy  images,  whose  dirtiness  shocked 
strangers.  Catechisms  were  distributed  in  the  churches,  and  a 
new  corrected  edition  of  the  Bible  exposed  for  sale.  Theological 
studies,  when  they  were  not  absolutely  neglected,  were  still  very 
puerile.  At  the  Ecclesiastical  Academy  of  Moscow  they  dis- 
cussed whether  the  angels  think  by  analysis  or  by  synthesis,  and 
what  is  the  nature  of  the  light  of  glory  in  the  future  life. 

The  Senate  was  re-established  with  the  functions  given  it  by 
Peter  the  Great,  of  which  it  had  been  deprived  by  the  High 
Council  of  Catherine  I.,  or  the  Cabinet  of  Anne  Ivanovna.  Trade 
was  encouraged.  Tchins,  or  ranks  of  assessors,  of  secretaries 
of  colleges,  and  of  councillors  of  State,  were  distributed  to  man- 
ufacturers of  cloth,  linen,  silk,  and  cotton.  In  1753  the  custom- 
houses of  the  interior  were  suppressed,  as  well  as  many  toll- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  77 

duties,  agricultural  banks  were  founded  where  they  lent  to 
landholders  at  6  per  cent.  ;  whilst  private  individuals  raised 
usurious  interest  to  15  or  even  20  per  cent.  Sons  of  merchants 
were  sent  to  study  trade  and  book-keeping  in  Holland.  New 
mines  were  discovered,  and  the  commerce  with  the  far  East 
increased  rapidly.  Siberia  began  to  be  peopled.  Attempts  were 
made  to  colonize  Southern  Russia,  now  freed  from  the  prospect 
of  Tatar  incursions,  with  Slavs  who  had  fled  from  the  Turkish 
or  Tatar  provinces.  On  the  territory  acquired  by  Anne  Ivan- 
ovna,  between  the  Bug  and  the  Oder,  the  agricultural  and 
military  colony  of  New  Servia  was  founded,  which  furnished 
four  regiments  of  light  cavalry. 

Legislation  was  less  severe.  Elizabeth  imagined  that  she 
had  abolished  the  penalty  of  death,  but  the  knout  of  her  execu- 
tioners killed  as  well  as  the  axe.  Those  who  survived  flagella- 
tion were  sent,  with  their  nose  or  ears  cut,  to  the  public  works. 
Torture  was  only  employed  in  the  gravest  cases.  If  the  civil 
code  did  not  advance,  a  code  of  procedure  and  a  code  of  criminal 
investigation  were  completed.  The  police  had  hard  work  to 
maintain  even  a  show  of  order  in  this  rude  society.  Moscow 
and  St.  Petersburg  were  like  woods  of  ill-fame.  Thieves  had 
lost  none  of  their  audacity,  and  one  of  them,  Vanka  Ka'ine,  the 
Russian  Cartouche,  is  the  hero  of  a  whole  cycle  of  songs.  Edicts 
were  required  to  prevent  the  keeping  of  bears  in  both  capitals, 
and  to  hinder  them  from  being  allowed  to  roam  at  night  through 
the  towns  of  the  provinces.  Public  baths  common  to  both  men 
and  women  were  forbidden  in  the  large  towns.  The  government 
was  powerless  to  stop  brigandage  on  the  great  highways ;  pirates 
captured  ships  on  the  Volga,  and  armed  bands  gave  battle  to 
regular  troops. 

The  real  minister  of  literature  and  the  fine  arts,  under  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  was  her  young  favorite,  Count  Ivan  Schouvalof. 
He  founded,  in  the  centre  of  the  empire,  the  University  of  Moscow, 
whose  small  beginnings  have  excited  the  contempt  of  German 
historians,  but  of  which  Nicholas  Tourgue'nief  has  been  able  to 
say,  that  "  never  in  any  country  has  any  institution  been  move 
useful  and  more  fruitful  in  good  results;  even  to-day  (1844)  ^ 
is  rare  to  find  a  man  who  writes  his  own  language  correctly, 
a  well-educated  and  enlightened  official,  an  upright  and  firm 
magistrate,  who  has  not  been  at  the  University  of  Moscow." 
Schouvalof  desired  that  every  student,  whatever  his  origin, 
should  carry  a  sword,  and  bear  the  rank  of  the  tenth  degree  of 
the  Tchin ;  doctors  were  given  the  eighth  degree.  Ten  profes- 
sors taught  the  three  branches  of  jurisprudence,  medicine,  and 
philosophy.  He  likewise  wished  to  open  two  Universities  at  St. 


7  g  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

Petersburg  and  at  Batourine,  and  gymnasia  and  schools  in  all 
the  governments  ;  he  established  schools  on  the  military  frontier 
of  the  south,  and  one  at  Orenburg  for  the  children  of  the  exiles. 
He  sent  young  men  abroad  to  finish  their  studies  in  medicine. 
He  was  the  creator  of  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, over  which  he  set  French  masters.  The  painter  Lorraine, 
the  sculptor  Gilet,  the  architect  Valois  and  later  De'vely  and 
Lagrene'e,  were  among  them. 

St.  Petersburg,  which  as  yet  contained  only  74,000  inhabi- 
tants, began  to  look  like  a  capital.  The  Italian  Rastielli  built 
the  Winter  Palace,  the  monastery  of  Smolna,  which  became 
under  Catherine  II.  an  institution  for  the  daughters  of  the  ar- 
istocracy, and  the  Palace  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  traced 
the  plan  of  Tzarskoe-Selo,  the  Russian  Versailles. 

Under  the  presidency  of  Cyril  Razoumovski.  son  of  a  former 
favorite  of  Elizabeth,  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  which  had  been 
founded  by  Peter  the  Great  and  Catherine  I.,  began  to  make 
itself  known.  In  spite  of  the  interminable  contests  excited  by 
Lomonossof  between  its  German  and  Russian  professors,  it 
continued  to  publish  both  books  and  translations. 

The  Academicians  Bauer  and  Miller  devoted  themselves  to 
the  origin  of  Russia.  Tatichtchef,  formerly  governor  of  Astra- 
khan, wrote  the  first  history  of  the  monarchy.  Lomonossof, 
Professor  of  Physic,  made  himself  the  Vaugelas  and  the  Malherbe 
of  his  country.  The  son  of  a  fisher  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Arkhangel,  he  had  the  colossal  frame  of  the  ancient  bogatyrs, 
and  certain  vices  of  the  people.  He  was  sent  abroad  to  complete 
his  studies,  and  there  became  the  hero  of  a  hundred  adventures. 
He  married  the  daughter  of  a  Magdeburg  tailor,  was  kidnapped 
for  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  imprisoned.  Even  in  Russia  his 
drunkenness  and  turbulence  would  have  drawn  him  into  many 
scrapes,  but  for  the  intervention  of  his  protectors.  He  published 
a  grammar,  a  book  of  rhetoric  and  poetics,  and  labored  to  free 
the  modern  Russian  language  from  the  Slavonic  of  the  Church. 
His  "  panegyrics  "  of  Peter  and  Elizabeth,  and,  above  all,  his 
Odes,  are  the  master-pieces  of  the  time.  Soumarokof  wrote 
dreams,  comedies  and  satires  and  published  the  first  Russian 
review,  'The  Busy  Bee.'  Kniajnine  .was  very  successful  in 
comedy,  though  his  tragedies  were  poor.  Prince  Kantemir,  son 
of  the  Hospodar  of  Moldavia,  ambassador  at  Paris  and  London, 
published  letters  and  satires.  Trediakovski,  author  of  the 
tragedy  of  '  Deidamia  '  and  of  another  inferior  epopee,  called  the 
'  Telemachid,'  imitated  from  Fe'nelon,  is  chiefly  known  as  a 
reformer  of  the  language,  and  an  indefatigable  translator.  He 
translated  all  Rollin's  '  Ancient  History,'  Boileau's  'Art 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  79 

tique,'  the  libretti  of  Italian  operas,  and  works  of  science  and 
politics.  His  biography  proves  the  small  estimation  in  which  a 
poet  was  then  held.  Anne  Ivanovna  had  employed  him  to  make 
rhymes  for  her  masquerades,  and  we  have  seen  how  brutally  he 
was  treated  by  Volynski.  He  did  not  know  how  to  make  him- 
self respected  like  a  Kantemir  or  a  Lomonossof. 

Elizabeth,  like  Anne  Ivanovna,  loved  the  theatre.  The  Ital- 
ian company  of  Locatelli  acted  ballets  and  ope'ras-bouffes. 
Se'rigny,  director  of  a  French  theatre,  made  25,000  roubles  a 
year.  The  Empress  furnished  spectators,  willing  or  reluctant, 
sending  lackeys  to  beat  up  the  laggards,  and  imposing  a  fine  of 
fifty  roubles  on  all  who  would  not  come.  The  Russian  theatre 
had  begun  to  exist.  Soumarokof  led  his  actors,  who  were  mem- 
bers of  the  corps  of  cadets,  into  the  apartments  of  the  Empress. 
At  laroslavl,  Volkof,  the  son  of  a  merchant,  and  &prot£g/ot  the 
voievode  Moussine-Pouchkine,  was  at  once  author,  actor,  man- 
ager, decorator,  and  scene-painter,  to  a  company  whom  the  Em- 
press summoned  to  St.  Petersburg.  Soumarokof  afterwards  be- 
came the  manager,  and  wrote  twenty-six  pieces  for  them,  among 
which  were  '  Khorev,'  '  Sineous  and  Trouvor,'  '  Dmitri  the  Im- 
postor,' and  some  translations  of  Shakespeare  and  of  French 
pieces. 

The  characteristic  feature  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  is  the 
establishment  of  direct  relations  with  France,  which  had  been, 
since  the  lyth  century,  the  highest  representative  of  European 
civilization.  Up  to  this  time  French  civilization  had  been  only 
known  at  second  hand  in  Russia.  The  people  were  Dutch 
under  Peter  I.,  German  under  Anne  Ivanovna.  The  Russians 
had  made  themselves  the  pupils  of  those  who  were  them- 
selves but  pupils  of  the  French.  Now  the  barriers  were 
thrown  down.  French  savants  were  members  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences,  French  artists  of  the  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts.  The  French  representations  of  Serigny  were  thronged, 
and  Soumarokof  caused  translations  from  French  works  to  be 
put  on  the  stage.  The  writings  of  Vauban  on  Fortifications,  and 
of  Saint  Re'my  on  Artillery,  were  translated,  and  the  Russians 
learned  to  know  Corneille,  Racine,  and  Moliere.  The  favorite 
Ivan  Schouvalof  had  his  furniture  brought  from  France,  his 
dresses  from  Paris,  loved  everything  French,  and  caused  Eliza- 
beth, once  betrothed  to  Louis  XV.,  to  share  his  tastes.  La 
Che'tardie  and  L'Hopital  made  the  manners  of  Versailles  fash- 
ionable. The  Russians  perceived  they  had  more  affinity  with 
the  French  than  with  the  Germans.  'Trediakovski  and  Cyril 
Razoumovski  went  to  perfect  themselves  in  Paris,  where  the 
Russian  students  were  sufficiently  numerous  to  have  a  chapel  of 


£0  H1STOR  Y  OF  K USSIA. 

their  own,  undei  che  protection  of  the  ambassador.  A  Voronzof 
entered  the  service  of  Louis  XV.,  and  in  the  uniform  of  the  light 
cavalry  stood  on  guard  in  the  galleries  of  Versailles.  The  Am- 
bassador Kantemir  was  a  friend  of  Montesquieu.  A  generation 
French  in  ideas  and  culture  grew  up  at  the  court  of  Elizabeth. 
Catherine  II.,  Princess  Dachkof,  and  the  Voronzofs  wrote 
French  as  easily  as  their  own  language.  In  1746,  De  1'Isle  com- 
municated to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  the  wish  expressed  by 
Voltaire  to  become  a  corresponding  member.  The  following 
year,  by  means  of  D'Allion  and  Cyril  Razoumovski,  Voltaire 
entered  into  relations  with  Schouvalof,  who  furnished  him  with 
documents  as  well  as  with  advice  and  criticism  for  his  '  History 
of  Russia  under  Peter  the  Great.' 

In  her  internal  policy,  then,  Elizabeth  continued  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  great  Emperor.  She  developed  the  material  pros- 
perity of  the  country,  reformed  the  legislation,  and  created  new 
centres  of  population  ;  she  gave  an  energetic  impulse  to  science 
and  the  national  literature ;  she  prepared  the  way  for  the  al- 
liance of  France  and  Russia,  emancipated  from  the  German 
yoke  ;  while  in  foreign  affairs  she  put  a  stop  to  the  threatening 
advance  of  Prussia,  vanquished  and  reduced  to  despair  the  first 
general  of  the  age,  and  concluded  the  first  Franco-Russian  al- 
liance againsx  .he  military  monarchy  of  the  Hohenzollerns. 
Better  appreciated  by  the  light  of  later  discoveries,  Elizabeth 
will  hold  an  honorable  place  in  history,  even  between  Peter  tha 
Great  and  Catherine  II 


msroR  Y  OP  R  USSIA.  g 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PETER  III.  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1762. 

Government  of  Peter  III.  and  the  alliance  with  Frederic  II. — Revolution  ei 
1762 :   Catherine  II. 


GOVERNMENT   OF   PETER    III.  :    ALLIANCE   WITH    FREDERIC   II. 

THE  successor  of  Elizabeth  was  her  nephew,  the  grandson  of 
Peter  the  Great,  son  of  Anne  Petrovna  and  of  Charles  Frederic, 
Duke  of  Holstein-Goltorp,  then  thirty-four  years  of  age.  His 
accession  was  looked  forward  to  with  feelings  of  mistrust,  be- 
cause he  affected  to  think  himself  a  stranger  in  Russia,  and  to 
act  more  as  the  Duke  of  Holstein  than  as  heir  to  the  imperial 
throne.  Without  education  and  without  training,  his  youth  had 
been  passed  in  puerile  amusements  ;  he  only  seemed  to  care  for 
minute  military  details,  occupied  himself  in  drilling  his  battalion 
of  Holsteiners — known  by  the  name  of  "  long  suffering  " — and 
showed  himself  the  fanatical  admirer  of  Frederic  II.  and  of  the 
Prussian  tactics.  His  aunt  suspected  him  of  communicating  to 
the  King  the  secret  deliberations  of  the  government,  and  thought 
herself  obliged  to  exclude  him  from  conferences  which  were 
concerned  with  affairs  of  war  and  administration. 

The  first  measures  of  Peter  III.  caused,  however,  a  delight- 
ful surprise.  In  February,  1762,  he  published  a  manifesto  which 
freed  the  nobility  from  the  obligation  imposed  on  them  by  Peter 
the  Great,  of  consecrating  themselves  to  the  service  of  the  State. 
He  reminded  them  that  this  law  of  his  grandfather  had  produced 
most  salutary  effects,  by  forcing  the  nobles  to  educate  them- 
selves and  interest  themselves  in  the  public  welfare,  by  giving 
birth  to  an  enlightened  generation,  and  by  furnishing  the  State 
with  distinguished  generals  and  administrators.  But  now  that 
the  love  of  the  sovereign  and  zeal  for  his  service  was  spread 
abroad,  he  no  longer  thought  it  necessary  to  maintain  the  law. 
The  Russian  nobles,  overcome  with  gratitude,  thought  of  raising 
a  statue  of  gold  to  him.  Peter  III.  answered  that  the  most 


$1  H/STOXY  OF  RUSSIA. 

beautiful  monuments  were  those  possessed  by  a  sovereign  in  the 
memory  of  his  people.  Another  reform  was  the  abolition  of  the 
Secret  Court  of  Police, — "  an  abominable  tribunal,"  writes  the 
English  ambassador,  "  as  bad,  and  in  some  respects  worse  than 
the  Spanish  Inquisition."  Peter  III.  respected  the  raskolniks; 
they  had  been  so  cruelly  persecuted  during  the  preceding  reign 
that  their  number  had  fallen  from  forty  thousand  to  five  thousand 
in  the  government  of  Novgorod  alone  ;  and  thousands  of  these 
unhappy  creatures  had  fled  to  the  deserts,  or  emigrated  into  the 
neighboring  countries.  He  commanded  that  they  should  be 
brought  back  to  Russia,  offering  them  at  the  same  time  lands  in 
Siberia ;  "  for,"  says  the  oukaze,  "  the  Mahometans  and  even 
idolaters  are  tolerated  in  the  empire.  Now,  the  raskolniks  are 
Christians."  He  took  up  his  grandfather's  project  of  the  re- 
sumption of  conventual  property,  allowing  the  monks  a  pension 
in  its  stead.  He  even  thought  of  the  peasants,  on  whom  the 
modern  State  founded  by  Peter  the  Great  weighed  so  heavily, 
and  proclaimed  a  pardon  to  those  who,  misled  by  false 
intelligence,  thought  they  were  able  to  rise  against  their  masters. 
The  greater  part  of  these  acts  were  inspired  by  his  Secretary  of 
State,  Volkof.  The  culprits  of  the  last  reign — the  Mengdens, 
Madame  Lapoukhine,  old  Marshal  Munich  and  his  son,  Lestocq, 
the  Duke  of  Courland,  and  all  the  Birens — were  recalled. 

Unhappily,  the  Emperor's  personal  conduct  almost  neutralized 
any  wisdom  in  his  laws.  Not  only  did  he  plunder  the  clergy, 
but  he  did  not  hide  his  contempt  for  the  national  religion,  which 
he  had  been  forced  to  embrace  instead  of  Lutheranism.  The 
people  were  scandalized  by  his  attitude  in  the  funeral  chamber 
where  the  corpse  of  his  aunt  was  exposed.  "  He  was  seen," 
says  Princess  Dachkof,  "  whispering  and  laughing  with  the  ladies- 
in-waiting,  turning  the  priests  into  ridicule,  picking  quarrels  with 
the  officers,  or  even  with  the  sentinels,  about  the  way  their  crav- 
ats were  folded,  the  length  of  their  curls,  or  the  cut  of  their 
uniforms."  The  reforms  that  he  introduced  into  the  dress  and 
drill,  so  as  to  assimilate  them  to  those  of  Prussia,  irritated  the 
army ;  the  Guards  were  jealous  of  the  favor  shown  the  battal- 
ions of  Holstein,  which  he  wished  to  raise  to  18,000  men,  and 
proposed  as  models  for  the  national  troops.  The  suppression  of 
the  body-guard  of  Grenadiers,  formed  by  Elizabeth  in  1741, 
announced  to  the  regiments  of  Preobrajenski,  Semenovski,  and 
Ismailovski  the  lot  that  awaited  them.  The  Emperor  had  already 
observed  that  "  the  Guards  were  dangerous,  and  held  the  palace 
in  a  state  of  siege." 

The  court  was  discontented  with  the  foolish  innovations  he 
introduced  into  etiquette,  obliging  the  ladies  to  curtsey  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  83 

German  fashion.  He  seemed  to  have  taken  an  aversion  to  all 
the  tastes  of  his  aunt ;  and  one  of  his  first  cares  had  been  to 
dismiss  the  French  company  of  actors.  The  manners  of  the 
upper  classes  had  become  sufficiently  refined  to  look  upon  Peter's 
gross  habits  with  disgust.  "  The  life  led  by  the  Emperor," 
writes  the  French  ambassador,  De  Breteuil,  "is  shameful.  He 
smokes  and  drinks  beer  for  hours  together,  and  only  ceases  from 
these  amusements  at  five  or  six  in  the  morning,  when  he  is  dead 
drunk.  .  .  .  He  has  redoubled  his  attentions  towards  Made- 
moiselle Voronzof.  One  must  allow  that  it  is  a  strange  taste  ; 
she  has  no  wit ;  and  as  to  her  face,  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  any- 
thing uglier  :  she  resembles  in  every  way  a  servant  at  a  low  inn." 
The  foreign  policy  of  Peter  III.  only  widened  the  breach 
between  himself  and  his  subjects.  Frederic  II.  was  almost 
reduced  to  extremity  by  the  battle  of  Kiinersdorff;  the  slow 
movements  of  Boutourline  in  the  campaign  of  1761  had  indeed 
procured  him  a  little  respite,  but  if  the  war  with  Russia  was  pro- 
longed, he  was  ruined.  We  may  imagine  with  what  joy  and  hope 
he  hailed  the  accession  of  Peter  III.  He  addressed  his  congrat- 
ulations to  the  new  Emperor  through  the  English  ambassador 
in  Russia,  and  the  friendship  between  the  great  king  and  his 
admirer  was  soon  renewed.  Tchernichef  received  orders  to 
detach  himself  from  the  Austrians  in  Silesia,  and  the  King  of 
Prussia  sent  Goltz  to  rnske  proposals  of  peace  to  the  Tzar.  He 
authorized  his  envoy  even  to  cede  Eastern  Prussia  if  it  was 
exacted  by  Peter,  merely  reserving  to  himself  an  indemnity. 
On  his  arrival  Goltz  found  a  prince  who  swore  only  by  Frederic 
II.,  wore  his  portrait  in  a  ring,  and  remembered  all  that  he  had 
suffered  for  him  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  when  he  had  been 
dismissed  from  the  "  Conference."  There  was  no  longer  any 
question  of  annexing  Eastern  Prussia,  as  the  late  Tzarina  had 
so  ardently  wished  ;  Peter  III.  restored  to  his  "  old  friend"  all 
the  Russian  conquests,  and  formed  an  offensive  and  defensive 
alliance  with  him.  The  two  princes  promised  each  other  help 
to  the  amount  of  12,000  infantry  and  8000  horses,  and  the  Prus- 
sians, who  had  till  that  moment  been  fighting  the  Russians,  now 
joined  them  against  Austria.  Frederic  guaranteed  to  the  Em- 
peror his  States  of  Holstein,  and  confirmed  the  uncle  of  Peter 
in  the  duchy  of  Courland,  undertaking  to  come  to  an  understand- 
ing with  him  on  the  subject  of  Poland.  Such  a  sudden  change 
in  State  policy  had  never  before  been  seen.  Breteuil  and  Mercy- 
d'Argenteau,  the  French  and  Austrian  ambassadors,  found  them- 
selves all  at  once  in  disgrace.  The  envoy  of  Frederic  II.  was 
not  only  a  favorite,  he  was  really  the  first  minister  of  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia,  pointing  out  suspicious  characters,  banishing 


R  j  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

his  enemies,  accusing  Voronzof  and  the  Shouvalofs  of  French 
sympathies.  The  treaty  being  concluded,  Peter  III.,  at  a  grand 
dinner,  proposed  the  health  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  amidst  the 
thunders  of  the  guns  of  the  fortress.  He  carried  his  extrava- 
gances, by  which  he  testified  his  admiration  for  the  great  man, 
to  such  a  point  as  to  disquiet  Goltz  himself.  "  Let  us  drink  to 
the  health  of  the  king  our  master,"  he  cried  in  one  of  his  orgies ; 
"  he  has  done  me  the  honor  to  confide  to  me  one  of  his  regiments. 
I  hope  he  will  not  dismiss  me  ;  you  may  be  assured  that  if  he 
should  order  it,  I  would  make  war  on  hell  with  all  my  empire." 


REVOLUTION  OF  1762  :  CATHERINE  II. 

The  Russians  would  have  hailed  with  pleasure  the  end  of  a 
tedious  war,  though  they  regretted  the  abandonment  of  the  con- 
quests of  Elizabeth,  but  a  new  war  succeeded  the  old  one ; 
the  empire  was  to  exhaust  herself  anew,  combating  her  allies  of 
yesterday,  and  to  fight  against  Denmark  for  the  pretensions  of 
the  house  of  Holstein.  The  hearts  of  the  people  softened  tow- 
ards the  Empress  Catherine  on  account  of  the  harsh  treatment 
she  had  received,  her  intelligence  and  obtrusive  demonstrations 
of  piety  throwing  into  relief  the  incapacity  and  extravagances  of 
her  husband.  Peter  III.  wished  to  divorce  her  and  to  marry 
Elizabeth  Voronzof ;  he  was  said  to  meditate  disinheriting  his 
son  Paul  in  favor  of  Ivan  VI. ;  once  he  gave  an  order,  which 
was  not  executed,  to  arrest  his  wife,  and  to  confine  her  in  a 
convent. 

Sophia  of  Anhalt,  now  the  Empress  Catherine,  was  not  a 
woman  to  pardon  these  threats,  nor  to  wait  till  they  were  carried 
into  effect.  As  Breteuil  remarks,  "  All  this,  joined  to  daily 
humiliations,  fermented  in  a  head  like  hers,  and  only  wanted  an 
occasion  to  break  out."  She  bided  her  time  and  acted. 

Numerous  contemporary  documents  exist  about  the  revolu- 
tion of  June  1762.  The  accounts  best  known  are  those  of  Rul- 
hiere,  of  Princess  Dachkof  in  her  Memoirs,  of  Keith  and  Bre- 
teuil in  their  despatches,  and  of  Catherine  II.  herself  in  her 
letter  to  Poniatowski.  The  order  given  to  the  Guards  to  leave 
for  Holstein  precipitated  the  revolution  of  1762,  as  a  similar 
order  precipitated  that  of  1741.  Peter  III.  had  no  idea  of  his 
danger ;  he  did  not  see  conspirators  silently  increase  and  multi- 
ply in  the  Senate,  in  the  court,  and  in  the  army.  Their  number 
was  great,  and  their  aims  often  diflerent.  Some  wished  to  pro- 
claim Paul  I.,  under  the  guardianship  of  his  mother;  others 
desired  to  crown  Catherine  herself.  The  group  which  had  then 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  US  SI  A.  g ,. 

'  - '  ; '  -J 

all  the  confidence  of  the  Empress  was  composed  of  young 
officers  :  Gregory  Orlof,  her  lover,  Alexis  Orlof,  and  three  others 
of  the  same  name,  Bariatinski,  and  Passek.  The  Orlofs  were 
acquainted  with  all  the  details  of  the  affair,  and  concealed  it 
with  care  from  the  other  conspirators,  among  them  the  Princess 
Dachkof,  whom  they  considered  wanting  in  discretion.  Put  on 
her  guard  by  the  arrest  of  Passek,  Catherine  resolved  to  act. 
Peter  III.  was  then  at  Oranienbaum  with  his  Holsteiners,  and 
Catherine  at  Peterhof,  between  Oranienbaum  and  St.  Peters- 
burg. She  abruptly  quitted  her  residence,  accompanied  by 
Gregory  and  Alexis  Orlof  and  two  servants.  On  her  arrival  in 
the  capital  the  three  regiments  of  Foot  Guards  rose  and  took  the 
oaths  to  her  at  the  hands  of  their  priests.  Peter's  uncle,  George 
of  Holstein,  was  arrested  by  his  own  regiment  of  Horse  Guards. 
From  Our  Lady  of  Kazan  Catherine  went  to  the  Winter  Palace, 
whence  Admiral  Talysine  was  sent  to  secure  the  allegiance  of 
Cronstadt,  and  whence  proclamations  were  issued  to  the  people 
and  the  army.  Then,  at  the  head  of  nearly  20,000  men,  be- 
sides artillery,  she  marched  on  Oranienbaum. 

Peter  III.,  suddenly  aroused  from  his  tranquil  repose,  em- 
barked for  Cronstadt  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  garrison. 
"  I  am  the  Emperor,"  he  cried  to  Talysine.  "  There  is  no  lon- 
ger any  Emperor,"  replied  the  admiral,  and,  menaced  by  the 
artillery  of  the  fortress,  Peter  had  to  return  to  his  residence. 
There  in  spite  of  the  counsels  of  the  warlike  old  Munich  and 
the  presence  of  his  1500  Holsteiners,  he  quietly  abdicated, — 
"  like  a  child  being  sent  to  sleep,"  as  Frederic  II.  remarked. 
He  visited  his  wife  with  his  mistress  and  his  most  intimate 
friends  :  "  after  which,"  relates  the  Empress,  "  I  sent  the  de- 
posed Emperor,  under  the  command  of  Alexis  Orlof,  accom- 
panied by  four  officers  and  a  detachment  of  gentle  and  reason- 
able men,  to  a  place  named  Ropcha,  fifteen  miles  from  Peterhof, 
a  secluded  spot,  but  very  pleasant."  Here  he  died  in  four  days, 
of  a  "  haemorrhoiclal  colic,"  his  wife  assures  us,  which  was  com- 
plicated by  "  flying  to  the  brain."  This  was  the  version  offi- 
cially adopted.  The  English  ambassador  relates  that  he  re- 
ceived the  following  note  from  the  Russian  Cabinet : — "  The 
imperial  minister  of  Russia  thinks  it  his  duty  to  inform  the  for- 
eign ministers  that  the  late 'Emperor  having  been  taken  ill  with 
a  violent  colic,  to  which  he  was  subject,  died  yesterday." 

The  unhappy  son  of  Anne  Leopoldovna  and  of  Antony,  the 
great  grandson  of  the  Tzar  Ivan  V.,  the  Emperor  imprisoned 
since  his  childhood  by  Elizabeth  and  confined  at  Schliissel- 
burg,  had  been  brought  by  Peter  III.  to  St.  Petersburg.  He 
was  now  twenty-one  years  old,  and  had  lost  his  reason. 


p6  HISTOR  Y  OF  K USSIA. 

Catherine  II.  imprisoned  him  anew  at  Schliisselburg.  He  was 
no  dangerous  character,  but  merely  a  name.  A  memorandum 
of  the  Empress  on  the  subject  still  exists.  "  It  is  my  opinion 
that  he  should  not  be  allowed  to  escape,  so  as  to  place  him  be- 
yond the  power  of  doing  harm.  It  would  be  best  to  tonsure 
him,  and  to  transfer  him  to  some  monastery,  neither  too  near 
nor  too  far  off;  it  will  suffice  if  it  does  not  become  a  shrine." 

Revolutions  are  almost  invariably  followed  by  revolts.  The 
frequency  of  these  military  coups  dc  main  encouraged  audacious 
spirits ;  but  two  years  after  Catherine's  usurpation,  Mirovitch, 
lieutenant  of  the  Guards,  conceived  the  project  of  delivering 
Ivan  VI.  His  warders  seeing  no  other  means  of  preventing  his 
escape,  put  him  to  death  at  the  moment  that  Mirovitch  entered 
his  chamber,  and  the  conspirator  found  nothing  but  his  corpse. 
He  was  himself  arrested  and  condemned  to  death.  The  day  of 
the  execution,  the  people,  who  during  the  twenty  years'  reign  of 
Elizabeth  had  seen  no  one  beheaded,  uttered  such  a  cry  and 
•were  seized  with  such  emotion,  that  when  the  executioner  held 
up  the  head  of  Mirovitch  the  bridge  over  the  Neva  almost  gave 
way  under  the  pressure  of  the  crowd,  and  the  balustrades  broke. 
Catherine  had  now  no  rival  for  the  throne  of  Russia,  except  her 
own  son. 

"  I  know,"  writes  Voltaire  some  years  later,  speaking  of 
Catherine — "  I  know  that  she  is  reproached  with  some  trifles 
about  her  husband,  but  these  are  family  affairs  with  which  I  do 
not  meddle.  And,  after  all,  it  is  often  as  well  to  have  a  fault  to 
repair ;  it  obliges  people  to  make  greater  efforts  to  wrest  esteem 
and  admiration  from  the  public."  We  shall  see  what  efforts 
were  used  by  Catherine  II.  to  force  the  Russians  to  forget  th* 
means  by  which  she  had  mounted  the  throne. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CATHERINE  II.  :    EARLY  YEARS  (1762-1780). 

End  of  the  Seven  Years'  War:  intervention  in  Poland — First  Turkish  war  j 
first  partition  of  Poland  (1772)  :  Swedish  Revolution  of  1772 — Plague  at 
Moscow — Pougatchef. 


END  OF  THE  SEVEN    YEARS'  WAR  ;    INTERVENTION  IN  POLAND. 

IN  the  first  moments  that  followed  her  triumph,  Catherine 
II.  had  published  a  manifesto  in  which  Frederic  was  treated 
"  as  perturber  of  the  public  peace,"  and  "  perfidious  enemy  of  Rus- 
sia." She  soon,  however,  altered  her  sentiments.  This  prin- 
cess, who  had  punished  Peter  III,  for  his  alliance  with  Prussia 
and  his  designs  upon  the  Church  property,  was  herself  destined 
to  realize,  both  in  her  foreign  and  domestic  policy,  the  plans  of 
her  husband.  Tchernichef  had  received  the  order  to  detach 
himself  from  the  Prussians,  as  he  had  formerly  received  the 
order  to  detach  himself  from  the  Austrians.  Frederic  managed 
to  retard  the  departure  of  the  general  for  three  days,  and 
Tchernichef  consented  to  occupy  with  grounded  arms  a  position 
which  covered  the  Prussian  army.  Frederic  profited  by  this  to 
defeat  Daun  at  Burkersdorff  and  Leutmannsdorff,  The  final 
withdrawal  of  Russia  from  the  Seven  Years'  War  hastened  the 
conclusion  of  peace.  During  all  the  early  part  of  her  reign,  the 
policy  of  Catherine  II.  consisted  in  what  is  known  as  the 
"  system  of  the  North  "  ;  that  is,  a  close  alliance  with  Prussia, 
England,  and  Denmark,  against  the  two  great  Powers  of  the 
South,  the  house  of  Bourbon  and  the  house  of  Austria.  The 
diplomatic  struggle  with  France  especially  was  very  lively  in  the 
secondary  courts  ;  that  is  to  say,  at  Warsaw,  at  Stockholm,  and 
at  Constantinople. 

The  duchy  of  Courland,  legally  a  dependency  of  the  Polish 
crown,  but  in  reality  annexed  to  the  Russian  empire,  found  it- 
self at  that  time  without  a  sovereign.  Anne  Leopoldovna  had 
exiled  the  Duke  Biren  ;  Peter  III.  had  destined  the  crown  to 
George  of  Holstein ;  Augustus  III.  had  coveted  it  for  his  son 


88  fffS TORY  OF  R USSrA. 

Charles  of  Saxony  ;  Catherine  put  an  end  to  the  competition 
by  establishing  Biren.  It  was  a  union  in  disguise  of  Courland 
and  the  empire. 

A  more  important  event  soon  absorbed  all  her  attention  : 
this  was  the  approaching  death  of  the  King  c  f  Poland,  and  the 
consequent  opening  of  the  whole  question  of  succession.  Two 
parties  then  disputed  the  power  at  Warsaw ;  the  court  party, 
with  the  minister  Briihl  and  his  son-in-law  Mniszek,  and  the 
parly  supported  by  Russia,  headed  by  the  Czartoriski.  The 
former  wished  to  secure  the  succession  for  the  Prince  of 
Saxony,  which  was  also  the  policy  of  France  and  Austria ;  the 
latter  intended  to  elect  a  piast,  that  is,  a  native  noble  of  their 
own  party,  and  their  choice  had  fallen  on  Stanislas  Poniatowski, 
a  nephew  of  Czartoriski.  Thus  France,  which  in  1733  had 
made  war  for  a  piast  against  the  Saxon  candidate,  now  sup- 
ported the  Saxon  candidate  against  Poniatowski.  Circumstan- 
ces had  changed,  and  the  kingdom  of  Poland,  becoming  every 
day  more  feeble,  could  only  be  sustained  at  all  by  the  forces  of 
a  German  state,  Saxony.  Now  Frederic  II.  feared  an  increase 
of  power  for  Saxony  quite  as  much  as  for  Poland  ;  Saxony  was 
the  old  rival  of  Prussia  in  the. empire,  as  Poland  had  been  in  the 
country  of  the  Vistula.  Russia,  on  her  side,  which,  by  fighting 
Stanislas  Leszczinski,  had  fought  the  father-in-law  of  Louis  XV., 
now  fought  for  the  Saxon,  the  client  of  France  and  Austria. 
Further,  she  had  no  intention  that  a  Polish  noble  should  be- 
come too  powerful,  and  meant  to  get  rid  of  the  Czartoriskis.  The 
candidature  of  Stanislas  Poniatowski,  a  man  without  any  per- 
sonal power,  therefore  satisfied  both  the  desires  of  Frederic  II., 
the  interests  of  the  Russian  empire,  and  the  sentiments  of 
Catherine,  happy  to  be  able  to  crown  one  of  her  early  lovers. 
When  Augustus  III.  really  died,  the  country  was  violently  agi- 
tated by  the  diets  of  convocation  and  election.  Power  was 
fiercely  disputed  by  the  two  parties.  The  Czartoriskis  called  in 
the  Russian  arms  to  put  down  their  enemies,  and  under  the  pro- 
tection of  foreign  bayonets  Poniatowski  inaugurated  his  fatal 
reign,  in  which  Poland  was  thrice  dismembered,  and  erased  from 
the  list  of  the  nations. 

Three  principal  causes  led  to  the  ruin  of  the  ancient  royal 
republic  ;  i.  The  national  movement  of  Russia  which  tended  to 
complete  itself  on  the  Western  side,  and  to  "  recover,"  to  use 
the  expression  of  her  historians,  the  provinces  which  had 
formed  part  of  the  territory  of  St.  Vladimir;  that  is  White 
Russia,  Black  Russia,  and  Little  Russia.  The  national  question 
was  complicated  by  the  same  religious  question  which  had  led, 
under  Alexis  Mikhallovitch.  to  a  first  dismemberment  of  the 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA.  f  89 

Polish  State.  The  complaints  of  the  agitations  of  the  Uniates 
had  multiplied  in  Lithuania,  and  Russia  had  often  tried  to  in- 
terfere diplomatically.  In  1718  and  1720  Peter  the  Great 
had  written  to  Augustus  II.  to  inform  him  of  the  ill-treat- 
ment suffered  by  his  co-religionists.  Augustus  had  published 
an  edict  which  insured  the  free  exercise  of  the  orthodox  religion, 
but  which  remained  unexecuted,  as  the  king  was  never  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  restrain  the  zeal  of  the  clergy  and  the  Jesuits, 
to  repress  the  abuses  of  power  on  the  part  of  his  officers,  and  to 
protect  the  peasants  belonging  to  the  Greek  Church  against 
their  lords.  In  1723  Peter  had  written  to  the  Pope  to  entreat 
his  interference,  threatening  reprisals  against  the  Roman  Church 
in  his  dominions.  The  Pope  declined  the  proposals  of  Peter, 
and  the  annoyances  continued. 

2.  The  second  cause  of  the  ruin  of  Poland  was  the  insatiable 
greed  of  Prussia.     Poland   possessed  Western  Prussia,  that  is, 
the    L6wer   Vistula   between    Thorn   and    Dantzig,  separating 
Eastern  Prussia  from  the  rest  of  the  Brandenburg  monarchy.  It 
thus  spoilt  the  construction  of  the  latter  State  by  dividing  it  into 
two  parts.     Poland  also  occupied  the  side  of  the  country  where 
German  colonization  had  greatly  developed,  especially  in  the 
towns.     Lastly,  the  government  of  Warsaw  was  so  foolish  as  to 
annoy  the   Protestant  dissenters  in   the  same  way  as  she  did 
those  of  the  Greek  Church. 

3.  Poland  could  not  escape  the  spirit  of  reform  which  was  the 
spirit  of  the  eighteenth  century.     Poniatowski  and  the  more  en- 
lightened Poles  were  well  aware  of  the  contrast  that  existed  be- 
tween the  national  anarchy  and  the  order  of  the  neighboring 
States.     Whilst  Prussia,  Russia,  and  Austria  tried  to  constitute 
themselves  into  modern  States,  to  build  up  the  central  Powers 
on  the  ruins  of  the  forces  of  the  Middle  Ages,  to  realize  the  re- 
forms proclaimed  by  French  philosophers   and  physiocratists, 
Poland  had  up  to  that  time,  followed  the  opposite  plan,  despoil- 
ing the  kingly  power  at  each  accession,  weakening  the    national 
strength,  persisting  in  the  traditions  of  feudalism.     In  the  midst 
of  European  monarchies  which  attained,  on   her  very  frontiers, 
the  maximum  of  their  power,  Poland  remained  a  state  of  the 
eleventh  century.     She   had  allowed  them  to  get  such  a  start, 
that  even  the  effort  to  reform  herself  hastened  her  dissolution. 

From  a  social  point  of  view  she  was  a  nation  of  agricultural 
serfs,  overlaid  by  a  numerous  class  of  small  nobility,  themselves 
subject  to  a  few  great  families,  against  whom  the  king  was  abso- 
lutely powerless.  There  was  no  middle  class  at  all,  unless  we 
give  that  name  to  some  thousands  of  Catholic  citizens  and  to  a 
million  of  Tews,  who  had  no  interest  in  maintaining  a  state  of 


go  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

things  which  condemned  them  to  eternal  opprobrium.  Economi- 
cally, she  had  a  primitive  system  of  agriculture  worked  by  a  serf 
population,  little  commerce,  no  retail  trade,  no  public  finances. 
Politically,  the  country  was  only  legally  composed  of  nobles. 
The  rivalry  of  the  great  families,  the  anarchy  of  the  diets,  the 
weakness  of  the  royal  power,  the  pacta  conventa  the  liberum  reto, 
the  confederations  or  diets  under  the  shield,  the  inveterate  habit  of 
invoking  the  intervention  of  strangers,  or  of  selling  them  their 
votes,  had  extinguished  in  Poland  the  very  idea  of  law  and  a 
State.  From  a  military  point  of  view  the  Polish  soldiers  were 
merely  the  lawless  soldiers  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  she  had  only 
the  cavalry  of  her  nobility,  no  infantry,  little  artillery,  and 
scarcely  any  fortresses  on  her  frontiers,  which  were  everywhere 
exposed.  Maurice  de  Saxe  affirms,  in  his  '  Reveries,'  that  it  only 
needed  48,000  men  to  conquer  Poland.  What  could  she  do, 
divided  against  herself,  long  ago  corrupted  by  the  gold  of  her 
enemies,  enclosed  by  three  powerful  monarchies,  who  hardly 
thought  they  were  violating  her  frontiers  by  occupying  her  terri- 
tory, and  whose  ambassadors  had  more  power  in  her  diets  than 
the  king  ? 

Catherine  and  Frederic  had  come  to  an  understanding  on 
two  essential  points  :  to  vindicate  the  rights  of  the  dissenters, 
and  to  prevent  all  reform  of  the  anarchic  institution,  which  was 
giving  Poland  into  their  hands.  While  affecting  to  espouse  the 
cause  of  tolerance,  they  made  Europe  forget  that  it  was  to  be 
gained  at  the  price  of  the  independence  and  integrity  of  the 
country.  The  noisy  fanaticism  of  the  Poles  helped  them  to  con- 
ceal their  object. 

In  1765  Koninski,  the  orthodox  bishop  of  White  Russia, 
presented  a  petition  to  the  King  of  Poland  recalling  all  the  vex- 
ations to  which  the  Greek  Church  in  the  kingdom  was  subject. 
Two  hundred  churches  had  been  taken  away  from  them  and  given 
to  the  Uniates ;  they  were  forbidden  to  rebuild  those  which  had 
fallen  into  ruin,  or  to  construct  new  ones ;  their  priests  were  ill- 
treated,  sometimes  put  to  death.  "  The  Missionary  Fathers,"  says 
the  petition,  "  are  specially  distinguished  for  their  zeal  :  seconded, 
when  they  are  engaged  on  a  mission,  by  the  secular  authority, 
they  assemble  the  Greco-Russian  people  of  all  the  neighboring 
villages,  as  if  they  were  a  flock  of  sheep,  keep  them  for  six  weeks 
together,  force  them  to  confess  to  them,  and,  to  frighten  those 
that  resist,  raise  impaling  poles,  display  rods,  thorny  branches, 
erect  scaffolds,  separate  children  from  their  parents,  women  from 
their  husbands,  and  seek  to  astound  them  by  imaginary  miracles. 
In  cases  of  stout  resistance  men  were  beaten  with  rods,  or  with 
thorny  branches,  their  hands  were  burned,  and  they  were  kept 
in  prison  forjnonths  together." 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSTA.  9 1 

Russia  supported  the  complaints  of  the  dissenters  before  the 
Polish  Diet,  and  Stanislas  promised  to  sustain  them.  It  was 
necessary  to  secure  to  the  people  the  free  exercise  of  their  relig- 
ion, and  to  the  orthodox  nobles  the  political  rights  of  which 
they  had  been  deprived  by  former  legislatures.  The  Diet  of 

1766  made  a   frantic  opposition  to  this  proposal;  the    deputy 
Gourovski,  who  attempted  to  speak  in  favor  of  the  dissenters, 
narrowly  escaped  being  put  to  death. 

Repnine,  Catherine's  ambassador,  got  the  dissenters  to 
promise  that  they  would  resort  to  the  legal  means  of  con- 
federations. The  orthodox  assembled  at  Sloutsk,  the  Protes- 
tants under  the  patronage  of  the  Russian  ambassador  at 
Thorn  ;  there  was  also  a  confederation  of  Catholics  at  Radom, 
enemies  of  the  Czartoriski,  and  of  those  who  feared  a  reform  of 
the  constitution,  and  the  abolition  of  the  liberum  -veto,  Russia, 
which  with  Prussia  had  guaranteed  the  maintenance  of  this 
absurd  constitution,  likewise  took  them  under  her  protection. 
Eighty  thousand  Muscovites  were  ready,  at  a  sign  from  Repnine, 
to  enter  Poland.  Under  these  auspices  opened  the  Diet  of 

1767  :  the  Poles  did  not  appear  to  feel  the  insult  to  their  inde- 
pendence, and  only  exerted  themselves  to  support  the  system  of 
intolerance.     Soltyk,  bishop  of  Cracow,  Zalusski,  bishop  of  Kief, 
and  two  other  nuncios  showed  themselves  most  warm  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  project.     Repnine  had  them  removed  and  taken  to 
Russia,  and  the  Poles  had  done  so  much  evil  themselves  that 
Europe   applauded  this  violation  of  the  law  of  nations,  as  it 
seemed  to  secure  liberty  of  conscience.     The  Diet  yielded,  and 
consented  that  the  dissident  nobles  should  have  political  rights 
equal  to  those  of  the  Catholics,  but  Romanism  remained  the  re- 
ligion of  the  State,  and  that  which  the  king  must  always  profess. 
In  1768  a  treaty  was  made  between  Poland  and  Russia,  in  virtue 
of  which  the  constitution  could  never  be  modified  without  the 
consent  of  the  latter  Power.     This  was  to  legalize  foreign  inter- 
vention, and  to  condemn    Poland  to  die  of  her   abuses.     The 
Russian  troops  evacuated  Warsaw,  and  the  Confederates  sent 
deputies  to  thank  the  Empress. 

In  spite  of  this,  the  Confederation  of  Radom,  the  most  con- 
siderable of  the  three,  which  had  taken  up  arms  to  hinder  the 
reform  of  the  constitution,  and  in  no  wise  to  support  reforms 
in  favor  of  the  dissenters,  was  much  discontented  with  the 
result.  When  it  was  dissolved,  there  sprang  from  its  remains 
the  Confederation  of  Bar,  in  Podolia,  more  numerous  still,  and 
which  had  adopted  as  its  programme  not  only  the  maintenance 
of  the  liberum  veto,  but  also  that  of  the  exclusive  privileges  of 
the  Catholics.  In  Gallicia  and  Lublin  two  other  confederations 


9,  -HISTOKY  OF  X17SSIA. 

were  formed  with  the  same  objects  in  view.  The  insurgents 
took  for  their  motto,  "Pro  religions  et  libertate ;  "  but  the  word 
"  liberty  "  was  heard  with  indifference  by  the  mass  of  the  peeple, 
who  only  saw  in  the  "  liberty  "  of  the  Poles  that  of  the  nobles. 
The  confederates  of  Bar  sent  deputies  to  the  courts  of  Dresden, 
Vienna,  and  Versailles,  to  interest  them  in  their  cause.  In  the 
West  opinion  might  well  be  perplexed.  On  which  side,  men 
asked,  was  the  nation  ranged  ?  Whither  did  the  forces  of  the 
future  tend  ?  Were  right  and  justice  at  Warsaw  with  the  king 
and  the  senate,  and  all  the  men  who  had  voted  for  the  enfran- 
chisement of  the  dissenters,  and  who  meditated  in  secret  the 
reform  of  the  constitution  and  the  revival  of  Poland  ?  Were 
they  at  Bar,  where  turbulent  nobles,  guided  by  fanatical  priests, 
revolted  in  the  name  of  the  liberum  veto  and  religious  intoler- 
ance ?  Voltaire  and  the  greater  part  of  the  French  philosophers 
declared  in  favor  of  King  Stanislas ;  but  M.  de  Choiseul,  minis- 
ter of  Louis  XV.,  supported  the  Confederates.  It  did  not  strike 
him  that  by  weakening  the  authority  of  the  Polish  king  he  was 
weakening  Poland  herself.  The  Polish  government,  in  presence 
of  the  insurrection,  found  herself  forced  to  commit  a  fresh  fault. 
The  royal  army  did  not  amount  to  9000  effective  men,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  treaty  of  alliance  with  Russia,  they  appealed  to 
her  for  troops.  The  Muscovite  columns  wrested  Bar,  Berdichef, 
and  Cracow  from  the  Confederates.  The  orthodox  monks  re- 
plied by  their  sermons  to  those  of  the  Catholic  priests.  Gontai 
and  Jelie'znak  called  to  arms  the  Cossacks  of  the  Ukraine,  the 
Zaporogues,  and  the  ha'idamaks,  or  brigands.  A  savage  war,  at 
once  national,  religious,  and  social,  desolated  the  provinces  of 
the  Dnieper ;  the  land-owners  and  the  Jews  saw  the  return  of 
the  bloody  days  of  Khmelnitski.  The  massacre  ef  Ouman,  a 
town  of  Count  Potogki's,  horrified  the  Ukraine. 

The  Confederates,  repulsed  by  the  Russian  columns,  had 
obtained  some  support  from  the  court  of  Vienna.  They  had 
established  the  council  of  the  Confederation  at  Teschen,  their 
head-quarters  at  Eperies  in  Hungary,  and  still  held  three  places 
in  Poland.  Choiseul  sent  them  money,  and  sent  also  the  Chev- 
alier de  Taul^s,  Dumouriez,  and  the  Baron  de  Viomesnil,  to 
organize  them.  In  the  Memoirs  of  Dumouriez,  we  find  that  the 
forces  of  the  Confederation,  scattered  through  the  whole  extent 
of  Poland,  did  not  exceed  16,000  or  17,000  horsemen,  without 
infantry,  and  divided  into  five  or  six  bands,  each  with  its  inde- 
pendent chief.  Zaremba  in  Great  Poland,  the  Cossack  Sava, 
Miaczinski,  Walevski,  and  many  others,  usually  acted  without 
combination.  Pulavski  was  the  open  enemy  of  Poto^ki  ; 
Dumouriez  was  beaten  at  Landskron,  with  his  undisciplined 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  93 

troops ;  but  Viomesnil,  Dussaillans,  and  Choisy,  three  French 
officers,  surprised  the  Castle  of  Cracow  (1772),  shortly  atter- 
wards  recaptured  by  Souvorof.  An  attempt  made  by  some  of 
the  Confederates,  on  the  3rd  of  November,  1771,  to  secure  the 
person  of  the  king — whose  wounds  and  remote  residence  ren- 
dered him  an  easy  prey — excited  the  ostentatious  and  insincere 
indignation  of  the  European  courts,  and  increased  Voltaire's 
dislike  of  the  Confederates. 


FIRST  TURKISH   WAR  (1767-74):    FIRST   PARTITION   OF   POLAND 
(1772)  :    SWEDISH    REVOLUTION    OF    1772. 

Choiseul  imagined  that  the  best  way  of  aiding  the  Confeder- 
ates was  to  induce  the  Turks  to  declare  war  against  Russia. 
Vergennes,  the  French  ambassador  at  Constantinople,  set  to 
work  energetically  to  bring  it  to  pass  ;  but  unhappily  France 
greatly  exaggerated  the  power  of  Turkey,  and  was  ignorant  how 
far  her  strength  had  diminished  since  her  last  war  with  Austria 
The  mistake  made  by  Choiseul  when  he  linked  the  fate  of  his* 
ally  on  the  Vistula  with  the  success  of  the  Ottoman  arms  only 
rendered  the  partition  of  Poland  inevitable.  On  the  news  of  the 
violation  of  the  frontier  at  Balta,  not  by  the  Russian  troops  but 
by  the  ha'idaniaks,  when  pursued  by  the  former,  the  Sublime  Porte 
declared  war  on  Russia.  The  Baron  de  Tott  had  been  sent  by 
Vergennes  to  Krim-guerai,  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  to  persuade 
him  to  second  the  Turks.  In  the  winter  of  1768,  the  Tatar* 
devastated  the  New  Servia  of  Elizabeth.  Catherine,  whose 
forces  were  occupied  in  Poland,  had  only  a  feeble  army  to 
oppose  to  the  Turco-Tatar  invasion.  "  The  Romans,"  shti 
writes  to  her  generals,  "  did  not  concern  themselves  with  thv 
number  of  their  enemies  ;  they  only  asked,  'Where  are  they  ?" 
Galitsyne,  with  30,000  men,  was  therefore  ordered  to  check  the 
Grand  Vizier  at  the  head  of  100,000,  who  was  on  the  point  oi 
entering  Podolia  to  join  the  Polish  Confederates ;  Roumantsol 
was  to  occupy  the  Ukraine  and  watch  the  Crimean  Tatars  and 
the  Kalmucks.  Galitsyne  took  the  initiative,  defeated  the 
Grand  Vizier  on  the  Dnieper,  near  Khotin,  which  capitulated 
(1769),  and  took  up  a  position  in  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  to 
the  great  joy  of  the  orthodox  populations  of  the  Danube.  The 
following  year,  his  successor,  Roumantsof,  defeated  the  Khan 
of  the  Tatars,  although  the  latter  had  100,000  men,  and  was 
entrenched  on  the  banks  of  the  Larga.  He  then  gained  over 
the  Grand  Vizier  in  person  the  victory  of  Kagoul,  where  17,000 
Russians  defeated  150,000  Mussulmans  (1770).  In  1771  Prince 


^  RISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Dolgbrouki  forced  the  lines  of  Perekop,  ravaged  the  Crimea, 
took  Kaffn,  Kertch,  and  lenikale,  and  put  an  end  forever  to  the 
Turkish  rule  in  the  peninsula.  During  this  time  the  army  of 
Wailachia  captured  the  fortresses  on  the  Danube,  successfully 
completed  the  conquest  of  Bessarabia  by  taking  Bender,  and 
penetrated  into  Bulgaria. 

Catherine  II.  had  prepared  a  yet  more  terrible  surprise  for 
the  Turkish  empire,  disturbed  as  it  was  by  the  revolt  of  the 
Pacha  of  Egypt.  A  Russian  fleet  left  the  Baltic  under  the 
orders  of  Alexis  Orlof,  and,  after  having  put  in  at  the  English 
ports  and  made  the  tour  of  Europe,  suddenly  appeared  on  the 
coast  of  Greece.  The  Christian  populations  of  the  Western 
Morea  and  of  Magnesia  revolted ;  Voltaire  already  announced 
the  regeneration  of  Athens  and  the  resurrection  of  Sparta ;  but 
Orlof  abandoned  the  Greeks  after  he  had  compromised  them, 
and  hastened  to  seek  the  Turkish  fleet.  With  the  help  of  his 
lieutenants  Spiridof  and  Greig,  he  defeated  it  at  the  harbor  of 
Chios,  and  totally  annihilated  it  in  the  port  of  Tchesme',  aided 
by  fire-ships  led  by  the  English  Dugdale.  At  this  news  the 
terror  of  Constantinople  exceeded  all  bounds  ;  they  pictured  the 
Russians  arriving  in  the  Bosphorus.  Alexis  Orlof  lost  his  time 
in  the  conquest  of  the  islands,  while  Baron  de  Tott  rallied  the 
courage  of  the  Sultan  and  the  Turkish  people,  drilled  the  Otto- 
man soldiers,  cast  cannon,  and  put  the  Dardanelles  in  a  state  of 
defence.  When  the  Russians  at  last  presented  themselves  at 
the  entrance  of  the  Straits,  they  were  too  late  (1770). 

Russia,  however,  had  none  the  less  conquered  Azof,  the 
Crimea,  the  shore  of  the  Black  Sea  between  the  Dnieper  and 
the  Dniester,  Bessarabia,  Wailachia,  Moldavia,  a  part  of  Bul- 
garia, and  of  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago.  She  would  will- 
ingly have  kept  her  conquests,  but  Austria  took  fright  at  her 
close  neighborhood  and  the  rupture  of  the  equilibrium  of  the 
East.  It  was  at  this  point  that  the  Turkish  and  Polish  questions 
became  involved  in  each  other  :  Poland  was  to  serve  as  the 
ransom  of  Turkey. 

Of  the  three  Northern  States,  Prussia  was  the  most  interested 
in  the  dismemberment  of  Poland  ;  she  had  a  geographical 
necessity  to  lay  hands  on  Western  Prussia,  and,  if  possible,  on 
the  cities  of  the  Vistula.  It  was  Frederic  II.  who  had  denounced 
to  Catherine  the  projects  of  the  Czartoriski  for  the  reform  of  the 
constitution,  and  brought  to  light  the  wrongs  of  the  dissenters; 
in  a  word  created  the  Polish  question.  It  was  he  who,  in  the  in- 
terviews of  Neiss  (Silesia)  and  of  Neustadt  (Moravia),  had  dis- 
quieted Joseph  II.  and  Kaunitz  on  the  subject  of  the  Russian 
ambition  in  the  East,  and  had  suggested  the  idea  of  a  partition 


fflSTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  ^ 

of  Poland ;  and  it  was  he  who  had  sent  his  brother  Prince  Henry 
to  St.  Petersburg,  to  gain  over  Catherine  II.  He  made  her 
clearly  comprehend  that  her  pretensions  in  the  East  would  cause 
Austria  and  France  to  side  against  her  ;  that  her  ally  the  King 
of  Prussia,  weakened  by  the  Seven  Years'  War,  would  be  unable 
to  stand  a  war  against  united  Europe  ;  that  no  doubt  she  had  a 
right  to  an  equivalent  for  the  expenses  of  the  double  war,  but 
that  it  could  matter  little  to  her  whence  she  procured  this  in- 
demnity, from  the  Vistula  or  from  the  Danube  ;  that  she  could 
therefore  aggrandize  herself  at  the  expense  of  Poland,  and  that 
to  re-establish  equilibrium  in  the  North  she  must  suffer  Prussia 
and  Austria  to  aggrandize  themselves  also. 

Catherine  II.,  who  had  already  on  her  hands  the  wars  with 
Poland  and  Turkey,  could  not  dream  of  fighting  both  Austria 
and  Prussia.  Although  she  would  have  preferred  to  maintain 
the  integrity  of  Poland,  on  condition  of  holding  a  preponderat- 
ing influence  over  its  affairs,  she  was  forced  to  submit  to  the 
proposal  of  Frederic  II.  The  King  of  Prussia  knew  how  to  play 
off  Russia  and  Austria  against  each  other.  Even  now  he  was 
acting  as  master  in  Great  Poland,  taking  away  the  wheat  for  his 
own  subjects,  and  the  inhabitants  for  his  own  army.  Once  he 
occupied  Dantzig.  Austria  on  her  side,  in  vindication  of  her 
ancient  rights,  invaded  the  county  of  Zips.  The  partition  was 
almost  carried  out,  when  it  was  legalized  by  the  treaty  of  Feb. 
17,  1771,  between  Prussia  and  Russia,  accepted  by  Austria  in 
April,  and  signified  to  the  King  of  Poland  on  the  iSth  of  Sep- 
tember in  that  same  year.  Russia  obtained  White  Russia  (Po- 
lotsk, Vitepsk,  Orcha,  Mohilef,  Mstislavl,  Gomel),  with  1,600,000 
inhabitants  ;  Austria  had  Western  Gallicia  and  Red  Russia,  with 
2,500,000  people  ;  while  Prussia  got  possession  of  the  long- 
coveted  Western  Prussia,  with  a  population  of  900,000  souls. 

Russia  had  still  to  treat  with  the  Porte.  After  the  rupture 
of  the  Congress  of  Fokchany  in  1772,  the  war  had  broken  out 
again.  The  Russians  had  been  forced  to  raise  the  siege  of  Silistria, 
but  they  had  surrounded  the  Grand  Vizier  in  his  camp  of  Shumla, 
and  a  single  victory  might  open  them  the  way  to  Constantinople. 
Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  consented  to  sign  the  Peace  of  Koutchouk- 
Kairnadji  (1774).  He  undertook:  i,  to  recognize  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  Tatars  of  the  Bug,  of  the  Crimea,  and  of  Kuban  ; 
2,  to  cede  Azof  on  the  Don,  Kinburn  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dni- 
ester, and  all  the  strong  places  in  the  Crimea;  3,  to  open 
the  Straits  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Dardanelles  to  the  mer- 
chant ships  of  Russia ;  4,  to  treat  the  Russian  merchants  in 
the  same  way  as  the  French,  who  were  then  the  most  favored 
nation  ;  5,  to  grant  an  amnesty  to  all  the  Christian  populations 


96  HISTORY  Of  A'C/SSSA. 

engaged  in  the  last  insurrection  ;  6,  to  allow  the  Russian  ambas- 
sador to  interfere  in  favor  of  his  subjects  in  the  Danubian  prin- 
cipalities ;  7,  to  pay  a  war  indemnity  of  4,500,000  roubles,  and 
to  recognize  the  imperial  title  of  the  Russian  sovereign.  Not 
only  did  Russia  acquire  important  territories  and  numerous 
strategical  points,  but  she  established  a  sort  of  protectorate  over 
the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
the  annexation  of  the  Crimea,  of  the  Kuban,  and  of  all  the 
northern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea. 

France,  indirectly  defeated  in  Poland  and  Turkey,  had  lately 
obtained  a  great  diplomatic  success  in  Sweden.  Frederic  II. 
and  Catherine  II.  had  a  tacit  understanding  to  guarantee  in  the 
latter  country  the  maintenance  of  the  oligarchic  constitution, 
which  was  practically  the  maintenance  of  anarchy.  This  was 
in  order  to  reserve  to  themselves  a  pretext  for  interference,  and 
even  to  prepare  for  a  dismemberment,  which  would  have  given 
Finland  to  Russia,  and  Swedish  Pomerania  to  Prussia  ;  the  role  of 
third  partitioner,  played  by  Austria  in  thePolish  question,  was  here 
assigned  to  Denmark.  Gustavus  III.,  who  had  grown  up  amidst 
the  clamors  and  intrigues  of  the  Diet,  had  determined  to  re- 
establish the  royal  power,  as  being  the  only  hope  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  country.  In  1771,  while  he  was  still  prince  royal, 
he  went  to  France,  visited  the  philosophers,  frequented  the  fash- 
ionable safons,a.mongst  others  that  of  Madame  Ge'offrin,  and  receiv- 
ed encouragement  and  promises  of  help  from  the  French  govern- 
ment. The  spectacle  of  the  anticipated  partition  of  Poland  had 
strengthened  him  in  his  patriotic  resolutions,  and  a  favorable  op- 
portunity seemed  offered  by  the  embarrassing  situation  of  both 
Russia  and  Prussia.  Recalled  to  Sweden  by  the  death  of  his 
father,  he  prepared  his  coup  d'Sfut  with  the  utmost  secrecy, 
having  previously  gained  over  the  army  and  the  nation.  On 
the  igth  of  August,  1772,  he  assembled  the  Guard,  dismissed  the 
senators,  made  the  people  of  Stockholm  rise  in  revolt,  and  im- 
posed on  the  Diet  a  constitution  of  fifty-seven  articles,  which 
guaranteed  the  public  liberties,  at  the  same  time  that  it  restored 
to  the  Crown  its  essential  prerogatives.  He  then  abolished  tor- 
ture and  the  State  inquisition,  shut  up  the  "cave  of  roses,"  a 
hole  full  of  reptiles  used  for  "  the  question,"  and  set  on  foot  use- 
ful reforms  which  placed  Sweden,  already  impregnated  with 
French  ideas,  in  the  current  of  the  i8th  century.  The  success 
of  this  bloodless  revolution  which  doubled  the  real  power  of 
Sweden,  and  put  her  beyond  the  pale  of  foreign  intrigue,  caused 
great  mortification  to  Frederic  II.  and  Catherine  ;  but  the 
of  Poland  deprived  them  of  the  power  or  desire  to  interfere. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  gj 

PLAGUE  AT  MOSCOW  (1771) — POUGATCHEF  (1773). 

Catherine  II.,  victorious  in  Poland  and  in  Turkey,  found 
herself  face  to  face  with  terrible  difficulties  in  her  own  empire. 
In  1771  the  plague  broke  out  at  Moscow,  and  during  the  months 
of  July  and  August  the  deaths  amounted  to  a  thousand  a  day. 
The  people,  wild  with  fright,  thronged  to  the  feet  of  the  holy 
image  of  the  Mother  of  God  at  Bogolioubovo,  and  many  died  of 
suffocation  in  the  crowd.  Archbishop  Ambrose,  an  enlightened 
and  educated  man,  wished  to  remove  the  image.  This  was  the 
signal  for  a  terrible  insurrection.  "  The  archbishop  is  an  infidel," 
cried  the  people  ;  "  he  would  deprive  us  of  our  protectress  ;  he 
is  in  a  conspiracy  with  the  doctors  to  make  us  die.  It  is  not 
the  part  of  an  orthodox  nation  to  suffer  the  injustice  of  author- 
ity ;  if  he  had  not  caused  the  streets  to  be  fumigated,  the  plague 
would  have  long  ago  ceased.  To  the  Kremlin  !  to  the  Krem- 
lin !  Let  us  demand  of  Ambrose  why  he  forbids  us  to  pray  to 
the  Mother  of  God  !  "  Ambrose  was  put  to  death,  and  his  palace 
pillaged.  It  was  necessary  to  use  muskets  and  cannon  to  dis- 
perse the  crowd,  which  was  ready  to  commit  new  deeds  of  vio- 
lence. Catherine  sent  Gregory  Orlof  to  appease  the  revolt, 
and  to  reassure  the  people.  At  last  the  plague  ceased,  and 
peace  was  restored. 

The  insurrection  of  Moscow  proved  in  what  gross  darkness 
the  lower  classes  of  the  capital  (domestic  serfs,  lackeys,  small 
tradesmen,  and  working  men)  then  lived.  The  revolt  of  Pouga- 
tchef  shows  what  elements  of  disorder  had  fermented  in  the  dis- 
tant provinces  of  the  capital.  The  peasants,  on  whom  were  laid 
the  burden  of  all  the  State  expenses,  all  the  needs  of  the  proprie- 
tors, and  all  the  exactions  of  the  officials,  forever  dreamed  of 
impossible  changes.  In  their  profound  ignorance  they  were  al- 
ways ready  to  follow  any  impostors,  and  there  were  now  plenty  ; 
false  Peters  III.,  Ivans  VI.,  even  a  Paul  I.,  who  were  eagerly 
welcomed  by  the  debased  classes,  always  prejudiced  against 
"  the  rule  of  women."  The  raskolniks,  made  wild  and  fanatical 
by  many  persecutions,  remained  in  their  forests  or  in  the  scat- 
tered villages  of  the  Volga,  irreconcilable  enemies  of  the  second 
Roman  empire,  stained  with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs.  The 
Cossacks  of  the  Ja'ik  and  the  Don,  and  the  Zaporogues  of  the 
Dnieper,  chafed  under  the  new  yoke  of  authority.  The  tribes 
of  the  Volga  (Pagan,  Mussulman,  or  Christian  in  spite  of  them- 
selves) only  awaited  a  pretext  to  recover  their  lawless  liberty,  or 
to  reclaim  the  lands  which  the  Russian  colonists  had  usurped. 

How  little  these  ungovernable  elements  accommodated  them- 
selves to  the  laws  of  a  modern  State  was  seen  when,  in  1770, 
the  Kalmuck  Torgaouts  (men,  women,  and  children),  to  the 


9g  HISTOK  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

number  of  about  300,000,  with  their  cattle,  their  tents,  and  their 
chariots,  abandoned  their  encampments.  Ravaging  everything 
in  their  road,  they  crossed  the  Volga,  and  retired  to  the  territory 
of  the  empire  of  China.  When  we  add  to  these  malcontents  the 
vagabonds  of  all  kinds,  the  ruined  nobles,  the  disfrocked  monks, 
the  military  deserters,  fugitive  serfs,  highwaymen,  and  Volga 
pirates,  we  shall  see  that  Russia,  especially  in  her  Oriental  part, 
contained  all  the  materials  necessary  for  an  immense  Jacquerie, 
like  those  which  the  false  Dmitri  or  Stenko  Razine  had  let 
loose.  The  Jalk,  whose  Cossacks  had  risen  in  1766,  and  had 
been  cruelly  repressed,  was  destined  to  furnish  the  expected 
chief  to  this  servile  war.  Emilian  Pougatchef,  a  Cossack  de- 
serter and  a  raskolnik,  who  had  been  already  confined  in  the 
prison  of  Kazan,  and  had  escaped  from  Siberia,  gave  himself 
out  as  Peter  III.,  and  asserted  that  he  was  saved  under  the  very 
hands  of  the  executioner.  Displaying  the  banner  of  Holstein, 
he  proclaimed  that  he  would  march  to  St.  Petersburg  to  punish 
his  wife  and  to  crown  his  son.  He  besieged  the  small  fortress 
of  Jaik  with  only  300  men.  This  was  an  insignificant  affair, 
but  all  the  troops  sent  against  him  passed  over  to  his  side  and 
delivered  up  their  chiefs.  He  always  hung  the  officers,  and  cut 
the  hair  of  the  soldiers  in  the  Cossack  style.  In. the  villages 
the  nobles  were  also  hung.  All  who  resisted  him  were  punished 
as  rebels,  convicted  of  the  crime  of  h4gh  treason.  He  thus 
gained  possession  of  many  little  fortresses  on  the  Steppe. 
Whilst  his  intimate  friends  who  knew  his  origin  treated  him 
when  alone  as  a  simple  Cossack,  the  people  began  to  receive 
him  with  bells,  and  the  priests  to  present  him  bread  and  salt. 
Some  of  the  Polish  Confederates,  captives  in  those  regions, 
organized  his  artillery.  For  almost  a  year  he  made  Kazan  and 
Orenburg  tremble,  and  defeated  all  the  generals  sent  against 
him.  Everywhere  proprietors  fled,  and  the  barbarous  tribes 
hastened  to  his  head-quarters.  The  peasants  rose  against  the 
nobles,  the  Tatars  and  Tchouvaches  against  the  Russians  :  a 
war  of  race,  a  social  war,  a  servile  war,  was  let  loose  in  the  basin 
of  the  Volga.  Moscow,  with  its  100,000  serfs,  was  agitated  :  the 
lower  orders,  seeing  the  frightened  land-owners  pour  in  from 
Eastern  Russia,  began  openly  to  speak  of  liberty  and  the  exter- 
mination of  the  masters.  Catherine  II.  charged  Alexander 
Bibikof  to  check  the  progress  of  the  scourge.  Bibikof,  on  his 
arrival  at  Kazan  was  alarmed  at  the  universal  demoralization, 
but  he  rallied  his  courage,  reassured  and  armed  the  nobles,  re- 
strained the  people,  and  affected  the  greatest  confidence,  while 
he  wrote  to  his  wife,  "The  evil  is  great — it  is  frightful!  Ah! 
all  will  go  ill."  He  thoroughly  comprehended  that  all  this  dis- 
order was  not  the  work  of  a  single  man.  "  Pougatchef,"  he  said, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


99 


"  is  only  a  bugbear  worked  by  the  Cossacks ;  it  is  not  Pouga- 
tchef  that  is  important,  but  the  general  discontent."  Although 
very  uncertain  of  his  own  troops,  he  attacked  the  impostor,  de- 
feated him  both  at  Tatichtcheva  and  at  Kargoula,  dispersed  his 
army  and  took  his  guns.  Bibikof  died  in  the  midst  of  his 
victories,  but  his  lieutenants,  Michelson,  de  Collonges,  and 
Galitsyne,  gave  chase  to  Pougatchef.  Tracked  to  the  Lower 
Volga,  he  suddenly  ascended  the  river,  threw  himself  into  Kazan 
which  he  pillaged  and  burned,  received  a  check  before  its 
Kremlin,  and  was  beaten  on  the  Kazanka.  Then  he  returned 
down  the  river,  boldly  entered  Saransk,  Samara,  and  Tzaritsyne, 
and,  though  closely  followed  by  his  enemies,  had  time  to  hang 
the  imperialists,  and  to  establish  new  municipalities.  During  his 
retreat  to  the  south  the  people  awaited  him  on  the  road  to 
Moscow,  and,  in  order  not  to  disappoint  them,  false  Peters  III. 
and  false  Pougatchefs  sprang  up  on  all  sides,  and  at  the  head  of 
savage  bands  put  proprietors  to  death  and  burned  castles. 
Moscow  was  nearer  revolt  than  ever.  It  was  time  that  Pougat- 
chef was  arrested.  Shut  in  between  the  Volga  and  the  Jaik,  by 
Michelson  and  the  indefatigable  Souvorof,  he  was  pinioned  and 
surrendered  by  his  own  accomplices,  at  the  very  moment  he  in- 
tended flying  into  Persia.  He  was  brought  to  Moscow,  so  that 
the  people  might  witness  his  punishment.  Many  declined  to 
believe  in  the  death  of  the  false  Peter  III.,  and  if  the  revolt  was 
put  down  the  spirit  of  revolt  existed  some  time  longer. 

It  was  a  warning  for  Catherine  II.,  and  she  remembered  it 
when  in  1775  she  extinguished  the  Zaporogue  republic.  This 
brave  tribe,  expelled  by  Peter  the  Great,  and  recalled  by  Anne 
Ivanovna,  no  longer  recognized  their  former  territory  in  the 
Ukraine.  Southern  Russia,  freed  from  Tatar  incursions,  was 
rapidly  colonized  ;  cities  rose  everywhere,  the  boundaries  of 
property  were  fixed,  and  the  vast  herbaceous  steppes,  through 
which  their  ancestors  had  roamed  as  freely  as  the  Arabs  in  the 
desert,  were  transformed  into  cultivated  fields  with  a  beautiful 
black  soil.  The  Zaporogues  were  much  discontented  with  this 
transformation ;  they  intended  to  reclaim  their  lands,  and  re- 
establish the  desert;  they  protected  the  ha'idamaks,  who  ill- 
treated  the  colonists.  Potemkine,  the  creator  of  New  Russia, 
became  weary  of  these  inconvenient  neighbors.  By  order  of  the 
Empress  he  occupied  the  setcha  and  destroyed  it.  The  mal- 
contents fled  to  the  territory  of  the  Sultan  ;  the  rest  were  organ- 
ized like  the  Black  Sea  Cossacks,  and  in  1792  the  Isle  of  Phana- 
goria  and  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Azof  were  assigned 
them.  Such  was  the  end  of  the  great  Cossack  power.  It  no 
longer  existed  save  in  the  songs  of  the  kobzars. 


HISTORY  Of  KUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CATHERINE  II.  :   GOVERNMENT  AND  REFORMS. 

The  helpers  of  Catherine  II. :  the  great  legislative  commission  (1766-1768)— 
Administration  and  justice:  colonization — Public  instruction — Letters  and 
arts — The  French  Philosophers. 


THE  HELPERS    OF  CATHERINE    II.  :    THE  GREAT    LEGISLATIVE  COM- 
MISSION (1766-1768). 

CATHERINE  II.  surrounded  herself  with  distinguished  fellow- 
workers,  some  of  whom  were  her  favorites.  In  the  early  part 
of  her  reign,  the  influence  of  the  Orlofs  was  predominant ;  these 
were  Gregory  Orlof,  the  favorite  par  excellence,  grand  master  of 
the  artillery,  by  whom  she  had  a  recognized  son,  Alexis,  created 
Count  Bobrinski ;  Alexis  Orlof,  the  admiral,  who  received  the 
name  of  Tchesmenski  after  the  expedition  to  the  Archipelago, 
and  was  involved  in  the  tragic  history  of  the  Princess  Tarankof  ; 
Theodore  Orlof,  who  became  procurator-general  of  the  Senate  ; 
Vladimir  Orlof,  who  was  director  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one.  Later,  the  favor  of  the  Orlofs  was  out- 
weighed by  that  of  Potemkine,  creator  of  New  Russia,  organizer 
of  the  Crimea,  conqueror  of  the  Ottomans  in  the  second  war 
with  Turkey,  and  who,  as  Prince  of  the  Taurid,  displayed  his 
Asiatic  luxury  in  his  palace  of  the  same  name  at  St.  Petersburg. 
Of  all  the  favorites  who,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign,  succeeded 
each  other  so  rapidly,  only  one  had  any  real  influence  over 
affairs.  This  was  Plato  Zoubof,  whose  brother  Valerian  con- 
ducted the  war  with  Persia.  In  the  direction  of  foreign  affairs 
were  distinguished  Nikita  Panine,  and  later  Bezborodko,  Oster- 
mann,  Markof,  and  Voronzof.  Repnine  and  Sievers  in  Poland, 
Budberg  at  Stockolm,  Semen  Veronzof  in  London,  and  Dmitri 
Galitsyne  at  Paris,  have  made  themselves  a  name  in  diplomacy. 
The  army  was  commanded  by  Alexander  Galitsyne,  Dolgorouki, 
Roumantsof,  and  Souvorof;  the  fleet  by  Greig,  Spiridof,  and 
Tchitchagof ;  Ivan  Betski  had  charge  of  the  fine  arts  and  of 
benevolent  institutions. 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  I  Oj 

From  176610  1768  Catherine  II.  assembled  first  at  Moscow  and 
afterwards  at  St.  Petersburg  the  commission  for  the  compilation 
of  the  new  code.  This  commission  was  composed  of  deputies 
from  all  the  services  of  the  State,  from  all  the  orders  and  all 
the  races  of  the  empire.  Besides  the  delegates  from  the  Senate, 
the  synod,  and  the  colleges  and  the  courts  of  Chancery,  the 
nobles  elected  a  representative  for  each  district,  the  citizens  one 
for  every  city,  the  odnorortsi  or  free  colonists  one  for  every  prov- 
ince, the  soldiers,  militia,  and  other  righting  men,  also  one  for 
each  province  ;  the  Crown  peasants,  the  fixed  tribes,  whether 
Christians  or  not,  equally  elected  one  for  each  province  ;  the 
deputation  of  the  Cossack  armies  was  fixed  by  their  atamans. 

Six  hundred  and  fifty-two  deputies  assembled  at  Moscow  ; 
officials,  nobles,  citizens,  peasants,  Tatars,  Kalmucks,  Lapps, 
Samoyedes,  and  many  others.  Each  man  was  to  be  furnished 
with  full  powers  and  with  papers  compiled  by  at  least  five  of  the 
electors.  Each  received  a  medal  with  the  effigy  of  Catherine, 
and  the  motto,  "  For  the  happiness  of  each  and  of  all,  Dec.  14, 
1766."  The  were  exempted  forever  from  all  corporal  punish- 
ments, and  were  declared  inviolable  during  the  session.  In  the 
'  Instructions  for  the  arrangement  of  the  New  Code,'  Catherine 
II.  had,  according  to  her  own  expression,  "  pillaged "  the 
philosophers  of  the  West,  especially  Montesquieu  and  Becaria. 
"  It  contained,"  says  the  prudent  Panine,  "  axioms  enough  to 
knock  a  wall  down."  Catherine  II.  assures  Voltaire  that  her 
'  Instruction  '  was  interdicted  at  Paris.  Among  the  ideas  of 
which  she  boasted,  we  meet  with  the  following,  which  were 
certainly  calculated  to  enrage  Louis  XV. : — "  The  nation  is  not 
made  for  the  sovereign,  but  the  sovereign  for  the  nation.  Equality 
consists  in  the  obedience  of  the  citizens  to  the  law  alone,  liberty 
is  the  right  to  do  all  that  is  not  forbidden  by  law.  It  is  better 
to  spare  ten  guilty  men  than  to  put  one  innocent  man  to  death. 
Torture  is  an  admirable  means  for  convicting  an  innocent  but 
weakly  man,  and  for  saving  a  stout  fellow  even  when  he  is 
guilty,"  Other  maxims  loudly  condemned  intolerance,  religious 
persecutions,  and  cruel  punishments. 

The  assembly  nominated  many  committees,  and  held  more 
than  two  hundred  sittings.  The  most  vexed  questions  were 
openly  discussed.  Nobles  of  the  Baltic  claimed  their  provincial 
rights,  merchants  brought  forward  municipal  organization  and 
all  economical  questions,  gentlemen  proposed  to  restrain  the 
rights  of  masters,  and  to  pronounce  the  pregnant  word  "  en- 
franchisement of  the  peasants."  It  was  not,  however,  an  as- 
sembly so  numerous,  so  divided  by  the  interests  of  classes,  and 
of  such  various  races  that  could  arrange  a  new  code.  It  was  a 


,  oa  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSTA. 

work  almost  impossible  in  the  Russia  of  that  period,  which  con- 
tained  within  itself  so  many  divers  forces.  The  Empress,  forced 
by  the  Turkish  war  to  break  up  the  assembly,  expressed  lie: self 
satisfied  with  her  experiment.  "  The  Commission  for  the  Code 
has  given  me  hints  for  all  the  empire.  I  know  now  what  is 
necessary,  and  with  what  I  should  occupy  myself.  It  has 
elaborated  all  parts  of  the  legislation,  and  has  distributed  the 
affairs  under  heads.  I  should  have  done  more  without  the  war 
with  Turkey,  but  a  unity  hitherto  unknown  in  the  principles  and 
methods  of  discussion  has  been  introduced."  These  States- 
general  of  Russia  influenced  the  laws  of  Catherine  II.,  as  the 
French  States-general  of  1356,  of  1413,  or  of  the  i6th  century 
influenced  the  laws  of  Charles  V.,  Charles  VI L,  or  the  later 
Valois. 

In  the  course  of  the  discussions  the  deputy  noble  Korobine 
had  proposed  to  suppress  the  rights  of  property  over  the  serfs, 
and  only  to  leave  the  masters  the  right  of  superintendence. 
Protapof,  another  deputy,  then  observed  that  "  in  that  case 
nothing  would  remain  but  to  set  the  peasant  free,  but  that,  if 
this  was  the  intention  of  the  Empress,  it  was  necessary  to  pro- 
ceed gradually."  The  Economical  Society  founded,  under  the 
auspices  of  Catherine  II.,  by  the  care  of  Gregory  Orlof  and 
other  "  patriots,"  had  put  the  question  to  the  assembly.  A 
paper,  dated  from  Aix-la-Chapelle,  pronouncing  for  emancipa- 
tion, obtained  the  prize,  but  other  influences  were  at  work  to 
efface  the  recollection  of  this  essay  from  the  mind  of  the  Empress. 
The  Russian  aristocracy  were  then  little  disposed  to  abdicate 
their  rights,  as  is  shown  by  the  conversations  of  Princess  Dach- 
kof  with  Diderot,  and  the  correspondence  of  Dmitri  Galitsyne. 
Catherine  confined  herself  to  repressing  the  most  crying  abuses. 
The  trial  of  Daria  Saltydof,  convicted  of  having  caused  the 
death  of  forty  of  her  servants  by  torture,  shows  to  what  a  point 
slavery,  which  degrades  the  serf,  could  demoralize  the  masters. 
She  was  condemned  in  1768  to  be  publicly  pilloried,  and  to 
perpetual  imprisonment ;  her  memory  still  lives  in  the  legends  of 
the  people.  The  same  reasons  which  had  caused  the  establish- 
ment of  serfage  in  the  time  of  Boris  Godounof  seemed  to  oper- 
ate in  favor  of  its  continuance.  Catherine  II.,  in  spite  of  a  few 
generous  impulses,  finally  aggravated  the  existing  state  of  things. 
More  than  150,000  Crown  peasants  were  transformed  into  serfs 
of  nobles,  by  being  distributed  among  her  favorites.  In  1767  an 
edict  forbade  peasants  to  complain  of  their  masters,  who  were 
authorized  to  send  them  at  will  to  Siberia,  or  to  force  them  to 
become  recruits.  Catherine  II.  established  serfage  in  Little 
Russia,  where  it  had  hitherto  had  no  legal  existence. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


ADMINISTRATION   AND  JUSTICE  :   COLONIZATION. 

The  Empress's  "  Council  "  deprived  the  Senate  of  part  of  its 
political  importance  ;  but  the  latter,  divided  into  six  departments, 
had  under  its  jurisdiction  all  the  branches  of  the  public  admin' 
istration.  Catherine  II.  attacked  the  vesiatski,  exactions  and 
peculations — the  most  inveterate  evil  of  this  administration. 
"I  consider  it,"  says  a  oukaze  of  1762,  "4  as  my  most  essential 
and  necessary  duty  to  declare  to  the  people,  with  the  profound- 
est  sorrrw.  that  corruption  has  progressed  so  rapidly  that  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  cite  an  administration  or  a  tribunal  that  is 
not  infected  by  it.  If  anyone  asks  for  a  place,  he  must  pay  foi 
it ;  if  a  man  has  to  defend  himself  against  calumny,  it  is  with 
money ;  if  you  wish  falsely  to  accuse  your  neighbor,  you  can  by 
gifts  insure  the  success  of  your  wicked  designs.  Many  judges 
have  transformed  the  sacred  place  where  they  should  administer 
justice  in  the  name  of  the  Almighty  into  a  market.  My  heart 
trembled  when  I  learned  that  a  registrar  of  the  Government 
Court  of  Chancery  at  Novgorod  found  an  opportunity,  while  re- 
ceiving the  oath  of  allegiance  from  my  subjects,  to  accept  from 
each  a  piece  of  money." 

One  means  of  securing  the  administration  of  the  laws  was, 
perhaps,  to  diminish  the  extent  of  the  governments,  which  placed 
the  seat  of  justice  too  far  from  the  people  governed.  By  an 
edict  of  1775  Catherine  modified  all  the  territorial  divisions  of 
the  empire.  Instead  of  fifteen  provinces  she  created  fifty 
governments,  each  with  a  population  of  from  300,000  to  400,000 
souls,  and  subdivided  into  districts  of  20,000  to  30,000  inhabit- 
ants. Every  province  had  its  governor  and  its  vice-governor; 
the  governor-generals,  or  namiJstniki,  were  invested  with  author- 
ity over  two  or  three  governments.  Thus  Livonia,  Esthonia,  and 
Courland  had  each  a  governor,  with  a  governor-general  between 
them.  Administration  was  definitely  separated  from  justice  ; 
each  governor  was  aided  by  a  council  of  regency  for  administra- 
tion and  the  police,  by  a  chamber  of  finance  for  taxes,  property, 
mines,  the  census,  and  a  college  of  provision  for  hospitals  and 
the  assistance  of  the  public. 

The  judicial  system  increased  the  profound  separation  of 
classes.  There  were,  in  the  first  instance,  district  tribunals  for 
gentlemen,  city  magistrates  for  the  townspeople,  inferior  justices 
for  the  odnovortsi  or  free  colonists,  and  for  the  Crown  peasants. 
There  was  nothing  for  the  serfs  of  the  nobles.  No  text  of  law 
positively  authorized  the  repression  of  the  most  cruel  seignorial 
abases  ;  the  sense  of  two  articles  of  the  military  code  had  to  be 


104 


JIISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


wrested  before  even  the  lives  of  the  agricultural  slaves  could  be 
protected.  As  courts  of  appeal,  a  supreme  tribunal,  a  govern- 
ment magistracy,  and  a  superior  court  of  justice  were  to  be  found 
in  the  head-quarters  of  each  division  of  government.  All  this 
hierarchy  led  to  a  court  of  final  appeal  in  the  Senate.  In  the 
towns  of  the  government  there  were  juries  for  certain  criminal 
causes  which  acted  as  justices  of  the  peace  in  civil  actions. 

The  nobility  had  received  a  sort  of  provincial  organization. 
In  each  government  there  existed  an  assembly  of  the  nobles, 
which  elected  a  marshal  and  other  dignitaries ;  and  as  Cathe- 
rine II.  could  not  revoke  the  law  of  Peter  III.,  she  forced  gentle- 
men to  serve  by  depriving  those  nobles  of  the  right  of  suffrage 
in  the  elections  who  had  not  obtained  the  rank  of  officers,  and 
also  refused  them  certain  prerogatives  of  their  own  order. 

Special  privileges  had  been  accorded  to  the  merchants  and 
citizens  (niic'chtchanes)  of  the  towns ;  among  them  were  the 
election  of  their  magistrates,  an  individual  jurisdiction,  and  a 
kind  of  municipal  self-government.  They  were  divided,  like  the 
merchants,  into  three  guilds :  to  the  first  belonged  men  with  a 
capital  of  less  than  10,000  roubles  ;  to  the  second,  those  who 
had  at  least  1000;  to  the  third,  those  with  a  property  worth  more 
than  500  roubles.  Below  this,  all  the  citizens  were  confounded 
in  the  appellation  of  miechtchanes.  In  the  matter  of  commerce 
and  trade  Catherine  had  renounced  the  system  of  protection  and 
surveillance  adopted  by  Peter  the  Great,  except  in  the  case  of 
cereals,  the  consumption  of  which  she  tried  to  regulate  by  es- 
tablishing granaries  in  abundance.  She  finally  suppressed  the 
three  colleges  of  mines,  manufactures,  and  commerce. 

To  people  the  uninhabited  though  fertile  lands  of  the  Volga 
and  the  Ukraine,  Catherine  called  in  foreign  colonists ;  she 
offered  them  a  capital  to  aid  in  their  settlement,  for  which  no 
interest  was  to  be  asked  for  the  space  of  ien  years,  and  ex- 
empted them  from  all  taxes  for  thirty  years.  These  colonists 
were  chiefly  Germans,  the  greater  part  from  the  Palatinate. 
Like  Frederic  II.,  she  offered  an  asylum  to  the  Moravians,  and 
*o  all  persecuted  religious  sects.  In  the  province  of  Saratof 
ftlone,  she  induced  12,000  families  to  take  up  their  abode,  whose 
descendants,  now  very  numerous,  still  inhabit  the  country,  and 
preserve  unbroken  the  German  language  and  customs.  In  the 
single  year  of  1771  as  many  as  26,000  people  answered  her  ap- 
peal. The  suppression  of  the  hetmanate  of  Little  Russia,  and 
the  extinction  of  the  setcha  of  the  Zaporogues,  favored  coloniza- 
tion. The  En-press  founded  nearly  200  new  towns,  many  of 
which,  as  Ekaterineburg  and  Ekaterinoslaf  (  "  glory  of  Cathe- 
rine "),  bore  her  name.  They  have  not  all  prospered,  but  in 
1793  Pallas  reckoned  a  populafion  of  33,000  at  Saratof. 


fflSTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA .  j  05 

One  reform  projected  by  Peter  1.7  and  clumsily  pushed  for- 
ward by  Peter  III.,  was  accomplished  by  Catherine  II. :  this  was 
the  secularization  of  the  Church  property.  The  number  of  peas- 
ants belonging  to  the  clergy,  regular  as  well  as  secular, 
amounted  to  nearly  a  million.  The  monastery  of  St.  Cyril,  on 
the  White  Lake,  possessed  35,000 ;  that  of  St.  Sergius,  at 
Troitsa,  120,000.  The  abbots  of  these  monasteries  may  be 
compared  to  the  sovereign  prelates,  to  the  priest-kings  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine.  Catherine  II.,  who  was  afterwards  to  pro- 
test so  loudly  against  the  resumption  of  Church  property  during 
the  French  Revolution,  effected  this  important  change  with  the 
greatest  quietness.  She  formed  a  commission  of  churchmen 
and  functionaries,  who  managed  to  carry  out  the  operation.  The 
property  of  the  Church  was  placed  under  the  administration  of 
an  "economical  commission,"  charged  with  the  collection  of 
the  revenues,  in  the  proportion  of  a  rouble  and  a  half  for  every 
male  peasant.  The  monasteries,  thus  converted  from  proprie- 
tors to  Crown-pensioners,  were  indemnified  according  to  their 
importance,  and  were  divided  into  three  classes.  Their  surplus 
revenues  were  applied  to  the  foundation  of  ecclesiastical  schools, 
homes  for  invalids,  and  hospitals. 

Catherine  II.  had  written  an  account  of  the  work  of  the  com- 
mission in  compiling  the  code,  to  Voltaire.  "  I  think  you  will 
be  pleased  by  this  assembly,  where  the  orthodox  man  is  to  be 
found  seated  between  the  heretic  and  the  Mussulman,  all  three 
listening  to  the  voice  of  an  idolater,  and  all  four  consulting  how 
to  render  their  conclusion  palatable  to  all."  This  was  the  res- 
toration of  religious  tolerance  in  Russia,  after  the  reign  of  the 
pious  Elizabeth.  In  the  provinces  taken  from  Poland,  a  natural 
reaction  from  the  Polish  system  obtained  many  converts  to 
orthodoxy  ;  in  the  latter  years  of  the  reign  they  amounted  to 
1,500,000  souls.  Catherine  II.  was  so  far  from  persecuting  the 
Catholics,  that  she  allowed  the  Jesuits,  notwithstanding  their 
legal  suppression  by  Pope  Clement  XIV.,  to  purchase  the  right 
of  existence  in  White  Russia.  She  authorized  the  Volga  Tatars 
to  rebuild  their  mosques,  and  thus  checked  the  Mussulman  emi- 
gration provoked  by  the  severity  of  Elizabeth.  The  raskolniks 
were  protected,  reassured,  and  freed  from  the  double  tax  im- 
posed on  them  by  Peter  the  Great,  and  the  "  bureau  "  of  the 
raskolniks  was  suppressed. 

The  population  of  the  empire  increased  during  this  reign  to 
40,000,000,  but  it  was  still  far  too  small  to  cultivate  the  enor- 
mous plains.  One  great  obstacle  to  the  multiplication  of  the  in- 
habitants has  always  been  the  want  of  hygiene,  the  lack  of  doc- 
tors, the  absence  of  all  assistance  from  science,  and  the  mor- 


, 06  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

tality  of  children,  which  counterbalanced  the  fruitfulness  of  the 
marriages.  Catherine  II.  did  everything  that  could  be  done  at 
that  period.  She  encouraged  the  study  of  medicine,  sent  for 
foreign  physicians,  founded  a  "  department  of  the  College  of 
Pharmacy  "  at  Moscow,  helped  to  build  manufactories  ot  chirur- 
gical  instruments,  introduced  inoculation  into  Moscow,  and  van- 
quished the  popular  outcry  by  being  herself  the  first  subject. 
She  desired  Dimsdale,  the  Englishman,  to  inoculate  her  as  wel! 
as  her  son  by  Gregory  Orlof.  This  was  at  the  time  that  small- 
pox carried  off  Louis  XV.  and  the  children  of  the  King  of 
Spain.  "  That  is  very  foreign,"  writes  Catherine  to  Voltaire  : 
and  again  "  more  people  have  been  inoculated  here  in  one 
month  than  have  been  inoculated  in  Vienna  in  a  year."  Even 
the  natives  of  Siberia  recognized  the  benefits  of  the  new  inven- 
tion, but  the  Mussulmans,  the  raskolniks,  and  part  of  the  Rus- 
sian people  energetically  defended  themselves  against  it. 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION — LETTERS    AND  ARTS — FRENCH  PHILOSOPHY. 

The  Empress  displayed  the  same  eagerness  to  instruct  the 
upper  and  middle  classes,  if  she  did  not  seek  to  touch  the  peo- 
ple, properly  speaking,  whose  masses  could  not  be  penetrated 
by  a  culture  that  was  still  superficial.  "  To  triumph  over  secu- 
lar superstitions,"  she  dictated  to  Betski,  "  to  give  a  new  educa- 
tion, and  in  one  sense  a  new  life  to  the  people,  is  a  work  de- 
manding incredible  toil,  and  of  which  posterity  alone  will  reap 
the  fruits."  From  the  lack  of  a  national  education,  "  Russia 
wanted  the  class  of  men  known  in  other  countries  as  the  third 
estate."  Betski  thought  it  necessary  that  the  children  should 
be  taught  by  Russians,  as  strangers  would  fail  to  understand 
how  much  in  their  pupils  belonged  to  the  religion,  habits,  and 
manners  of  the  country.  The  moment  had  not  yet  come  when 
Russia  could  do  without  foreign  teachers.  The  scheme  of  na- 
tional education  for  children  of  all  classes,  presented  by  Betski, 
could  only  partially  be  realized ;  secondary  schools  were  founded 
in  the  great  cities  alone.  Catherine  II.  also  interested  herself 
in  the  instruction  of  women.  At  the  monastery  or  institute  of 
Smolna,  she  assembled  480  young  girls,  under  the  direction  of  a 
Frenchwoman,  Madame  Lafond.  "  We  want  them  to  be  neiiher 
prudes  nor  coquettes,"  she  writes  to  Voltaire.  French  and 
other  foreign  languages  and  accomplishments  were  taught  there  ; 
but  the  line  between  the  pupils  of  noble  birth  and  tradesmen's 
daughters  was  sharply  drawn.  A  splendid  foundation  of  Cathe- 
rine's was  the  "  Vospitatelnyi  Dom,"  or  house  of  education  at 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  107 

Moscc.r, — a  large  establishment,  which  was  to  extort  admira- 
tion from  Napoleon  I.,  and  where  nearly  40,000  children  in  need 
of  assistance,  or  girl-pupils,  were  received  in  Catherine's  reign. 
The  serf  who  married  one  of  these  orphans  became  free. 

The  influence  of  French  genius  over  Russian  civilization 
greatly  increased  during  the  reign  of  Catherine  II.  The  national 
poets  translated  and  imitated  the  French  classics  of  the  lyth 
century.  The  great  Russian  nobles,  like  the  Voronzofs  and  the 
Galitsynes,  esteemed  it  an  honor,  as  did  the  French  nobility  on 
their  side,  to  correspond  with  the  writers  and  thinkers  of  the 
West.  Catherine  II.  quotes,  in  the  preface  to  her  laws,  some  of 
Montesquieu's  most  audacious  maxims.  This  French  influence 
was  beneficial,  although  it  was  only  exercised  on  the  upper 
classes  of  society,  and  often  stopped  at  the  exterior  without 
modifying  either  the  character  or  the  manners.  It  was  this  that 
introduced  or  strengthened  in  the  Russian  nobility  those  ideas 
of  religious  tolerance,  of  moral  dignity,  of  respect  for  the  human 
body,  even  in  the  person  of  a  slave, — those  habits  of  courtesy 
and  politeness,  those  aspirations  after  social  justice  and  political 
liberty,  which  must,  in  the  long  run,  perform  their  work,  soften 
the  hardness  of  the  old  boyards,  prepare  for  the  emancipation 
of  the  agricultural  classes,  and  bring  about  the  regeneration  of 
Russia.  We  shall,  however,  see  the  Russian  nobility,  who  had 
apparently  followed  the  French  philosophers  into  their  most 
audacious  deductions,  suddenly  frightened  at  the  most  moderate 
reforms  of  1789,  and  declaring  loudly  against  revolutionary 
France.  We  shall  find  characters  in  which  a  slight  varnish  of 
Parisian  civilization  scarcely  hides  the  ancient  barbarism,  but  it 
was  not  in  vain  that  Catherine's  contemporaries  had  been 
fascinated  by  Montesquieu,  by  Voltaire,  and  by  the  American 
revolution.  The  social  state  of  Russia,  divided  into  an  aristoc- 
racy of  proprietors  and  a  people  of  serfs,  prevented  the  country 
from  advancing  with  the  same  rapidity  as  France,  bi/  Drench 
ideas  did  not  delay  her  progress. 

Catherine  II.  was  not  less  eager  than  her  nobles  in  seeking 
the  sympathy  of  French  writers  ;  her  correspondence  with  phil- 
osophers added  not  a  little  to  her  prestige  in  the  Europe  of  the 
i8th  century,  and  to  her  fame  with  posterity.  She  attracted 
Grimm,  once  a  friend  of  Rousseau,  to  her  service,  and  he  sent 
her  regular  letters  from  Paris  on  the  affairs  of  France.  She 
affected  a  gracious  familiarity  towards  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  and 
the  French  ambassador,  Count  de  Sdgur,  both  men  distinguished 
for  wit  and  literary  talents  ;  admitted  them  into  her  travelling- 
carriage  during  a  long  journey  to  the  South,  and  was  able  to  re- 
spond to  their  ingenious  flatteries  and  to  their  lively  sallies.  She 


108  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

wished  to  employ  Mercier  de  la  Riviere,  and  to  secure  the  ser- 
vices of  Beccaria,  author  of  the  '  Treatise  on  Crimes  and  Penal- 
ties ;  '  she  declared  herself  the  "  good  friend "  of  Madame 
Ge'offrin,  whose  Parisian  salon  was  one  of  the  intellectual  powers 
of  that  epoch.  She  offered  to  D'Alembert,  who  refused  it,  the 
superintendence  of  the  education  of  the  Grand  Duke  Paul,  heir 
to  the  throne  ;  later,  she  placed  the  Swiss  Laharpe,  celebrated 
for  his  republican  opinions,  with  her  grandsons  Alexander  and 
Constantine.  She  thanked  Marmontel  for  sending  her  his 
'  Belisarius,'  "  a  book  which  deserves  to  be  translated  into  all 
languages,"  caused  a  translation  of  it  to  be  made  by  her  friends 
during  a  voyage  down  the  Volga,  and  even  undertook  the  ninth 
chapter  herself.  She  bought  the  library  of  Diderot,  yet  allowed 
him  to  enjoy  it  ;  subscribed  to  the  '  Encyclopaedia,'  which  was 
forbidden  to  appear  in  Paris  ;  admired  the  '  Pensees  Philoso- 
phiques,'  condemned  by  the  Parliament  to  be  burned,  and  the 
'  Lettre  surles  Aveugles,'  which  had  consigned  the  philosopher 
to  the  Bastile.  She  sent  for  the  author  to  St.  Petersburg,  and 
entertained  him  for  a  month  with  the  most  brilliant  hospitality. 
The  great  sculptor  Falconet,  the  friend  of  Diderot  and  the 
Encyclopaedists,  was  already  there,  working  at  the  statue  of 
Peter  the  Great.  It  was  with  Voltaire,  above  all,  that  Catherine 
kept  up  a  close  correspondence,  beginning  in  1/63,  and  continu- 
ing to  the  death  of  the  great  man  in  1778.  She  wished  herself 
to  keep  him  informed,  not  only  of  her  victories,  but  of  her 
reforms,  her  efforts  at  legislation  and  labors  for  the  colonization 
of  Russia,  knowing  that  the  hermit  of  Ferney  had  fame  in  his 
gift.  She  gave  money  to  his  proteges,  the  families  of  Sirven  and 
Calas,  victims  of  the  judicial  abuses  of  the  iSth  century  ;  and, 
after  the  expedition  of  Alexis  Orlof  to  the  Archipelago,  caused 
him  to  hope  for  the  resurrection  of  Greece.  She  multiplied  the 
purchases  of  pictures  and  works  of  art,  and  endowed  the  capital 
of  Peter  the  Great  with  artistic  splendors  hitherto  unknown. 

In  spite  of  her  devotion  to  the  arts  and  1  -tiers  of  the  West, 
Catherine  piqued  herself  on  being,  above  everything,  a  Russian 
empress  ;  and  jestingly  bade  her  doctor  to  bleed  her  of  her  last 
drop  of  German  blood.  She  has  a  place  of  her  own  in  Russian 
literature  of  the  i8th  century,  having  compiled  for  the  use  of 
her  grandsons  Alexander  and  Constantine  the  '  Grandmother's 
A.B.C.,'  stories  from  Russian  history,  and  a  whole  '  Alexandro- 
Constantine  Library,'  which  had  the  honor  to  be  printed  in  Ger- 
many. The  prefaces  to  her  la\vs,  her  correspondence  in  Rus- 
sian, French,  and  German  with  her  ministers,  her  governors, 
and  friends  in  France  and  Germany,  prove  her  literary  activity. 
She  also  worked  for  the  new-born  Russian  theatre  :  in  her  lyric 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


109 


drama  called  '  Oleg,'  the  first  expedition  of  the  Russians  against 
Constantinople  is  celebrated  ;  in  her  comedy  of  '  Gore*  Bogatyr' 
(the  Knight  of  Misfortune),  she  turns  into  ridicule  the  adven- 
turous Gustavus  III.  ;  in  those  of  the  '  Charlatan  '  and  the 'Mys- 
tified Man,'  she  chastises  Cagliostro,  who  sought  for  dupes  even 
in  Russia  ;  while  the  '  Birthday  of  Madame  Vortchalkina,'  '  O 
Time,'  and  many  others,  are  satires  on  contemporary  manners. 
Against  the  French  Abbe  Chappe  d'Auteroche,  and  his  voyage 
to  Siberia,  she  published  an  amusing  pamphlet,  called  '  Th;> 
Antidote.'  Finally,  she  has  left  in  French  some  curious  memoirs 
about  her  arrival  in  Russia  and  her  life  as  a  Grand  Duchess. 

The  Russian  Academy,  modelled  in  some  degree  after  the 
French,  was  founded  in  1783,  on  the  suggestion  of  Princess 
Dachkof,  then  President  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences.  The  task 
of  "  fixing  the  rules  of  the  orthography,  grammar,  and  prosody 
of  the  Russian  language,  and  of  encouraging  the  study  of 
Russian  history,"  was  confided  to  her.  She  then  undertook 
the  publication  of  a  dictionary  which  appeared  from  1789  to 
1799,  which  included  in  its  six  volumes  43,257  words,  and  was 
re-edited  from  1840  to  1850.  Indeed  the  Russian  Academy  was 
so  much  in  fashion  that  the  most  illustrious  men  of  letters  and 
the  highest  ladies  of  rank — Princess  Dachkof,  the  poets  Der- 
javine,  Fon-Vizine,  Kniajnine,  and  Count  Ivan  Schouvalof — 
insisted  on  working  at  the  dictionary.  Catherine  II.  herself 
compiled  '  Complementary  Notes  '  for  the  first  volume.  In  1835, 
the  minister  Ouvarof  amalgamated  the  Russian  Academy  with 
the  Academy  of  Sciences,  under  the  title  of  "  Second  Class.' ' 

Catherine  II.  made  herself  the  patroness  of  Russian  literati. 
If  she  imposed  the  recital  of  a  certain  number  of  lines  from  the 
Telemachid  of  Trediakovski  as  a  penance  on  her  friends  of 
Tsarkoe-Selo,  or  the  Hermitage,  she  encouraged  Fon-Vizine,  the 
comic  author,  the  Russian  Moliere,  who  in  his  comedy  of  the 
'  Brigadier '  derided  those  whose  only  reading  were  the  French 
romances,  and  ridiculed  in  his  '  Fop'  (the  niedorosf)  the  indolence 
and  frivolity  of  the  young  Russian  nobles,  the  foolish  infatuation 
of  their  parents,  and  the  strange  choice  of  their  preceptors.  The 
taste  for  the  pleasures  of  wit  was  spread  by  the  theatre  of  Soum- 
arokof,  in  many  ways  an  imitation  of  the  French  theatre,  whose 
plays  were  often  acted  by  the  corps  of  cadets,  at  the  court  and 
in  public  places.  Kniajnine  wrote  '  The  Miller,'  a  comedy 
which  has  kept  its  place  on  the  boards,  '  The  Boaster,'  *  The 
Originals,'  '  The  Fatal  Carriage,'  and  attempted  an  historical 
drama  in  '  Vadim  of  Novgorod.'  Kheraskof  composed  '  The 
Russiad,'  an  epic  poem.  Bogdanovitch  reproduced,  in  the  light 
poetry  of  the  "  Douchenka,"  the  antique  subject  of  Psyche, 


T  !  0  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Chemnitzler  translated  the  fables  of  Gellert,  and  invented  others 
in  Russian,  whose  natural  ease  recalled  La  Fontaine  and  pre- 
dicted Krylof.  Derjavine,  in  hi  odes  '  To  God  '  on  '  The  Cap- 
ture of  Ismail,'  '  The  Death  of  Prince  Mechtcherski,'  '  The 
Cascade,'  '  My  Idol,  '  The  Great  Noble,'  continued  the  lyrical 
traditions  of  Lomonossof.  His  piece  of  '  Felitsa,'  a  lively  satire 
of  high  society,  full  of  malicious  allusions  to  different  people  of 
the  court,  which  might  have  cost  him  dear  under  the  preceding 
reigns,  gained  him  a  golden  tobacco-box  and  a  rich  gift  from  the 
Empress,  who  took  care  to  send  copies  of  the  '  Felitsa '  to  all 
alluded  to,  underlining  the  passages  applied  to  them.  Although 
a  poet,  Gerjavine  was  Minister  of  Justice. 

The  ardent  and  laborious  Novikof,  in  order  that  the  new  cult- 
ure might  penetrate  to  the  silent  masses  of  the  smaller  trades- 
people, and  also  to  the  people,  took  up  the  '  Moscow  Gazette,' :  e- 
cured  for  it  4000  subscribers  (an  enormous  number  for  the  time), 
perfected  the  Russian  typography,  created  new  libraries,  and  puta 
lished  a  series  of  reviews  and  magazines  for  home  readings  for  the 
young  and  for  nearly  illiterate  workmen.  Among  these  were  the 
'  Pilgrim's  Staff,'  the  '  Painter,'  the  '  Purse,'  the  '  Ancient 
Library  of  Russia,'  the  '  Couriers  of  Russian  Antiquities,'  the 
'  Morning  Aurora,'  the  '  Evening  Aurora,'  the  '  Edition  of  Mos- 
cow,' and  the  '  Rest  of  the  Worker.'  He  founded  some  philan- 
thropical  societies,  and  that  of  the  Friends  of  Instruction,  and 
took  in  hand  the  cause  of  national  education. 

The  aged  Miiller  edited  the  first  '  National  History  of  Rus- 
sia,' by  Tatichtchef  ;  and  the  '  Kernel  of  Russian  History,'  by 
Mankief.  Pallas  of  Berlin  performed  his  celebrated  travels  in 
the  Crimea,  in  Siberia,  and  on  the  frontiers  of  China,  and  was 
given  by  the  Empress  an  estate  in  the  Taurid.  Golikof,  pardoned 
by  Catherine  II.  on  the  occasion  of  the  inauguration  of  Fal- 
conet's bronze,  vowed  at  the  feet  of  Peter's  statue  to  raise  an 
historical  monument  to  the  glory  of  the  Russian  hero,  and 
published  in  twelve  volumes  the  '  Actions  of  Peter  the  Great.' 
Prince  Chtcherbatof  wrote  the  '  History  of  Russia  from  the 
most  Remote  Times.'  Boltine  discussed  the  recent  history  of 
Russia  by  the  French  Leclerc.  Moussine-Pouchkine  discovered 
the  unique  manuscript  of  the  '  Song  of  Igor.'  Khrapovitski 
(confidential  secretary  of  Catherine  II.),  Porochine  (one  of  the 
masters  of  the  Grand  Duke  Paul),  Nikita  Panine  (the  diplo- 
matist), the  great  nobles,  Semen  and  Alexander  Voronzof,  their 
sister  Catherine  Dachkof,  and  the  old  soldier  Bolotof,  collected 
or  prepared  valuable  memoirs  on  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 
Catherine.  The  historian  Karamzine,  and  the  dramatic  poef 
Ozerof,  the  glories  of  the  following  reigns,  were  yet  only  boys. 


mSTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  \  i  j 


CHAPTER  X. 

CATHERINE  II.  t   LAST  YEARS  (1779-1796). 

Franco-Russian  mediation  at  Teschen  (1779) — Armed  neutrality  (1780)— 
Reunion  of  the  Crimea  (1783) — Second  war  with  Turkey  (1787-1792)  and 
war  with  Sweden  (1788-1790) — Second  partition  of  Poland :  Diet  of  Grodno 
— Third  partition:  Kosciuszko — Catherine  II.  and  the  French  Revolution 
— War  with  Persia. 


FRANCO-RUSSIAN   MEDIATION    AT    TESCHEN    (1779) — ARMED    NEU- 
TRALITY (1780) — REUNION   OF   THE   CRIMEA    (1783). 

THE  second  part  of  the  reign  of  Catherine  II.  is  characterized 
by  the  abandonment  of  the  "  System  of  the  North  " ;  that  is,  of 
the  English  and  Prussian  alliance,  and  by  a  marked  reconcili- 
ation, first  with  Austria  and  then  with  France.  The  dominant 
influence  in  foreign  affairs  of  Nikita  Panine  was  to  give  place  to 
that  of  Bezborodko,  and  especially  of  Potemkine,  who  became 
all-powerful.  It  was  at  this  epoch  that  the  French  ambassadors 
(the  Marquis  de  Juigne,  Bouree  de  Corberon,  the  Marquis  de 
Ve'rac,  and  above  all  the  Comte  de  Se'gur)  were  again  taken  into 
favor  in  Russia. 

In  1777,  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  being  dead,  his  succession 
occasioned  a  conflict  between  the  house  of  Austria  and  Frederic 
II.  In  order  to  stop  this  war,  which  had  already  begun  in  Bo- 
hemia, the  Courts  of  France  and  Russia  agreed  to  offer  their 
mediation,  and  in  1779  assembled  a  Congress  at  Teschen,  where 
M.  Breteuil  represented  Louis  XVI.,  and  the  Prince  Repnine 
Catharine  II.  Peace  was  signed  on  the  loth  of  May.  Bavaria 
passed  to  the  Elector  Palatine,  and  Austria  only  acquired  some 
districts  upon  the  Danube,  the  Inn,  and  the  Salza. 

In  1780.  during  the  American  War,  the  Empress,  moved  to 
Indignation  by  the  wrongs  committed  by  the  English  Admiralty 
against  foreign  merchantmen,  joined  with  Sweden,  Denmark, 
Prussia,  Austria,  and  Portugal  to  proclaim  an  armed  neutrality. 
The  celebrated  act  embodied  the  principles  of  a  new  maritime 
law,  agreeing  with  the  French  code  of  1778.  It  was  settled: 


xtt  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

i.  That  neutral  ships  could  freely  navigate  the  coasts  of  the  na- 
tions at  war.  2.  That  the  goods  belonging  to  the  subjects  of 
the  belligerent  powers  should  be  safe  in  neutral  vessels,  except  in 
the  case  of  contraband  merchandise.  3.  That  "contraband 
goods  "  only  included  arms  and  munition.  4.  That  a  port  should 
only  be  considered  in  a  state  of  blockade  when  the  blockade  was 
effectual — that  is,  when  the  vessels  attacking  it  should  be  so 
near  as  to  render  it  dangerous  to  pass  out.  5.  That  these  prin- 
ciples should  "serve  as  a  rule  in  trials  and  judgments  on  the 
legality  of  captures. 

These  principles  were  opposed  at  all  points  to  those  which 
the  English  Admiralty  wished  to  see  prevail.  The  latter  held 
the  theory  that  the  blockade  exists  from  the  moment  that  it  is 
declared  by  an  act  of  the  Admiralty,  and  considered  as  contra- 
band even  grain,  and  all  that  could  be,  however  indirectly,  of 
use  to  the  belligerents.  France,  who  had  at  first  laid  down  these 
principles,  and  to  whom  the  armed  neutrality  brought  a  moral 
support  in  her  struggle  with  Great  Britain,  adhered  to  this  dec- 
laration. Her  allies,  Spain  and  the  Two  Sicilies,  imitated  her. 
Holland  even  began  a  war  with  England  to  maintain  the  rights 
of  the  neutral  Powers. 

The  Crimea  had  been  declared  independent  by  the  Yrenty 
of  Kai'rnadji ;  and  since  1774  anarchy  had  been  the  normal 
state  of  the  peninsula.  The  Sultan,  deprived  by  the  treaty  of 
his  temporal  sovereignty,  continued,  as  successor  of  the  Khalifs, 
to  claim  the  religious  supremacy.  The  Mourzas,  abandoned 
to  themselves,  were  divided  into  two,  the  Russian  party  and  the 
Turkish  party,  which  in  turn  made  and  unmade  a  Khan  of  the 
Crimea.  Nearly  35,000  Christians,  Greeks,  Armenians  or  Cath- 
olics, disturbed  by  these  civil  discords,  quitted  the  ravine  of 
Tchoufout-Kale'  and  the  wonder-working  sanctuary  of  the  As- 
sumption, dug  out  of  the  hard  rock,  and  emigrated  in  a  body  to 
the  territory  of  Russia.  In  1775,  the  Khan  Sahib-Ghirei,  who 
was  devoted  to  Russia,  was  overthrown  and  replaced  by  Devlet- 
Ghirei.  He  in  his  turn  was  dethroned  by  Catherine,  and  Cha- 
hin  Ghirei  reigned  in  his  stead,  but,  by  his  attempts  at  Euro- 
pean reforms,  caused  a  general  revolt.  Russia  interfered  ;  she 
proclaimed  the  union  of  the  empire  and  the  peninsula,  which  had 
been  since  the  131!!  century  the  home  of  banditti,  and  whose 
gullies  had  so  often  sent  forth  Tatar  squadrons  to  bring  fire  and 
flame  to  Moscow.  Thus  Catherine  finished  the  work  of  the 
conqueror  of  Kazan,  of  Astrakhan,  and  of  Siberia,  by  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  last  kingdom  that  recalled  the  Mongol  yoke. 

The  two  military  States  which  formerly  disputed  the  steppes 
of  the  South,  the  Tatar  khanate  and  the  equally  warlike  republic 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  !  1 3 

of  the  Zaporogues,  succumbed  almost  at  the  same  time.  In 
face  of  the  advent  of  civilization,  these  old  enemies  were  alike 
condemned  to  total  ruin.  Representatives  of  the  ancient  an- 
archy, children  of  the  desert  and  the  steppe,  knights  of  pillage 
and  of  prey,  they  constituted  a  dangerous  anachronism  and  an 
intolerable  anomaly  on  the  frontier  of  a  prosperous  Russia.  The 
Porte  protested  against  the  annexation  of  the  Crimea,  and 
threatened  a  rupture  ;  but  France,  which  had  formerly  excited 
the  war,  tried  this  time  to  smooth  matters.  Catherine  II.  recog' 
nized  the  good  offices  of  the  ambassador  Saint-Priest,  and  ad- 
dressed her  thanks  to  Louis  XVI.  The  Sultan  acknowledged 
the  cession  of  the  Crimea  and  of  the  Kuban  by  the  Treaty  of 
Constantinople  (1783). 

In  1784  the  Grand  Duke  Paul  and  his  wife,  under  the  names 
of  the  Count  and  Countess  du  Nord,  had  made  a  tour  in  the 
West,  and  received  a  brilliant  reception  in  Paris.  In  1787  the 
Comte  de  Segur,  thanks  to  the  good  terms  on  which  he  stood 
with  Potemkine,  and  the  latter's  desire  to  hasten  the  develop- 
ment of  Odessa,  by  trading  with  the  French  ports  on  the  Medi- 
terranean, concluded  a  treaty  of  commerce,  an  important  nego- 
tiation in  which  all  his  predecessors  had  hitherto  failed. 


SECOND  WAR  WITH  TURKEY  (1787-1792)  AND  WAR   WITH  SWEDEN 
(1788-1790). 

All  this  time  Russia  maintained  a  close  alliance  with  Joseph 
II.,  whom  she  had  gained  over  to  her  ambitious  projects  in  the 
East.  The  Cabinet  of  St.  Petersburg  proposed  to  that  of  Vienna 
a  plan  for  the  dismemberment  of  Turkey.  "  There  ought  to 
exist  between  the  Russian,  Austrian,  and  Turkish  monarchies, 
an  intermediate  State,  independent  of  each,  which,  under  the 
name  of  Dacia,  should  comprehend  Moldavia,  Wallachia,  and 
Bessarabia,  and  have  a  sovereign  of  the  Greek  Church.  Russia 
was  to  acquire  Otchakof  and  the  seaboard  between  the  Bug  and 
the  Dnieper,  besides  one  or  two  isles  in  the  Archipelago.  Aus- 
tria was  to  annex  the  Turkish  provinces  on  her  frontiers.  If 
the  war  were  crowned  with  such  success  that  the  Turks  were  ex- 
pelled from  Constantinople,  the  Greek  empire  was  to  be  re-es- 
tablished in  complete  independence,  and  the  throne  of  Byzan- 
tium to  be  filled  by  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  Pavlovitch, 
who  was  to  renounce  all  claims  to  the  throne  of  Russia,  so  that 
the  two  kingdoms  might  never  be  united  under  the  same  sceptre." 
Joseph  II.  accepted  these  propositions,  but  further  stipulated 
that  besides  Servia,  Bosnia,  and  the  Herzegovina,  the  Slav  prov« 


,  14  HISTOR  y  OF  RUSSIA. 

inces  of  the  Turkish  empire,  he  should  have  the  Venetian  pos- 
sessions in  Dalmatia.  Venice  was  to  receive  in  exchange  the 
Morea,  Candia,  and  Cyprus.  England,  France,  and  Spain  might 
share  in  the  spoils  of  Turkey.  Such  was  the  celebrated  scheme 
of  partition,  known  under  the  name  of  the  "  Greek  project," 
which  would  have  fulfilled  all  the  wishes  of  Voltaire,  who  had 
died  five  years  previously. 

The  attitude  of  Russia  became  each  day  more  threatening 
to  the  Porte.  The  second  son  of  Paul  I.  bore  the  significant 
name  of  Constantine,  and  had  been  given  a  Greek  nurse.  The 
Taurid,  annexed  by  Catherine  II.,  who  had  alleged  the  security 
of  the  empire  as  the  reason  of  her  act,  became,  in  the  hands  of 
Potemkine,  a  menace  to  the  Turks.  Already  Cherson  had  a 
formidable  arsenal ;  Sebastopol  was  being  built ;  there  was  a 
Russian  fleet  on  the  Black  Sea,  and  in  two  days  it  might  cast 
anchor  under  the  walls  of  the  Seraglio.  Catherine's  agents  con- 
tinued to  agitate  in  the  Roumanian,  Slav,  and  Greek  provinces, 
and  even  in  Egypt ;  she  was  preparing  to  incorporate  the  Cau- 
casus, and  had  taken  the  Tzar  of  Georgia  under  her  protection. 
The  triumphal  journey  made  by  the  Empress  in  1787  to  the  gov- 
ernments of  the  South  and  the  newly-conquered  provinces  ;  her 
interviews  with  the  King  of  Poland  and  Joseph  II. ;  the  military 
equipment  arrayed  by  Potemkine,  prince  of  the  Taurid ;  the 
arches  with  the  famous  inscription,  "The  way  to  Byzantium," 
still  further  alarmed  and  irritated  the  Porte.  France,  which  too 
well  knew  the  weakness  of  her  old  ally,  held  her  back  ;  but 
England,  and  even  Prussia,  acted  in  the  contrary  way,  in  order 
to  spite  Russia.  Sweden,  which  the  French  ambassador  also 
tried  to  moderate,  had  promised  to  aid  the  Sublime  Porte. 

In  the  summer  of  1787,  Boulgakof,  the  Russian  envoy,  re- 
ceived the  ultimatum  of  Turkey.  She  demanded  the  extradition 
of  Mavrocordato,  hospodar  of  Wallachia  ;  the  recall  of  the  Rus- 
sian consuls  of  lassy,  Bucharest,  and  Alexandria  ;  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  protectorate  over  Heraclius,  the  vassal  of  the  Sultan  ; 
the  right  of  the  Turks  to  inspect  all  Russian  vessels  navigating 
the  Straits ;  and  the  admission  of  Turkish  consuls  or  commis- 
saries into  the  ports  of  the  Russian  territory.  On  the  refusal 
of  Boulgakof,  he  was  confined  in  the  Seven  Towers,  and  the 
Porte  declared  war. 

Russia  found  herself  taken  by  surprise.  Potemkine  had  not 
finished  his  preparations,  and  the  fleet  at  Sebastopol  had  suffered 
severely  from  a  recent  tempest.  His  despairing  letters  to 
Catherine  show  how  deeply  he  was  discouraged  ;  and  he  even 
spoke  of  evacuating  the  Crimea.  The  Empress  shows  in  her 
replies  a  manly  and  dauntless  soul ;  she  managed  to  prove  to 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  l  x g 

her  favorite  that  the  evacuation  of  the  Peninsula  would  be  the 
certain  ruin  of  the  great  port  of  Sebastopol  and  the  infant  fleet 
which  had  been  created  at  such  cost.  Without  waiting  for  the 
enemy  it  was  necessary  to  assume  the  offensive,  and  march  on 
Otchakof  or  Bender.  "I  implore  you  to  take  courage  and 
reflect,"  she  writes  ;  "  with  courage  all  can  be  repaired,  even  a 
disaster." 

Catherine  had  more  than  one  enemy  to  cope  with.  Whilst 
Turkey  menaced  her  on  the  South,  Prussia  was  scheming  to 
force  Poland  to  cede  her  Dantzig  and  Thorn,  and  to  oblige  the 
two  other  co-partitioners  to  give  up  Gallicia.  Gustavus  III. 
likewise  abruptly  laid  claim  to  South  Finland,  declared  his  in- 
tention of  mediating  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  and,  without 
awaiting  a  reply  to  his  ultimatum,  laid  siege  to  Nyslot  and 
Fredericksham.  If  he  had  acted  promptly,  instead  of  wasting 
the  ardor  of  his  troops  against  the  fortresses,  he  might  have  con- 
quered Livonia,  then  defended  by  only  two  regiments,  or  sur- 
prised St.  Petersburg,  deprived  of  its  troops.  Although  the 
roar  of  the  Swedish  cannon  might  be  heard  in  the  Winter  Palace, 
Catherine  practised  the  courage  that  she  enjoined  on  Potemkine. 
She  declined  to  desert  her  capital,  and  assembled  in  a  few  days 
12,000  men  for  its  defence.  The  Swedish  fleet  was  arrested  on 
its  way  by  the  indecisive  battle  of  Hogland.  An  aristocratic 
revolt  broke  out  even  in  the  camp  of  Gustavus  III.,  who  was 
accused  by  his  officers  of  violating  his  own  constitution  by  de- 
claring war  without  consulting  the  Senate.  The  King  of  Sweden 
was  obliged  to  return  to  Stockholm,  where  he  punished  the 
conspirators,  and  by  a  new  coitp  d'etat  gave  to  the  constitution 
a  still  more  monarchical  character.  A  diversion  of  the  Danes 
in  Sweden  forbade  his  assuming  the  offensive,  but  in  1789  he 
got  rid  of  them  through  the  threatened  intervention  of  England 
and  Prussia,  and  took  up  arms  against  Russia ;  his  fleet,  how- 
ever, suffered  considerable  loss.  Though  he  gained  the  naval 
battle  of  Svenska-Sund,  where  he  captured  30  vessels,  600 
cannon,  and  6000  men  (July  9,  1790),  he  found  himself  unable 
to  pursue  his  advantage,  which  was  compromised  by  a  second 
battle  on  the  same  seas.  The  affairs  of  France  gave  another 
direction  to  the  ideas  of  this  strange  prince.  He  hastened  to 
sign  the  Peace  of  Verela,  on  the  basis  of  statu  quo  ante  bellum, 
and  passed  from  open  hostilities  to  propositions  of  an  alliance 
with  Russia  against  the  Revolution. 

In  the  South,  Catherine  had  ready  in  1788  an  army  of 
40,000  men  to  protect  the  Caucasus,  30,000  to  defend  the 
Crimea,  and  70,000  under  Roumantsof  to  operate  on  the  Dnies- 
ter ;  while  80,000  Austrians,  under  Joseph  II.,  threatened  the 


,  ,6  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

line  of  the  Danube  and  the  Save.  The  Emperor  was  unfortu- 
nate in  this  war.  He  was  forced  to  fall  back  beyond  the  Save, 
and  was  defeated  at  Temesvar  ;  and  feeling  the  growing  dis- 
content of  Hungary,  where  the  people  had  been  irritated  by 
his  religious  innovations  and  the  nobles  by  encroachments  on 
their  privileges,  he  resigned  the  command  to  Laudon.  During 
this  time  Souvorof  defended  Kinburn  against  superior  forces, 
and  was  wounded  in  a  sortie.  Potemkine,  after  a  siege  which 
seemed  very  long  to  the  Prince  de  Ligne  (vide  his  correspon- 
dence), and  a  premature  attack  of  Souvorof,  took  the  strong  city 
of  Otchakof  by  assault,  with  a  loss  of  20,000  on  the  side  of  the 
Turks.  Catherine  II.,  accustomed  up  to  that  date  to  see  French 
volunteers  in  the  enemy's  camp  applauded  the  prowess  of  the 
Baron  de  Damas  and  Count  de  Bombelles,  who  fought  under 
her  own  standard.  Khotin,  on  the  Dniester,  the  key  of  Moldavia, 
had  been  taken  by  Soltykof. 

In  1789  Souvorof,  who  had  combined  with  the  Prince  of 
Coburg,  the  Austrian  general,  defeated  the  Turks  at  Fokchany 
(July  3ist),  and  on  the  Rymnik  near  Martinestie  (September 
22nd).  In  the  latter  battle  100,000  Turks  gave  way  before 
25,000  Christians.  Souvorof  earned  by  this  victory  the  sur- 
name of  Rymnikski.  On  the  west  Laudon  took  Belgrade  and 
conquered  Servia ;  while  on  the  east  Potemkine  successfully 
besieged  Bender  and  subdued  Bessarabia. 

Freed  from  the  war  with  Sweden,  Catherine  II.  carried  on 
hostilities  with  the  Turks  with  greater  vigor  in  1790.  Ismail, 
on  the  northern  side  of  the  Danube,  was  formidable  from  its  posi- 
tion, and  was  defended  besides  by  40,000  men.  Koutouzof  had 
abandoned  all  hope  of  taking  it,  and  Potemkine  entreated  the 
impetuous  Souvorof  to  be  prudent.  Souvorof,  however,  carried 
it  by  assault,  with  a  loss  of  10,000  men  on  the  Russian,  and 
30,000  on  the  Turkish  side.  "  Never,"  he  writes  to  Potemkine, 
"  was  a  fortress  stronger  than  Ismail,  and  never  was  a  defence 
more  desperate  !  But  Ismail  is  taken." 

Joseph  II.  died;  and  his  successor,  Leopold  II.,  signed  a 
peace  at  Sistova,  which  only  gave  him  the  old  town  of  Orsova 
and  the  territory  of  the  Unna  (August  1791).  Catherine  still 
continued  the  war  for  some  months.  The  fall  of  Akkerman 
and  Kilia  made  her  mistress  of  the  mouths  of  the  Danube. 
Repnine,  with  40,000  men,  defeated  the  Grand  Vizier  with 
100,000  at  Matchin,  whilst  Ouchakof  dispersed  the  Turkish 
fleet  and  surrounded  Varna,  so  as  to  cut  off  the  Grand  Vizier's 
communications  with  Constantinople,  and  the  Sultan,  in  alarm, 
implored  peace.  On  the  other  hand,  Catherine's  attention  was 
claimed  by  the  affairs  of  France  and  Poland.  By  the  separate 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


117 


Peace  of  lassy,  she  retained  only  Otchakof  and  the  sea-board 
between  the  Bug  and  the  Dniester,  and  stipulated  for  guarantees 
in  favor  of  the  Danubian  Principalities  (January  1792).  This 
war  had  been  more  severe  than  the  preceding  one,  and  the 
success  more  disputed.  The  Turks,  thinking  themselves  on  the 
eve  of  being  driven  into  Asia,  managed  to  make  a  better  fight 
than  the  struggle  of  1767. 


SECOND   PARTITION    OF    POLAND  :    DIET   OF    GRODNO THIRD    PAR- 
TITION :   KOSCIUSZKO. 

The  years  between  1773  and  1791  had  been,  for  Poland, 
years  of  valiant  efforts  and  needful  reforms.  Tyzenhaus  had 
founded  a  school  of  medicine  in  Warsaw,  the  old  universities  of 
Wilna  and  Cracow  had  been  re-organized,  and  a  number  of 
secondary  schools  created,  for  which  the  French  philosopher 
Condillac  had  compiled  a  manual  of  logic.  Stanislas  Ponia- 
tovski,  the  correspondent  of  Voltaire,  the  friend,  the  "dear  son  " 
of  Madame  Geoffrin,  had  induced  French  and  Italian  artists  to 
visit  the  country.  National  historians  and  poets  adorned  with 
their  talents  the  last  years  of  independence.  It  was  a  real 
Polish  renaissance,  under  the  salutary  influence  of  the  universal 
French  genius.  "  Progress  was  rapid,"  says  Le'le'vel :  "  in  a  few 
years.no  more  was  :  een  of  those  sombre  superstitious  practices, 
of  that  hideous  bigotry,  which  had  laid  its  bloody  finger  on  the 
piety  of  the  faithful ;  charlatanism  could  no  longer  seduce  them  ; 
they  spoke  with  a  smile  of  the  ancient  faith  in  sorcery  ;  the 
phenomena  of  nature  were  explained  in  a  reasonable  way  ;  hatred 
gave  place  to  fraternity  amongst  the  worshippers  at  different 
shrines.  The  characters  of  the  people,  degraded  for  centuries 
by  a  fatal  education,  became  elevated  by  the  rational  instruction 
given  them  at  the  new  schools.  A  generation  of  men  grew  up 
strangers  to  the  fanaticism  and  corruption  of  the  preceding  age, 
possessed  with  a  passion  for  liberty  and  the  country,  whose 
crowning  glory  they  were  to  be.  To  give  an  idea  of  the  work 
accomplished,  we  have  only  to  compare  the  Zamoiski,  the 
Kosciuszkos,  the  Niemcevitches,  and  the  Dombrovskis  with  the 
men  of  the  first  partition.  Poland  wished  to  live,  and  made  a 
last  effort  for  her  regeneration. 

It  was  necessary  first  to  reform  the  hateful  and  anarchic 
constitution,  which  had  been  perfidiously  guaranteed  by  strangers, 
and  made  Poland  the  laughing-stock  and  prey  of  her  enemies. 
In  1788  the  Diet  of  Warsaw  established  a  committee  for  this 
purpose,  raised  the  number  of  the  army  to  60,000  men,  and  im« 


, !  8  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

posed  new  taxes.  Circumstances  seemed  favorable  to  the 
boldest  measures  :  if  France,  occupied  with  her  revolution,  could 
not  come  to  the  aid  of  Poland,  England  showed  herself  openly 
hostile  to  Russia ;  Turkey  and  Sweden  were  making  war  on  her, 
while  Prussia  sought  the  friendship  of  the  Poles,  persuaded 
Poniatovski  to  despise  the  Russian  guarantee,  and  negotiated  a 
treaty  of  alliance  offensive  and  defensive.  The  Diet  of  1791 
was  formed  into  a  confederation,  and,  deciding  this  time  by  a 
majority,  undertook  the  reform  of  the  constitution.  It  declared 
the  throne  hereditary,  and  nominated  the  house  of  Saxony  heirs 
to  Poniatovski ;  it  abolished  the  liberum  veto,  which  was  legal 
anarchy  and  organized  venality  ;  it  divided  the  legislative  power 
between  the  king,  the  senate,  and  the  Chamber  of  Nuncios ;  it 
centred  the  executive  power  in  the  king,  assisted  by  six  minis- 
ters, responsible  to  the  Chambers,  and  invested  him  with  the 
command  of  the  armies  and  the  appointment  of  the  officials. 
The  towns  obtained  the  right  of  electing  their  judges,  and  of 
sending  deputies  to  the  Diet.  None  dared  touch  the  rights  of 
nobles  over  their  peasants,  for  the  nobles  were  then  the  fighting 
part  of  the  nation,  the  "  legal  country  " ;  and  it  was  owing,  in 
fact,  to  their  patriotism  that  the  revolution  was  accomplished. 
All  the  Diet  could  do  was  to  sanction  beforehand  individual 
compacts  made  between  the  owners  and  their  serfs,  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  latter.  Such  was  the  memorable  Constitution  of 
the  3rd  of  May,  1791.  A  similar  transformation  which^took 
place  in  Sweden  at  the  royal  coup  d'etat  of  1772  had  saved  the 
monarchy  of  the  Vasas  from  dismemberment — would  the  parlia- 
mentary coup  d'tiat  of  1791  save  Poland  ?  Would  the  Northern 
Courts,  which  thought  it  a  crime  on  the  part  of  the  French 
liberals  to  weaken,  by  the  constitution  of  the  same  year,  the 
powers  of  the  Bourbon  kings,  permit  the  Polish  patriots  to  re- 
store to  their  sovereign  the  essential  prerogatives  of  royalty,  the 
force  necessary  to  subdue  anarchy  within,  and  cause  the  nation 
to  be  respected  without  ? 

Catherine  II.  feared  to  protest,  as  long  as  she  had  the  Turkish 
war  on  her  hands ;  but  when  the  Peace  of  lassy  was  signed,  she 
received  at  St.  Petersburg  a  deputation  of  Polish  malcontents, 
who  regretted  the  liberum  veto,  and  were  alarmed  at  the  prom- 
ises made  to  the  peasants.  Amongst  these  unworthy  citizens, 
we  may  remark  Felix  Potocki,  the  hetman  Brianski,  Rjevuski, 
and  the  two  brothers  Kossakovski.  Catherine  II.  authorized 
them  to  form  the  Confederation  of  Targovitsa.  In  her  mani- 
festo of  the  i8th  of  May,  1792,  she  reminded  men  that  Russia 
had  guaranteed  the  Polish  constitution,  and  signalized  the  re- 
formers of  the  jrd  of  May  as  accomplices  of  the  Jacobins.  ED- 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  ug 

lightened  Russians  were  indignant  at  the  perfidious  language 
held  by  their  government.  Sdmen  Voronzof,  ambassador  in 
London,  writes,  "The  manifesto  had  no  right  to  enter  into  ridio 
ulous  eulogies  of  the  ancient  form  of  government,  under  which 
the  Republic  has  flourished  and  prospered  for  so  many  centuries. 
That  has  an  air  of  stupidity,  if  it  is  said  in  good  faith,  or  of  in- 
sulting contempt,  if  they  believe,  like  the  rest  of  the  world,  that 
it  is  the  most  absurd  and  detestable  of  all  governments."  The 
epithet  Jacobin  is  besides  singularly  inapplicable  to  the  Poles, 
who  wished  to  strengthen  the  royal  power. 

On  the  request  of  the  Confederates  of  Targovitsa,  80,000 
Russians  and  20,000  Cossacks  entered  the  Ukraine.  Ponia- 
tovski  turned  to  Prussia,  and  recalled  to  her  the  promises  of 
help.  Frederick  William  II.  replied  that  he  had  not  been  con- 
sulted about  the  change  of  the  constitution,  and  that  he  con- 
sidered himself  absolved  from  all  engagements.  He  was  already 
arranging  with  Russia  a  second  treaty  of  partition,  from  which 
Austria  was  to  be  excluded.  Austria  would  have  to  content 
herself  with  any  provinces  she  might  wrest  from  revolutionary 
France.  Russia  likewise  promised  to  help  her  to  acquire  Ba- 
varia, in  exchange  for  the  Low  Countries.  The  Poles,  deserted 
by  all,  tried  in  vain  to  resist  the  Russian  invasion.  Their  army 
of  Lithuania  retreated  without  fighting,  while  the  Polish  army 
properly  so-called  gave  battle  at  Zielencd,  under  Prince  Joseph 
Poniatovski ;  and  at  Dubienka  on  the  Bug,  under  Thaddeus 
Kosciuszko.  Then  King  Stanislas  pronounced  himself  ready  to 
accede  to  the  Confederation  of  Targovitsa,  thus  disavowing  his 
glorious  work  of  the  3rd  of  May.  The  reformers  Ignatius  Potoc,ki, 
Kollontaii,  and  Malakhovski  had  to  withdraw,  and  their  places 
in  the  council  of  the  king  were  taken  by  Confederates  of  Tar- 
govitsa, who  abolished  the  constitution.  The  liberum  veto  was 
re-established. 

The  Polish  patriots,  remaining  in  ignorance  of  the  treaty  of 
partition,  were  unconscious  of  half  their  misfortunes.  The  King 
of  Prussia  in  his  turn  crossed  the  western  frontier,  announcing 
in  his  manifesto  that  the  troubles  of  Poland  compromised  the 
safety  of  his  own  States,  that  Dantzig  had  sent  corn  to  the 
French  revolutionaries,  and  that  Great  Poland  was  infested  by 
Jacobin  clubs,  whose  intrigues  were  rendered  doubly  dangerous 
by  the  continuation  of  the  war  with  France.  The  King  of 
Prussia  affected  to  see  Jacobins  whenever  it  was  his  interest  to 
find  them.  The  part  of  each  of  the  Powers  was  marked  out  in 
advance.  Russia  was  to  have  the  eastern  provinces  with  a  popula- 
tion of  3,000,000,  as  far  as  a  line  drawn  from  the  eastern  frontier 
of  Courland,  which,  passing  Pinsk,  ended  in  Gallicia,  and  included 


j  20  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Borissof,  Minsk,  Sloutsk,  Volhynia,  Podolia,  and  Little  Russia. 
Prussia  had  the  long-coveted  cities  of  Thorn  and  Dantzig,  as 
well  as  Great  Poland,  Posen,  Gnezen,  Kalisch,  and  Czensto- 
chovo.  If  Russia  still  only  annexed  Russian  or  Lithuanian  terri- 
tory, Prussia  for  the  second  time  cut  Poland  to  the  quick,  and 
another  million  and  a  half  of  Slavs  passed  under  the  yoke  of  the 
Germans. 

It  was  not  enough  to  despoil  Poland,  now  reduced  to  a  terri- 
tory less  extensive  than  that  occupied  by  Russia  ;  it  was  neces- 
sary that  she  should  consent  to  the  spoliation — that  she  should 
legalize  the  partition.  A  diet  was  convoked  at  Grodno,  undei 
the  pressure  of  the  Russian  bayonets.  This  same  pressure,  en- 
forced  by  pecuniary  corruption,  had  been  exercised  in  the 
elections,  and  the  King  was  in  some  sense  dragged  to  Grodno 
to  preside  over  the  ruin  of  his  country.  Sievers,  Catherine's 
ambassador,  displayed  all  the  resources  of  an  unscrupulous 
diplomacy,  which  had  seduction,  intimidation,  and  violence  at 
its  service.  In  spite  of  the  support  of  bought  deputies  and 
Targovitsan  traitors,  he  gained  nothing  for  a  long  while.  At 
last  the  Diet,  in  the  deceitful  hope  of  dividing  its  enemies,  con- 
sented that  the  treaty  of  cession  to  Russia  should  be  ratified, 
but  showed  herself  more  stubborn  with  regard  to  Prussia. 
Sievers  was  forced  to  surround  the  Hall  of  Session  by  two  bat- 
talions of  grenadiers,  point  four  pieces  of  cannon,  and  install 
General  Rautenfels  in  a  chair  beside  the  King.  Twenty  days 
passed  without  his  being  able  to  extract  a  word  of  assent  from 
the  defenceless  assembly.  The  Poles  hated  the  Prussians  above 
everything.  Catherine  might  have  delivered  Great  Poland  from 
a  hated  yoke,  and  united  all  the  kingdom  under  her  authority, 
which  would  have  been  almost  gratefully  accepted.  Like  Se'men 
Voronzof,  Sievers  felt  the  enormous  fault  that  was  committed 
by  aggrandizing  Prussia  at  the  expense  of  a  Slav  country.  Un- 
happily, his  instructions  were  positive.  In  order  to  triumph 
over  this  vis  inertia  he  had  four  deputies  carried  off  by  his 
dragoons,  and  closely  blockaded  the  assembly  in  the  hall  of 
deliberations.  The  day  of  September  23,  1793,  and  the  follow- 
ing night,  were  occupied  by  a  "  silent  sitting,"  while  the  King 
sat  on  his  throne,  and  the  deputies  on  their  benches,  gloomy  and 
dumb.  At  three  in  the  morning,  Rautenfels  left  to  fetch  his 
grenadiers;  then  the  Marshal  of  the  Diet,  Bielinski,  put  the 
question.  AnkieVitch  proposed  to  the  nuncios  a  compromise 
which  would  give  satisfaction  to  Prussia,  while  leaving  to  a 
"  more  happy  posterity "  the  task  of  raising  up  the  country. 
Bielinski  asked  three  times,  without  taking  breath,  if  the  Diet 
authorized  the  delegate  to  sign  the  treaty.  No  one  replied ; 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  !  2 1 

then  a  voice  was  heard  declaring  the  silence  to  be  equivalent  to 
consent.  It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  morning — the  nuncios  left 
the  hall  in  profound  grief,  with  streaming  eyes. 

On  the  i6th  of  October,  the  Diet  concluded  with  Russia  a 
treaty  of  alliance,  or  rather  a  compact  of  slavery,  by  which 
Catharine  II.  guaranteed  "  the  liberty  of  the  republic  "  ;  that  is, 
all  the  abuses  of  the  old  constitution.  The  Polish  troops  who 
were  encamped  on  the  provinces  ceded  to  the  Empress,  received 
orders  to  swear  allegiance  to  her  ;  the  army  that  remained  to 
the  republic  consisted  only  of  15,000  men. 

By  her  fanaticism  and  electoral  corruption,  Poland  had 
merited  her  misfortunes  in  1772  ;  she  did  not  merit  those  of  1793. 
History  will  not  forget  the  generous  efforts  of  the  Czartoryskis, 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  nobility,  and  of  the  patriotic  "  third 
estate,"  for  the  reform  of  the  country. 

The  citizens  of  the  large  towns,  inspired  by  French  ideas, 
were  indignant  at  this  new  attempt  against  their  country.  The 
army,  still  25,000  men  strong,  had  received  with  fury  the  order 
to  disband.  Part  of  the  noblemen  shared  these  sentiments, 
while  the  others,  through  fear  of  new  taxes  or  social  reforms, 
resigned  themselves  to  foreign  rule.  The  country  proper  re- 
mained apathetic  and  indifferent.  Poland  expiated  cruelly  the 
harsh  servitude  that  her  prospolite,  in  the  full  current  of  eigh- 
teenth-century civilization,  had  allowed  to  weigh  on  the  rural 
classes.  George  Forster  writes  in  1791,  "The  Polish  nobles 
alone  in  Europe  have  pushed  ignorance  and  barbarism  so  far 
that  they  have  almost  extinguished  in  their  serfs  the  last  linger- 
ing sparks  of  thought."  This  is  one  of  the  extenuating  circum- 
stances invoked  by  Russian  or  German  historians  to  excuse  the 
dismemberment ;  the  lot  of  the  peasants  was  not  to  grow  worse 
under  Russian  domination,  and  was  to  improve  under  German 
rule. 

The  Polish  patriots  had,  however,  placed  all  their  hopes  on 
Thaddeus  Kosciuszko,  the  hero  of  Dubienka.  Born  in  1752, 
admitted  in  1764  to  the  military  school  founded  by  the  Czartory- 
skis, he  had  distinguished  himself  by  unceasing  labor.  In  Poland 
he  had  received  hard  lessons  in  equality  ;  he  had  seen  his  father 
assassinated  by  exasperated  peasants,  and  he  himself  had  been 
put  to  shame  by  the  powerful  noble  Sosnovski,  whose  daughter 
he,  a  simple  portionless  gentleman,  had  dared  to  ask  in  marriage. 

He  had  fought  in  the  American  War,  and  returned  invested 
with  the  republican  decoration  of  Cincinnati.  After  the  second 
partition  he  had  quitted  Warsaw  and  retired  into  Saxony,  where 
he  found  the  men  of  the  3rd  of  May — Malakhovski,  Ignatius 
Potoc,ki,  the  ex-Chancellor  Kollontai',  Niemcevitch,  all  of  Poland 


<32  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Jiat  was  honorably  devoted  to  liberty.  Sent  into  France,  he 
received  promises  of  help  from  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
and  now  he  was  working  in  Dresden  to  organize  in  Poland  a 
vast  conspiracy.  He  was  soon  able  to  reckon  thousands  ol 
nobles,  priests,  citizens,  and  disbanded  soldiers ;  but  in  spite  of 
the  number  of  the  conspirators,  General  Igelstrom,  who  com- 
manded in  Warsaw  for  Catherine  II.,  failed  to  seize  the  principal 
threads  of  the  plot. 

The  order  to  disband  the  army  hastened  the  explosion. 
Madalinski  refused  to  allow  the  brigade  that  he  commanded  to 
be  disarmed,  crossed  the  Bug,  threw  himse,c  on  the  Prussian 
provinces,  and  then  fell  back  on  Cracow.  .ri.t  his  approach,  this 
city,  the  second  in  Poland,  the  capital  of  the  r,:.:ient  kings,  rose 
and  expelled  the  Russian  garrison.  Kosciuszk -  hastened  to  the 
scene  of  action,  and  put  forth  the  "  act  ov  insurrection,"  in 
which  the  hateful  conduct  of  the  co-partitioners  was  branded, 
and  the  population  called  to  arms.  Five  thousand  scythes  were 
made  for  the  peasants,  the  voluntary  offerings  of  patriots  were 
collected,  and  those  of  obstinate  and  lukewarm  people  were  ex- 
tracted by  force.  Igelstrom,  who  was  very  uneasy  in  Warsaw, 
detached,  nevertheless,  Tormassof  and  Denissof  against  Cra- 
cow. Deserted  by  Denissof,  Tormassof  came  up  near  Racla- 
vitsa  with  Kosciuszko  and  Madalinski,  the  number  of  \\hose 
troops — 4000  men,  one-half  of  whom  were  peasants — was  almost 
equal  to  his  own.  The  cavalry  of  the  nobles  gave  way  at  the 
first  shock,  and  fled,  announcing  everywhere  the  defeat  and 
capture  of  Kosciuszko,  but  the  steadiness  of  the  peasants  pre- 
served the  Polish  army,  and  twelve  guns  were  taken  from  the 
Russians.  To  punish  the  cowardice  of  the  cavalry  officers,  the 
dictator  took  off  the  dress  of  a  gentleman,  and  assumed  that  of 
a  peasant. 

The  news  of  this  success  soon  reached  Warsaw,  and  the 
representation  of  the  '  Cracovians,'  which  seemed  an  allusion  to 
the  events  in  Gallicia,  still  further  increased  the  excitement. 
Igelstrom  had  posted  his  regiments  so  injudiciously  that  their 
communication  could  easily  be  cut  off  by  the  Polish  regiments  in 
the  town.  The  arsenal  had  not  yet  been  delivered  to  the  Rus- 
sians, and  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  patriots. 

On  the  i yth  of  April,  at  3  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  tocsin 
sounded  in  all  the  churches,  and  the  insurrection  broke  out. 
The  people,  excited  by  the  shoemaker  Kilinski  and  the  binder 
Kapostas,  fell  everywhere  on  the  isolated  detachments  of  Rus- 
sians. Igelstrom  found  himself  blockaded  in  his  palace,  unable 
to  communicate  with  the  scattered  regiments,  and  assailed  at 
once  by  the  citizens  and  the  Polish  troops.  On  the  i8th  he  left 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  2$ 

the  town  with  great  difficulty,  abandoning  twelve  cannon,  4000 
killed  and  wounded,  and  2000  prisoners.  Wilna,  the  capital  of 
Lithuania,  followed  the  example  of  Warsaw,  and  expelled  the 
general  Arsenief. 

A  provisional  government  installed  itself  at  Warsaw,  and 
sent  a  courier  to  Kosciuszko.  It  was  composed  of  men  of  the 
3rd  of  May,  amongst  whom  Ignatius  Poto^ki  represented  the 
moderate  and  Kilinski  the  extreme  party.  King  Stanislas  re- 
mained in  his  palace,  respected  but  watched,  and  taking  no  ac- 
tive part  in  public  affairs,  of  which  he  was  kept  informed  only 
by  the  courtesy  of  the  government.  To  sum  up,  the  revolution 
of  the  i7th  of  April,  1794,  had  a  national  and  monarchic  charac- 
ter like  the  Constitution  of  the  3rd  of  May,  1791.  It  sought  the 
support  of  France,  without  following  all  the  advice  of  the  Con- 
vention. A  tribunal  extraordinary  gave  some  satisfaction  to  the 
public  conscience  by  seeking  out  the  wretches  who  had  be- 
trayed their  country,  and  whose  connection  with  foreigners  had 
been  proved  by  the  papers  seized  at  the  Russian  embassy. 
AnkieVitch,  the  hetmans  Zabiello  and  Ozarovski,  and  Kossa- 
kovski,  bishop  of  Livonia,  were  hung ;  the  brother  of  the  latter, 
Kossakovski,  hetman  of  Lithuania,  had  been  punished  at  Wilna. 

In  spite  of  the  agitation  caused  by  Kollontai  and  the  demo- 
crats, Kosciuszko  dared  not  settle  the  question  about  the  peas- 
ants, and  his  manifesto  of  the  7th  of  May,  1794,  was  not  put  in 
force.  He  feared  to  risk  the  alienation  of  the  military  class, 
without  gaining  the  rural  masses,  brutalized  by  centuries  of  op- 
pression ;  still  he  tried  to  win  the  clergy  and  the  orthodox  popu- 
lations, by  proclaiming  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the  equality  of 
different  religions  in  the  eye  of  the  law. 

The  Prussians,  however,  managed  to  take  Cracow,  which 
was  only  feebly  defended  by  its  commander.  The  government 
of  Warsaw  declared  war  against  Frederic  William  II.  The  peo- 
ple, attributing  the  loss  of  Cracow  to  treason,  rushed  to  the 
prisons,  and  promptly  executed  the  seven  men  who  were  de- 
tained there.  They  merited  the  fate  that  befell  them  ;  they  had 
been  amongst  the  promoters  of  the  Confederation  of  Targovitsa. 
or  agents  of  Russia.  Kosciuszko  condemned  this  bloody  justice, 
and  insisted  on  the  punishment  of  the  rioters,  but  at  the  same 
time  hastened  the  trial  of  the  guilty  prisoners. 

General  Zai'ontchek  had  been  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Gol- 
kof  by  the  Russians,  and  the  Prussians  were  marching  on  the 
Vistula.  The  King  of  Prussia  had  quitted  his  army  on  the 
Rhine  in  order  to  direct  the  siege  and  bombardment  of  Warsaw. 
Catherine  affected  to  be  indignant  at  this  abandonment  of  the 
holy  war  against  the  Revolution,  for  the  common  cause  of  kings 


1*4 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


and  religion.  The  pretensions  of  Prussia  to  Cracow  disturbed 
the  good  understanding  between  the  three  Powers  of  the  North, 
disquieted  Austria,  and  threatened  to  break  the  coalition  formed 
against  France.  Frederic  William,  greatly  disgusted  with  his 
Russian  ally,  General  Krouchtchof,  countermanded  the  order 
for  assault,  and  raised  the  siege,  being  recalled  to  his  own  do- 
minions by  an  insurrection  in  Great  Poland. 

The  Poles  had  hardly  time  to  congratulate  themselves  on  this 
success.  The  Russians  had  recaptured  Wilna ;  the  Austrians 
had  entered  Lublin.  Still  more  threatening  was  the  fact  that 
the  Russian  general,  Fersen,  had  crossed  to  the  right  bank  of 
the  Vistula  in  spite  of  Poninski,  and  was  advancing  to  meet 
Souvorof,  who  was  coming  up  with  the  army  of  the  Ukraine, 
and  had  already  beaten  Sie'rakovski  at  Krouptchitse  and  at 
Brest-Litovski.  If  the  two  Russian  armies,  each  of  which  was 
superior  to  the  whole  Polish  force,  managed  to  effect  a  junction, 
the  insurrection  was  crushed. 

Kosciuszko,  who  had  hastened  xo  console  Sie'rakovski,  speed- 
ily returned  to  take  up  a  position  on  the  Vistula,  equidistant 
from  Warsaw  and  Lublin,  to  oppose  Fersen.  Around  him  were 
gathered  his  bravest  lieutenants — PoU>9ki,  Kaminski,  Kollontal, 
Niemcevitch,  poet  and  general.  The  evening  before  the  battle, 
Kaminski  pointed  out  to  Niemcevitch  the  crows  that  were  flying 
on  their  right.  "  Remember  your  Livy,"  he  said  ;  "  it  is  a  bad 
omen."  "  A  bad  omen  for  the  Romans,  not  for  us,"  replied  the 
brave  poet.  On  the  loth  of  October,  Krouchtchof  attacked  the 
van  of  the  Poles,  while  Fersen  ordered  Denissof  to  lead  the 
assault  on  the  right,  and  Tormassof  on  the  left.  The  Polish 
army,  shaken  by  a  violent  cannonade,  could  not  resist  the  charge 
of  the  bayonets.  They  gave  way,  and  twenty-one  guns  and  2700 
prisoners  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Russians.  All  the  gen- 
erals were  captured ;  Kosciuszko  had  been  carried  off  half-dead 
by  the  hetman  Denissof.  The  Russian  generals  treated  their 
prisoners  well,  and  the  officers  tried  to  console  the  wounded 
Niemcevitch  by  complimenting  him  on  the  '  Return  from  the 
other  World,'  a  poem  in  manuscript  which  they  had  found  in  his 
pocket  (1794.) 

Warsaw  was  horror-stricken  by  this  calamity.  Vavrjevski 
took  the  place  cf  Kosciuszko,  but  proved  no  adequate  sub- 
stitute for  the  popular  hero  who  had  been  the  soul  of  the  revolt. 
Souvorof  had  already  appeared  before'  Pruga,  and  the  whole 
Russian  army  occupied  its  positions  to  the  sound  of  drums  and 
music.  The  impetuous  general  at  once  divided  his  army  into 
seven  columns.  The  Russian  soldiers,  on  the  eve  of  the  assault, 
put  on  white  shirts,  as  if  for  a  wedding,  and  the  holy  images 


If  IS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSTA.  j  2  5 

were  placed  at  the  head  of  the  columns.  At  3  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  the  4th  of  November  the  signal  was  given,  and  in 
an  instant  the  fosses  were  filled  and  the  ramparts  scaled.  "  The 
Poles,"  says  a  Russian  witness,  "  defended  themselves  like 
heroes,  with  desperate  recklessness."  Praga  suffered  all  the 
horrors  of  a  capture  by  assault.  In  vain  Souvorof  renewed  his 
orders  to  spare  the  inhabitants,  to  give  quarter  to  the  vanquished, 
not  to  slay  without  a  motive.  The  soldiers  were  too  much  ex- 
asperated against  the  Poles,  whom  they  believed  to  be  repub- 
licans, atheists,  accomplices  of  the  French  Jacobins,  murderers 
of  their  comrades,  disarmed  in  the  revolt  of  the  i7th  of  April. 
The  dead  numbered  twelve  thousand  ;  the  prisoners  only  one. 
"  The  streets  are  covered  with  corpses ;  blood  flows  in  torrents," 
says  the  first  despatch  of  Souvorof.  The  massacre  of  Praga 
terrified  Warsaw,  which  was  ill  protected  by  the  width  of  the 
Vistula  from  the  Russian  bullets.  Souvorof  refused  to  jtreat 
with  Potogki  and  the  men  of  the  i7th  April,  and  King  Stanislas 
had  to  act  as  mediator.  Souvorof  guaranteed  to  the  inhabitants 
their  property,  a  pardon,  and  passports  to  all  compromised  per- 
sons. He  made  his  entrance  into  Warsaw,  and  was  created 
Field-marshal  by  the  Empress.  The  King  was  sent  to  Grodno. 
The  third  treaty  of  partition,  forced  on  the  Empress  by  the 
importunity  of  Prussia,  and  in  which  Austria  also  took  part,  was 
put  in  execution.  Russia  took  the  rest  of  Lithuania  as  far  as 
the  Niemen  (Wilna,  Grodno,  Kovno,  Novogrodek,  Slonim,)  and 
the  rest  of  Volhynia  to  the  Bug  (Vladimir,  Loutsk,  and  Krem- 
enetz).  She  thus  reached  the  extreme  limit  of  the  countries 
formerly  governed  by  the  princely  descendants  of  Rurik,  except 
in  the  case  of  Gallicia,  for  the  empress,  whose  policy  had  aban- 
doned Poland  to  the  Germans,  had  allowed  Austria  to  take  Red 
Russia  after  the  first  partition.  Besides  the  Russian  territory, 
Russia  also  annexed  the  old  Lithuania  of  the  Jagellons,  and 
finally  acquired  Courland  and  Samogitia. 

Prussia  had  all  Eastern  Poland,  with  Warsaw ;  Austria  had 
Crarjw,  Sandomir,  Lublin,  and  Chelm.  Her  possessions  ex- 
te'v'ed  towards  the  north,  as  if  to  rejoin  Warsaw.  (1795.) 

The  Polish  army  of  Vavrjevski  had  refused  to  be  included 
in  the  capitulation  of  Warsaw,  but  agitated  by  the  quarrels  of 
its  leaders,  and  weakened  by  want  of  discipline  and  desertion, 
it  was  obliged  to  accept  an  honorable  convention  at  Radochitse. 
The  officers  kept  their  swords,  and  obtained  passports  for  foreign 
travel.  The  prisoners  made  at  Maceiovitsy  had  been  divided 
amongst  the  governments  which  had  seized  the  places  of  their 
birth.  Madalinski  was  sent  to  Prussia  ;  Kollonta'i  and  ZaXcn- 
tcheck  to  Austria ;  Kosciuszko,  Kapostas,  Kalinski,  Potoki,  and 


,  2  g  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSTA. 

Vavrjevski  to  St.  Petersburg.  Poland  was  not  yet  dead;  out  oi 
the  remains  of  the  army  dispersed  at  Radochitse,  Dombrovski  was 
to  form  the  famous  Polish  legions,  for  twenty  years  inseparable 
from  the  banners  of  the  French  Republic  and  the  Empire.  We- 
shall  find  Dombrovski  in  Egypt,  Joseph  Poniatovski  at  Borodino. 
The  Poles,  defeated  at  Maceiovitsy,  will  meet  their  conquerors 
on  all  the  battle-fields  in  Europe — in  Italy,  in  Switzerland,  in 
Austria,  in  Prussia,  in  Poland,  in  Lithuania.  Napoleon  will 
satiate  their  vengeance  against  the  robber  Powers,  and,  two 
hundred  years  after  Vladislas,  will  land  the  Polish  troops  into 
the  holy  city  of  Moscow. 


CATHERINE    II.    AND   THE   FRENCH    REVOLUTION — WAR    WITH 

PERSIA. 

Just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution,  the  two  gov- 
ernments of  Louis  XVI.  and  Catherine  II.  had  entered  into 
negotiations  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  quadruple  alliance, 
including  Russia,  Austria,  and  both  houses  of  Bourbon,  which 
was  destined  to  keep  in  check  the  naval  pretensions  of  England 
and  the  encroachments  of  Prussia.  After  the  taking  of  the 
Bastile,  Catherine  understood  that  she  could  no  longer  look  to 
France,  which  was  then  occupied  with  her  internal  transfor- 
mation, for  support.  She  followed,  however,  events  in  Paris  with 
much  anxiety,  showed  the  most  lively  antipathy  to  the  new  prin- 
ciples, was  one  of  those  who  advised  the  flight  to  Varennes,  and 
fell  ill  at  the  news  of  the  2ist  of  January.  The  correspondent 
of  Voltaire  and  Diderot  allowed  herself  to  be  carried  away  by 
terror  into  reaction.  She  caused  Russians  suspected  of  liberal 
ideas  to  be  watched,  and  their  letters  to  be  inspected  ;  she  mu- 
tilated Kniajnine's  tragedy  of  '  Vadim  at  Novgorod,'  and  spok* 
of  having  it  burned  by  the  executioner;  Radichtchef,  the  authoi 
of  the  '  Journey  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow,'  a  curious  book 
with  many  reflections  on  serfage,  was  dismissed  and  sent  to 
Siberia ;  Novikof  was  arrested  and  confined  in  Schliisselburg, 
his  libraries  and  his  printing  press  closed,  and  all  his  enterprises 
ruined.  She  dismissed  Genest,  the  French  ambassador,  and 
refused  to  recognize,  first  the  Constitution  of  1791,  and  then 
the  Republic;  put  forth  an  edict  announcing  the  rupture  of 
diplomatic  relations  with  France  ;  forbade  the  Russian  ports  to 
.the  tricolor  flag;  expelled  all  French  subjects  who  refused  to 
swear  fidelity  to  the  monarchic  principle  ;  received  the  tmigrSs 
with  open  arms,  and  hastened  to  acknowledge  Louis  XVIII. 
In  1792  she  wrote  the  celebrated  note  on  the  restoration  of 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  ifj 

the  royal  power  and  aristocratic  privileges  in  France,  assuring 
every  one  that  10,000  men  would  be  sufficient  to  operate  a  coun- 
ter-revolution. She  encouraged  Gustavus  III.  (shortly  to  be 
assassinated  by  his  nobility,  at  a  masked  ball,  March  16,  1792) 
to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  crusade  against  democracy ; 
urged  England  to  aid  the  Count  of  Artois  in  a  scheme  for  a 
descent  on  France ;  and  stimulated  the  zeal  of  Austria  and 
Prussia.  In  spite  of  all  this,  though  she  had  many  times  con- 
sented to  negotiate  treaties  of  subsidies  and  promised  troops, 
she  took  care  never  to  engage  in  a  war  with  the  West.  "  My 
position  is  taken,"  she  said,  "  my  part  assigned  ;  it  is  my  duty 
to  watch  over  the  Turks,  the  Poles,  and  Sweden  "  (which  was 
reconciled  with  France  after  the  death  of  Gustavus  III.)  The 
punishment  of  the  Jacobins  of  Warsaw  and  Turkey  was  indeed 
more  easy,  and  certainly  more  lucrative  work.  Perhaps  we  must 
also  take  into  account  an  admission  that  she  made,  in  1791,  to 
her  Vice-Chancellor,  Ostermann  :  "Ami  wrong?  For  reasons 
that  I  cannot  give  to  the  Courts  of  Berlin  and  Vienna,  I  wish  to 
involve  them  in  these  affairs,  so  that  I  may  have  elbow-room. 
Many  of  my  enterprises  are  still  unfinished,  and  they  must  be 
occupied  so  as  to  leave  me  unfettered."  She  excused  herself 
for  not  taking  part  in  the  anti-revolutionary  contest,  alleging  the 
war  with  Turkey  ;  and  when  obliged  to  hasten  the  Peace  of 
lassy  on  account  of  the  revolution  of  the  3rd  of  May,  she  made 
the  Polish  war  another  excuse.  When  the  war  was  ended,  she 
pretended  to  excite  the  zeal  of  Souvorof  and  his  soldiers  against 
the  "  atheists"  of  the  West,  but  in  reality  only  dreamed  of  for- 
warding her  schemes  in  the  East.  Mohammed,  the  new  king  of 
Persia,  had  invaded  Georgia  and  burnt  Tiflis,  the  capital  of 
Heraclius,  Catherine's  protttgt.  The"  Empress  sent  for  an  exiled 
brother  of  Mohammed  to  her  court,  and  ordered  Valerian  Zou- 
bof  to  conquer  Persia. 

In  reality  Catherine  had  been,  against  her  will,  more  useful 
to  France  than  to  the  coalition.  By  her  intervention  in  Poland 
and  her  projects  against  the  East,  she  had  raised  the  jealousy 
and  suspicions  of  Prussia  and  Austria.  She  took  care  to  play 
off  one  against  the  other ;  made  the  second  partition  with  Fred- 
eric William  in  spite  of  Austria ;  and  with  Francis  II.  the 
third  partition,  which  disgusted  Prussia.  She  contributed  m- 
directly  to  agitate  and  dissolve  the  coalition,  whilst  the  Polish 
insurrection,  encouraged  by  France,  prevented  her  from  joining 
it.  She  died  on  the  6th-i7th  November,  1796,  aged  67  years. 
No  sovereign  since  Ivan  the  Terrible  had  extended  the  fron- 
tiers of  the  empire  by  such  vast  conquests.  She  had  given 
Russia  for  boundaries  the  Niemen,  the  Dniester,  and  the  Black 
Sea. 


1 2g  iUSTOK  Y  OF 


CHAPTER  XL 

PAUL    I. 

(lyth  November,  1796 — 24th  March,  1801.) 

Peace  policy  :  accession  to  the  second  coalition — Campaigns  of  the  Ionian 
Islands,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Holland,  and  Naples — Alliance  with  Bona* 
parte  :  the  League  of  Neutrals,  and  the  great  scheme  against  India. 


PEACE  POLICY  :    ACCESSION   TO   THE  SECOND  COALITION. 

PAUL  I.  was  forty-two  years  of  age  when  he  ascended  the 
throne.  He  was  intelligent  and  had  some  natural  gifts,  but  his 
character  had  been  soured  by  the  close  dependence  in  which  he 
had  been  held  by  his  mother,  who  had  even  deprived  him  of  the 
education  of  his  children,  and  forbade  him  to  appear  before  the 
army,  by  the  humiliations  forced  on  him  by  the  favorites,  and 
by  "  e  isolation  to  which  he  was  abandoned  by  the  courtiers,  in 
their  haste  to  pay  court  to  the  risen  sun.  The  mystery  sur- 
rounding his  father's  death  troubled  and  disquieted  him.  There 
was  a  touch  of  Hamlet  in  P^ul  I.  Like  Peter  III.,  his  taste  for 
military  minutiae  amounted  to  a  mania.  He  had  a  high  idea  of 
his  authority,  and  was  born  a  despot.  He  is  supposed  to  have 
uttered  the  famous  saying,  "  Know  that  the  only  person  of 
consideration  in  Russia  is  the  person  whom  I  address  at  the 
moment  that  I  am  addressing  him."  He  hated  the  Revolution 
with  a  blind  hate,  unknown  to  Catherine  II.  Many  of  his 
eccentricities  of  conduct  may  be  explained  by  his  desire  always 
to  act  in  the  contrary  way  to  his  mother,  whom  he  secretly  ac- 
cused of  having  usurped  his  crown.  Without  being  cruel,  he 
caused  much  unhappiness,  being  as  prompt  to  chastise  as  to 
pardon,  and  was  as  prodigal  of  exiles  to  Siberia  as  of  unex- 
pected favors. 

He  began  by  abolishing  the  edict  of  Peter  III.  about  the 
succession,  and  re-established  the  monarchic  principle  of  in- 
heritance by  primogeniture,  from  male  to  male  in  the  direct  line. 
He  profited  by  his  mother's  obsequies  to  cause  the  remains  oi 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


129 


his  father  to  be  exhumed,  and  to  render  the  same  honors  to  both 
coffins  in  the  Church  of  the  Fortress.  Alexis  Orlof  had  to 
march  in  procession  by  the  coffin  of  his  father,  and  to  carry  his 
crown.  He  did  not  punish  the  favorites  of  his  mother,  but  re- 
moved them  from  about  his  own  person,  giving  his  confidence 
to  Rostopchine.  and  the  austere  Araktcheef.  Bezdorodko  he 
confirmed  in  his  place  as  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

To  re-establish  the  principle  of  authority,  which  he  thought 
had  been  shaken  in  Russia,  he  revived  the  rude  old  manners, 
compelled  the  carriages  of  his  subjects  to  halt  when  he  passed, 
and  made  women  as  well  as  men  salute  him  by  throwing  then> 
selves  on  their  knees  in  the  mud  or  snow.  He  issued  decrees 
full  of  minute  provisions,  forbidding  the  wearing  of  round  hats, 
frock-coats,  waistcoats,  high  collars,  large  neckties,  and  everything 
which  savored  of  Jacobinism.  He  banished  from  the  official  lan- 
guage the  words  "  society,"  "  citizen,"  and  other  terms  which  his 
mother  had  delighted  to  honor.  He  made  the  censorship  of 
the  theatre  and  the  press  more  rigorous  than  ever,  forbade  the 
importation  of  European  books  and  music,  forced  the  Russians 
who  were  travelling  abroad  to  return,  and  forbade  any  French- 
man not  provided  with  a  passport  signed  by  the  princes  of  the 
house  of  Bourbon  to  enter  his  territory. 

In  the  last  years  of  Catherine  grave  abuses  must  have  crept 
into  the  army,  and  no  one  but  an  emperor  with  a  genius  for  war 
could  accomplish  the  reforms  which  were  necessary  if  Russia 
were  to  keep  pace  with  Western  improvements  in  tactics  and  in 
arms.  Paul  unfortunately  took  up  the  reforms  in  his  usual 
narrow  spirit.  He  had  a  craze  for  Prussian  methods,  and  abol- 
ished the  Russian  national  uniform,  convenient,  soldier-like,  and 
well  suited  to  the  climate  as  it  was.  The  Russians  did  not 
recognize  themselves  in  their  Prussian  costume,  with  pigtails, 
powder,  shoe-buckles,  shoes,  gaiters,  heavy  caps,  and  uncom- 
fortable hats.  Old  Souvorof  shook  his  head  and  said,  "  There  are 
powders  and  powders  !  Shoe-buckles  are  not  gun-carriages,  nor 
pigtails  exactly  bayonets  ;  we  are  not  Prussians,  but  Russians." 
This  epigram  was  punished  by  the  exile  of  the  martial  humorist 
to  his  village  of  Koutchevskoe.  There  he  could  ride-a-cock- 
horse  with  the  small  boys  of  the  district,  ring  the  church  bells, 
read  the  epistle,  and  play  the  organ  to  his  heart's  content.  Paul 
showed  more  method  and  common-sense  when  he  tried  to  reform 
the  finances,  which  had  been  impaired  in  the  last  year  of 
Catherine  by  endless  wars,  the  dishonesty  of  officials,  the  luxury 
of  the  court,  and  the  prodigal  gifts  bestowed  on  favorites. 

As  to  foreign  affairs,  Paul's  early  policy  was  peaceful.  He 
discontinued  the  levying  of  recruits  in  his  mother's  manner— 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

that  is,  in  the  proportion  of  three  men  to  every  five  hundred 
souls.  He  withdrew  his  forces  from  Persia,  and  left  Georgia  to 
its  own  levies.  To  the  Poles  he  even  showed  some  pity,  re- 
called prisoners  from  Siberia,  transferred  King  Stanislas  from 
Grodno  to  St.  Petersburg,  visited  Kosciuszko  at  Schliisselburg, 
and  set  him,  with  the  other  captives,  at  liberty.  He  bade  Koly- 
tchef,  Envoy  Extraordinary  at  Berlin,  tell  the  King  of  Prussia 
that  he  was  neither  for  conquest  nor  aggrandizement.  He 
dictated  a  circular  to  Ostermann,  which  was  to  be  communicated 
to  foreign  Powers,  in  which  he  declared  that  Russia,  and  Russia 
alone,  had  been  engaged  in  ceaseless  wars  since  1756;  that 
these  forty  years  of  war  had  exhausted  the  nation ;  that  the 
humanity  of  the  Emperor  did  not  allow  him  to  refuse  his  beloved 
subjects  the  peace  for  which  they  sighed  ;  that  nevertheless, 
though  for  these  reasons  the  Russian  army  would  take  no  part 
in  the  contest  with  France,  "  the  Emperor  would  remain  as 
closely  as  ever  united  with  his  allies,  and  oppose  by  all  possible 
means  the  progress  of  the  mad  French  republic,  which  threatened 
Europe  with  total  ruin,  by  the  destruction  of  her  laws,  privileges, 
property,  religion,  and  manners."  He  refused  all  armed  assist- 
ance to  Austria,  then  alarmed  by  Bonaparte's  victories  in  Italy  ; 
he  recalled  the  vessels  sent  by  Catherine  to  join  the  F.nglish 
fleet,  to  blockade  the  coasts  of  France  and  Holland.  He  even 
received  the  overtures  made  by  Caillard,  the  French  envoy  in 
Prussia,  to  the  Russian  envoy  Kolytchef,  and  caused  the  latter 
to  observe  "  that  the  Emperor  did  not  consider  himself  at  war 
with  France,  that  he  had  done  nothing  to  harm  her,  that  he  was 
disposed  to  live  in  peace  with  her,  and  that  he  would  persuade 
his  allies  to  finish  the  war,  offering  to  this  end  the  mediation  of 
Russia." 

Difficulties  soon  arose  between  France  and  Russia.  The 
treaty  of  Campo  Formio  had  given  the  Ionian  Islands  to  the 
French,  who  thus  acquired  a  position  threatening  to  the  East, 
and  a  greater  influence  over  the  Divan.  The  directorate  author- 
ized Dombrovski  to  organize  Polish  legions  in  Italy.  Panine  at 
Berlin  intercepted  a  letter  from  the  Directorate  to  the  French 
envoy,  in  which  there  was  a  question  of  the  restoration  of  Poland, 
under  a  prince  of  Brandenburg.  Paul,  on  his  side,  took  into 
his  pay  the  corps  of  the  Prince  of  Conde*,  and  stationed  10,000 
tmigtes  in  Volhynia  and  Podolia,  He  offered  an  asylum  to  Louis 
XVIII.,  who  was  expelled  from  Brunswick,  established  him  in 
the  ducal  palace  of  Mittau,  and  gave  him  a  pension  of  200,000 
roubles.  The  news  that  a  French  expedition  was  being  mys- 
teriously organized  at  Toulon  caused  him  to  tremble  for  the  se- 
curity of  the  coasts  of  the  Black  Sea,  which  were  immediately 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  ,3j 

put  into  a  state  of  defence.  The  capture  of  Zagourski,  Russian 
Consul  at  Corfu  ;  the  reduction  of  Malta  by  Bonaparte,  and  the 
arrival  at  St.  Petersburg  of  the  banished  knights,  who  offered 
Paul  the  protectorate  of  their  order,  with  the  title  of  Grand 
Master  ;  the  invasion  of  the  Swiss  territory  by  the  Directorate  ; 
the  expulsion  of  the  Pope  and  the  proclamation  of  the  Roman 
Republic — all  precipitated  the  rupture. 

Paul  further  concluded  an  alliance  with  Turkey,  which  was 
irritated  at  the  invasion  of  Egypt,  with  England,  Austria,  and  the 
kingdom  of  Naples.  It  was  thus  that,  owing  to  Bonaparte's 
double  aggression  against  Malta  and  Egypt,  Russia  and  Turkey 
were  forced,  contrary  to  all  traditions,  to  make  common  cause. 
Paul  undertook  that  his  fleet  should  join  the  Turkish  and  English 
squadrons,  to  furnish  a  body  of  troops  to  make  a  descent  in 
Holland,  and  another  to  conquer  the  Ionian  Islands,  besides  a 
great  auxiliary  army  for  the  campaigns  in  Switzerland  and  Italy. 


CAMPAIGN  OF  THE  IONIAN  ISLANDS,  ITALY,  SWITZERLAND,  HOLLAND, 
AND  NAPLES. 

In  the  autumn  of  1798  a  Turco-Russian  fleet  captured  the 
French  garrisons  of  the  Ionian  Islands.  The  King  of  Naples 
caused  the  territory  of  the  Roman  Republic  to  be  invaded,  but 
Championnet  conducted  the  Neapolitan  troops  back  to  their 
native  land,  entered  Naples  himself,  proclaimed  the  Partheno- 
pean  Republic,  and  made  St.  Januarius  work  his  annual  miracle. 

The  Russian  army  in  Holland  was  put  under  the  orders  of 
Hermann,  that  of  Switzerland  under  those  of  Rymski-Korsakof 
while,  at  the  request  of  Austria  and  the  suggestion  of  England, 
the  victor  of  Fokchany  and  Rymnik  was  appointed  to  the  Aus- 
tro-Russian  army  of  Upper  Italy.  Paul  I.,  flattered  by  this  mark 
of  deference,  recalled  Souvorof  from  his  village  exile.  "  Souvorof 
has  no  need  of  laurels,"  wrote  the  Tzar,  "  but  the  country  has 
need  of  Souvorof." 

The,  Directorate,  taken  by  surprise,  having  not  only  France 
to  protect,  but  likewise  the  Batavian,  Helvetian,  Cisalpine,  Ligu- 
rian,  Roman,  and  Neapolitan  republics — that  is  to  say,  the  vast 
line  of  country  that  extends  from  the  Zuyder  Zee  to  the  Gulf  of 
Tarento — had  very  inferior  numbers  to  oppose  to  those  of  the 
coalition  :  in  Holland  20,000  men,  under  Brune,  against  40,000 
Anglo-Russians,  under  York  and  Hermann ;  on  the  Rhine, 
50,000,  under  Bernadotte  andjourdan,  against  the  70,000  of  the 
Archduke  Charles ;  in  Switzerland,  30,000,  under  Masse*na, 
against  Hotze  and  Bellegarde,  who  had  70,000  Austrians  in  the 


,32  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Vorarlberg  and  the  Tyrol ;  in  Upper  Italy,  50,000,  under  Scherer, 
against  the  60,000  Austrians  of  Kray ;  at  Naples,  30,000,  under 
Macdonald,  against  30,000  English,  Russians,  and  Sicilians. 

At  last  the  Russians  arrived  in  Switzerland,  40,000  in  number, 
under  Rymski-Korsakof ;  in  Italy,  to  the  number  of  40,000, 
divided  into  two  corps,  that  of  Rosenberg  and  that  of  Rebinder, 
with  Souvorof  in  chief  command.  Consequently  the  French  had 
only  170,000  to  oppose  to  350,000  allies. 

In  his  passage  to  Vienna,  Souvorof  refused  to  communicate 
his  schemes  to  Thugut,  the  acting  minister,  and  to  receive  the 
advice  of  the  Hof-Kriegsrath,  the  Aulic  council  of  war.  When 
the  Austrians  questioned  him  as  to  his  plan  of  campaign,  he 
showed  a  blank  paper  signed  by  the  Emperor  Paul.  His  object 
he  declared,  was  Paris,  where  he  would  restore  the  throne  and 
the  altar.  To  his  soldiers  he  repeated  the  formulae  of  his  mili- 
tary catechism  :  "  A  sudden  glance,  rapidity,  impetuosity !  The 
van  of  the  army  is  not  to  wait  for  the  rear !  Musket  balls  are 
fools ;  bayonets  do  the  business  !  The  French  beat  the  Aus- 
trians in  columns,  and  we  will  beat  them  in  columns."  lie 
scoffed  at  the  slowness  and  pedantry  of  the  Hof-KriegsratJi. 
"  Parades,  manoeuvres  !  too  much  confidence  in  their  talents  1 
To  know  how  to  conquer,  well ;  but  to  be  always  beaten  is  not 
smart !  The  Emperor  of  Germany  desires  that,  when  I  have 
to  give  battle  next  day,  I  should  first  address  myself  to  the 
Court  of  Vienna.  The  accidents  of  war  change  rapidly ;  one 
cannot  be  tied  down  to  a  fixed  plan.  Fortune  flies  like  the 
lightning :  one  must  seize  opportunity  by  the  forelock ;  it  will 
never  come  back." 

The  Austrians  had  already  defeated  Jourdan  at  Stokach 
(March  29),  and  Scherer  at  Magnano  (April  9).  Massdna,  al- 
though victorious  at  the  first  battle  of  Zurich,  had  been  obliged 
to  retreat  behind  the  Limmat  and  the  Linth,  on  the  heights  of 
the  Albis.  On  the  28th  of  April,  Austria,  believing  that  where 
the  French  were  concerned  she  might  violate  with  impunity  the 
la-.v  of  nations,  had  assassinated  their  plenipotentiaries  at  Ras- 
tadt.  Souvorof,  on  his  arrival  at  Verona,  had  taken  the  com- 
mand of  the  allied  forces. 

The  Austro-Russians  numbered  about  90,000 ;  the  French  no 
more  than  30,000,  under  Moreau,  which  included  the  Italian 
legions  and  three  or  four  thousand  men  of  the  Polish  legions. 
These  Poles  represented  the  Slav  element  in  the  French  army, 
as  the  Russians  did  in  that  of  the  coalition.  This  quarrel  of 
kinsmen,  which  began  at  Maceiovitsy  and  Warsaw,  was  to  be 
continued  on  the  bank  of  the  Adda.  Souvorof  surprised  the 
passage  of  this  river  at  Cassano,  penetrated  the  centre  of  Mor- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'33 


eau,  and  surrounded  the  right  wing ;  Serrurier  and  about  3000 
men  were  made  prisoners  (April  28). 

Moreau  retired  into  Piedmont ;  imperilled  next  by  the  loss 
of  Ceva  and  of  Turin,  he  was  forced  to  take  refuge  in  the  Alps. 
Souvorof  made  his  entry  into  Milan  amidst  the  acclamations  of 
the  nobles,  the  priests,  the  excited  populace,  of  all  the  enemies 
of  the  Revolution,  and  abolished  the  Cisalpine  Republic.  In- 
stead of  attacking  the  15,000  men  who  remained  with  Moreau 
Souvorof,  harrassed  by  the  advice  of  the  Hof-Kriegsrath,  amused 
himself  by  laying  siege  to  Mantua,  Alessandria,  and  the  citadel 
of  Turin. 

Macdonald  hastened  from  the  end  of  the  Peninsula  with  the 
army  of  Naples.  After  having  opened  communications  with 
Moreau,  he  conceived  the  project  of  throwing  himself  between 
Alessandria  and  Mantua,  and  separating  the  two  principal  bodies 
of  the  allied  army.  He  defeated  the  Austrians  on  the  Tidona, 
but  came  up  with  Souvorof  on  the  Trebbia.  The  battle  lasted 
three  days  (^th-igth  June)  :  the  ferocity  of  the  French,  Rus- 
sians, and  Poles  rendered  it  extremely  bloody.  On  the  iyth  the 
French  only  amounted  to  28,000  against  40,000  ;  the  next  day 
24,000  against  36,000  :  numbers  were  sure  to  tell.  Each  army 
lost  ten  or  twelve  thousand  men,  and  Macdonald  hastened  to  re- 
join Moreau  in  the  gorges  of  the  Alps.  Mantua  had  capitulated. 
In  the  south  the  Anglo-Russians,  allied  with  the  banditti  of 
Cardinal  Ruffo  and  of  the  brigand  Fra  Diavolo,  expelled  the 
French  garrisons  from  Neapolitan  territory.  A  frightful  reaction 
flooded  the  streets  of  Naples  with  blood,  and  2000  houses  were 
burned  by  the  bandits  and  lazzaroni  (July  1799). 

The  Directorate  made  a  last  effort  to  reconquer  Italy.  The 
army  of  the  Alps,  increased  by  new  reinforcements  to  40,000 
men,  was  placed  under  the  command  of  General  Joubert,  who 
had  said  to  his  young  wife,  "  You  will  see  me  either  dead  or 
victorious."  Joubert  wished  to  relieve  Alessandria,  and  to  pre- 
vent this  Souvorof  marched  quickly  up  with  70,000  men,  and 
gave  him  battle  at  Novi.  Joubert  was  killed  at  the  beginning  of 
the  action.  The  two  armies  each  lost  8000  men  (August  15), 
and  the  remains  of  the  Polo-French  troops  fell  back  into  the 
mountains  of  Genoa.  Italy  was  lost  to  France  ;  the  Cisalpine, 
Roman,  and  Neapolitan  republics  were  extinguished. 

The  Russians  and  Austrians  separated  after  the  victory. 
The  German  generals  could  not  endure  the  vanity  of  Souvorof  ; 
Thugut  was  even  less  friendly  towards  him  ;  the  new  Prince 
Italiiski  imagined  that  he  had  fought  for  the  restoration  of 
sovereigns,  and  not  for  the  private  ambition  of  the  house  of 
Austria.  He  wished  therefore  to  establish  a  national  govern- 


!  3  4  HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA, 

ment  in  Piedmont,  and  to  reorganize  the  Piedmontese  army 
under  his  special  standard.  Now,  Thugut  cared  nothing  about 
the  restoration  of  Victor- Amadeus,  or  of  the  Pope.  The  mis- 
understanding increased ;  it  was  decided  that  Souvorof  should 
abandon  Italy,  and  join  Rymski-Korsakof  in  Switzerland,  so  as 
to  defend  the  snowy  mountains  of  Helvetia  with  a  purely  Rus- 
sian army.  Souvorof,  who  already  saw  himself  in  Franche- 
Comte'  and  on  the  route  to  Paris,  accepted  the  work. 

In  Switzerland,  after  the  first  battle  of  Zurich,  Masse'na  had 
retired  to  the  heights  of  the  Albis,  behind  the  line  formed  by  the 
Linth,  the  lake  of  Zurich,  and  the  Limmat.  He  had  been  op- 
posed in  his  movements  by  the  Archduke  Charles,  with  25,000 
men  ;  by  Korsakof,  with  28,000  Russians ;  and  by  Hotze,  with 
27,000  Austrians.  The  Archduke  had  to  evacuate  Switzerland 
and  lay  siege  to  Philippsburgh,  and  was  to  be  replaced  by  Sou- 
vorof with  20,000  men.  It  would  be  a  critical  moment  for  the 
allies  when  the  Archduke  should  have  evacuated  Switzerland 
and  Souvorof  should  not  yet  have  arrived,  and  this  was  the 
moment  eagerly  awaited  by  Masse'na.  He  had  now  60,000  men 
against  55,000,  who  were  to  be  raised  by  the  army  of  the  Prince 
of  Italy  to  75,000.  On  the  25th  of  September  he  surprised  the 
passage  of  the  Limmat  near  to  Die'tikon,  and  cut  the  Russian 
army  in  two.  The  Russian  grenadiers  who  defended  Die'tikon 
fought  till  their  powder  was  exhausted,  refused  to  surrender,  and 
died  in  their  ranks.  The  other  corps  were  defeated  successively. 
Korsakof,  forced  back  upon  Zurich,  caused  the  gates  to  be 
closed.  In  the  night  Masse'na  sent  him  envoys,  who  were  capt- 
ured or  repulsed  by  musketry.  On  the  26th  of  September 
Korsakof  formed  an  immense  square  of  15,000  men  and  attacked 
the  French.  "  This  dense  and  impenetrable  mass,"  says  Major 
Masson,  "  made  the  enemy  retire  at  every  point."  But  this 
policy,  which  had  been  successful  against  the  Poles  and  the 
Turks,  was  certain  to  fail  against  the  French.  Decimated  by 
the  sharpshooters  and  light  cavalry,  shaken  by  a  general  charge 
of  cavalry,  and  infantry  with  bayonets,  the  Russians  had  to  fall 
back  on  Zurich,  leaving  the  field  of  battle  covered  with  dead, 
and  with  wounded,  who  pressed  icons  and  relics  to  their  breasts. 
They  had  lost  6000  men,  their  guns,  the  army  treasure,  the  of- 
ficial papers,  and  sacred  plate.  Korsakof  fled  to  Eglisau.  Then 
Masse'na  made  Oudinot  attack  Zurich  and  the  Swiss  legion,  and 
took  all  the  Russian  stores  and  baggage.  It  was  here  that  the 
celebrated  Lavater  perished,  killed  by  a  drunken  Swiss  soldier. 
On  the  25th  Soult,  on  his  side,  had  crossed  the  Linth,  and  de- 
feated Hotze,  who  was  killed.  The  allies  retreated  in  disorder 
on  Schaffhausen,  with  a  loss  of  10,000  prisoners,  of  twenty 
Austrian  cannons,  and  nearly  all  the  Russian  artillery. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  i$$ 

Such  was  the  victory  of  Zurich.  "  Bonaparte,"  says  M. 
Duruy,  "  has  no  more  glorious  battle,  for  the  victories  which 
insure  the  salvation  of  a  country  are  worth  more  than  those 
which  only  add  to  her  power  or  the  glory  of  her  chiefs." 

Souvorof  had,  however,  arrived  by  dint  of  forced  marches  at 
Taverno,  near  Bellinzona.  The  Austrian  administration  had 
neglected  to  gather  together  a  sufficient  number  of  sumpter 
mules  for  the  passage  of  the  Alps,  and  Souvorof  lost  four  precious 
days-  in  impressing  them  from  the  surrounding  country.  He 
only  reached  the  St.  Gothard  on  the  2ist,  and  crossed  it  under 
unheard-of  difficulties,  and  after  a  sharp  skirmish  with  some 
French  detachments  stationed  on  the  mountains.  He  plunged 
at  once  into  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Reuss,  enclosed  betweer 
mountains  so  precipitous  that  the  road  many  times  crosses  the 
torrent,  notably  at  the  Pont  du  Diable. 

"  In  this  kingdom  of  terrors,"  writes  Souvorof  in  his  de- 
spatch to  Paul,  "  abysses  open  beside  us  at  every  step,  like 
tombs  awaiting  our  arrival.  Night  spent  among  the  clouds, 
thunder  that  never  ceases,  rain,  fog,  the  noise  of  cataracts,  the 
breaking  of  avalanches,  enormous  masses  of  rocks  and  ice 
which  fall  from  the  heights,  torrents  which  sometimes  carry 
men  and  horses  down  the  precipices,  the  St.  Gothard,  that 
colossus  who  sees  the  mists  pass  under  him, — we  have  sur- 
mounted all,  and  in  these  inaccessible  spots  the  enemy  has  been 
forced  to  give  way  before  us.  Words  fail  to  describe  the 
horrors  we  have  seen,  and  in  the  midst  of  which  Providence 
has  preserved  us."  The  impression  produced  on  the  native  of 
the  great  Russian  plains  by  the  grandeur  of  the  Swiss  Alps  is 
graphically  sketched  in  the  curious  '  Narrative  of  an  Old  Sol- 
dier,' the  memoirs  of  an  eye-witness  and  companion  of 
Souvorof. 

The  tenacious  Lecourbe,  charged  by  Massena  to  retard  the 
Russian  advance,  had -only  11,000  men,  but  with  them  he  ex- 
pected to  "  crush  Souvorof  in  the  mountains."  At  Hospital  he 
disputed  the  passage  of  the  Reuss,  cannonaded  the  Russians 
till  his  ammunition  was  exhausted,  threw  his  artillery  into  the 
stream,  went  down  to  defend  the  Pont  du  Diable,  which  he 
blew  up,  and  finally  fell  back  on  Seedorf,  where  he  broke  down 
the  bridge.  Souvorof  crossed  the  precipitous  chain  of  Scha- 
chenthal,  and  only  reached  Altdorf  and  Multenthal  on  tha 
26th,  having  lost  2000  men  on  the  way.  It  was  here  that  he 
heard  of  the  disaster  of  Zurich  and  the  flight  of  Korsakof,  and 
that  he  grasped  the  full  horror  of  his  situation,  lost  in  the  heart 
of  the  mountains,  betrayed  by  the  carelessness  of  his  allies,  en- 
closed  in  Multenthal  as  it  were  in  a  mouse-trap,  surrounded  on 


1 36  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

all  sides  by  a  victorious  army,  with  numbers  superior  to  his 
own.  On  his  rear  Gudin  had  again  occupied  the  Upper  Reuss ; 
on  the  road  to  Stanz  Lecourbe  had  taken  up  a  position  at 
Seedorf;  on  that  of  Schwitz  Masse'na  had  concentrated  the 
corps  of  Mortier ;  on  that  of  Glarus  Molitor  was  posted,  whom 
Soult  was  about  to  reinforce.  This  was  the  most  splendid  mo- 
ment of  Souvorof's  life.  His  heroic  retreat  is  more  glorious 
than  his  victories  in  Italy  gained  with  superior  forces ;  no 
general  in  such  a  desperate  situation  has  shown  more  indomit- 
able energy  than  this  little  man  nearly  seventy  years  old. 
He  resolved  to  cross  Mont  Bragel  in  sixty  five  centimetres  of 
snow,  and  to  cut  away  by  the  Kleinthal  and  the  route  to  Glarus. 
His  rear-guard,  left  in  the  Multenthal,  resisted  for  three  days 
the  assaults  of  Masse'na,  thus  protecting  the  retreat  of  the  army, 
while  the  vanguard  took  Glarus,  and  forced  Molitor  back  on 
Naefels.  There  Molitor  checked  the  Russians,  who  were 
obliged  to  retire  on  the  Rindskopff,  on  whose  glaciers  many 
hundreds  of  men  perished.  Thence  they  succeeded  in  gaining 
Illanz,  Coire,  and  Feldkirch.  Souvorof,  with  the  gallant  remnant 
of  his  army,  took  up  his  winter-quarters  between  the  Iller  and  the 
Lech. 

On  the  2yth  of  August  the  Anglo-Russians  had  disembarked 
on  the  Texel,  and  captured  the  Dutch  fleet,  but  the  Batavian 
populations  remained  faithful  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  on 
the  tgth  of  September  Brune,  reinforced,  defeated  the  allies  at 
Bergen.  He  then  fought  them  in  four  other  battles,  besieged 
them  in  Zyp,  and  made  Alkmaer  and  the  Duke  of  York  capitu- 
late (October  18).  The  Anglo- Russian  army  obtained  leave  to 
march  out.  The  remains  of  the  Russian  forces  re-embarked  ; 
but  being  coldly  received  in  England,  they  were,  so  to  speak, 
"  interned  "  in  the  islands  of  Jersey  and  Guernsey. 

Masse'na  and  Brune  had  saved  the  frontiers  of  the  republic, 
prepared  the  ruin  of  the  coalition,  and  deprived  the  coup  d'dtat 
of  Brumaire  of  all  excuse. 


ALLIANCE  WITH  BONAPARTE  :  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NEUTRALS,  AND  THB 
GREAT  SCHEME  AGAINST  INDIA. 

Paul  I.,  Souvorof,  and  all  Russia  accused  Austria  of  treason. 
The  Emperor  Francis,  by  the  advice  of  England,  humbly  con- 
sented to  explain  the  misunderstanding  which  had  lost  Kor- 
sakof,  and  almost  lost  Souvorof.  The  Tzar,  a  little  softened, 
suspended  the  retreat  of  the  Russian  army,  but  insisted  in  re- 
turn on  the  recall  of  Thugut,  and  the  restoration  of  the  Italian 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


137 


princes  to  their  reconquered  States.  Austria  could  not  relish 
this  disinterested  policy,  or  renounce  her  plans.  Thugutt 
threatened  with  the  loss  of  his  post,  labored  to  complete  the 
rupture.  It  was  insinuated  to  the  Russian  Emperor  that  the 
maintenance  of  his  troops  in  Bohemia  constituted  a  heavy 
charge  for  the  hereditary  States.  The  irritable  Tzar  learnt  in 
addition  that  a  conflict  had  taken  place  at  the  siege  of  Ancona. 
This  maritime  station  was  besieged  by  the  Austrians,  Russians, 
and  Turks ;  the  Austrian  general  secretly  concluded  a  capitula- 
tion with  the  French,  stipulated  that  his  soldiers  alone  should 
be  admitted  into  the  fortress,  and  caused  the  Turkish  and 
Russian  flags,  which  had  been  fixed  on  the  ramparts  beside  his 
own,  to  be  removed.  This  insult  to  his  banner  completed  the 
exasperation  of  Paul. 

The  same  diplomatic  results  followed  after  Bergen  and 
Zurich  ;  a  quarrel  with  England,  which  was  likewise  accused  of 
treason,  soon  succeeded  to  the  dispute  with  Austria.  Bonaparte, 
who  promptly  destroyed  at  Marengo  all  the  fruits  of  SouvoroPs 
victories,  who  appeared  to  the  Russians  almost  as  an  avenger 
against  the  perfidy  of  the  Austrians — Bonaparte,  whose  despotic 
princ:ples  reassured  the  Tzar,  and  whose  glory  blinded  him, 
cleverly  turned  to  account  the  irritation  of  Paul.  He  began  by 
declaring  that  he  returned,  without  exchange,  all  the  Russian 
prisoners,  newly  equipped  at  the  expense  of  France.  Paul  was 
the  more  touched  by  this  action,  as  Austria  and  England  had 
refused  to  exchange  the  Russian  soldiers  for  the  French  prison- 
ers whom  they  held.  Negotiations  were  opened  by  means  of 
Berlin,  and  the  French  and  Russian  agents  at  Hamburg.  Bona- 
parte took  care  to  attack  the  Tzar  on  his  weak  sides,  his  gloomy 
dignity  and  his  affectation  of  chivalrous  disinterestedness.  He 
offered  to  indemnify  the  King  of  Sardinia,  to  re-establish  the 
Pope  in  Rome,  and  to  recognize  Paul  as  Grand  Master  of  Malta, 
and  owner  of  the  island.  Malta  was  at  that  time  blockaded  by 
the  English,  who  in  September  1800  made  themselves  masters 
of  it.  Their  refusal  to  relinquish  this  important  post  to  Paul  I. 
greatly  irritated  him.  Disturbed  by  the  maritime  tyranny  of 
Great  Britain,  which  had  declared  the  ports  of  France  and  her 
allies  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  recommenced  her  system  of 
vexations  against  the  neutral  ships,  Paul  renewed  the  famous 
Act  of  Armed  Neutrality,  and  sought  the  support  of  Prussia, 
Sweden,  and  Denmark/  Bonaparte  hastened  to  express  his 
assent  to  the  Russian  principles.  During  this  time  General 
Sprengtporten,  who,  under  pretext  of  taking  command  of  the 
Russian  prisoners  in  Paris,  had  been  sent  on  a  secret  mission, 
was  followed  there  by  Kolytchef,  charged  with  more  precise  in- 


I38  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

structions.  Kolytchef  was  particularly  to  persuade  Bonaparte 
to  take  the  title  of  King  himself,  and  to  make  it  hereditary  in 
his  family,  as  the  only  means  "  of  changing  the  revolutionary 
principles  which  have  armed  all  Europe  against  France."  On  this 
point  the  First  Consul  was  only  too  well  disposed.  Negotiations 
began  on  the  following  bases  :  France  was  to  respect  the  integrity 
of  Naples  and  Wurtemburg,  to  re-establish  the  King  of  Sardinia 
in  Piedmont,  while  reserving  Savoy  for  herself,  and  to  retain  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  subject  to  an  understanding  with  Russia, 
for  the  indemnification  of  the  depossessed  princes.  It  was  under 
the  Franco-Russian  mediation  that  secularization  was  to  take 
place  in  Germany. 

Paul,  with  his  usual  impetuosity,  was  possessed  by  a  daily  in- 
creasing passion  for  Bonaparte  ;  he  surrounded  himself  with  his 
portraits,  drank  his  health  publicly,  and  abruptly  ordered  Louis 
XVIII.  to  quit  Mittau. 

It  was  then  that  the  two  sovereigns  arranged  together  the 
great  scheme  that  had  for  its  object  the  complete  overthrow 
of  the  English  rule  in  India.  France  still  occupied  Egypt  ;  she 
was  authorized  to  keep  garrisons  in  the  southern  ports  of  the 
kingdom  of  Naples ;  her  agents  traversed  Arabia  and  the  Indian 
States.  Paul  on  his  side,  to  secure  himself  a  basis  of  operations, 
ordered  his  troops  to  the  Caucasus,  and,  at  the  request  of  the 
son  of  Heraclius,  pronounced  Georgia  to  be  united  to  the  empire. 
The  expedition  against  English  India  was  to  be  undertaken  by  two 
different  ways — the  command  of  a  Russian  army,  destined  for 
the  Upper  Indus  by  way  of  Khiva  and  Bokhara,  was  given  to 
Knorring.  Orlof-Denissof,  Ataman  of  the  Don  Cossacks,  re- 
ceived letters  from  Paul,  desiring  him  to  begin  his  movement  on 
Orenburg.  "  The  English  are  preparing  for  an  attack  by  land 
and  sea  against  me  and  my  allies,  the  Swedes  and  the  Danes ; 
I  am  ready  to  receive  them.  But  it  is  necessary  to  be  before- 
hand with  them,  and  to  attack  on  their  most  vulnerable  point, 
and  on  the  side  were  they  least  expect  it.  It  is  three  months' 
march  from  Orenburg  to  Hindostan,  and  it  takes  another  month 
to  get  from  the  encampments  of  the  Don  to  Orenburg,  making 
in  all  four  months.  To  you  and  your  army  (voisko)  I  confide  this 
expedition.  Assemble  therefore  your  men,  and  begin  your  march 
to  Orenburg;  thence,  by  whichever  of  the  three  routes  you  prefer, 
or  by  all,  you  will  go  straight  with  your  artillery  to  Bokhara, 
Khiva,  the  river  Indus,  and  the  English  settlements  in  India. 
The  troops  of  the  country  are  light  troops,  like  yours  ;  you  will 
therefore  have  over  them  all  the  advantage  of  your  artillery. 
pare  everything  for  this  campaign.  Send  your  scouts  to  recon- 
noitre and  repair  die  roads.  All  the  treasures  of  the  Indies  shall 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


139 


be  your  recompense.  .  .  .  Such  an  enterprise  will  cover  you  with 
immortal  glory,  will  secure  you  my  goodwill  in  proportion  to 
your  services,  will  load  you  with  riches,  give  an  opening  to  our 
commerce,  and  strike  the  enemy  a  mortal  blow"  (i2th-24th 
January). 

"  India,  to  which  I  send  you,  is  governed  by  a  supreme  head 
(the  Great  Mogul)  and  a  quantity  of  small  sovereigns.  The 
English  possess  commercial  establishments  there,  which  they 
have  acquired  by  means  of  money,  or  conquered  by  force  of  arms. 
The  object  of  this  campaign  is  to  ruin  these  establishments,  to  free 
the  oppressed  sovereigns,  to  put  them  with  regard  to  Russia  in  the 
same  state  of  dependence  that  they  now  are  with  regard  to  the 
English,  finally  to  secure  for  ourselves  the  commerce  of  those 
regions.  .  .  ."  (i2th-24th  January).  "  Be  sure  to  remember 
that  you  are  only  at  war  with  the  English,  and  the  friend  of  all  who 
do  not  give  them  help.  On  your  march  you  will  assure  men  of 
the  friendship  of  Russia.  From  the  Indus  you  will  go  to  the 
Ganges.  On  the  way  you  will  occupy  Bokhara,  to  prevent  her 
going  over  to  China.  At  Khiva  you  will  deliver  some  thousands 
of  my  subjects  who  are  kept  prisoners  there.  If  you  need  in- 
fantry, I  will  send  it  to  follow  in  your  footsteps.  There  is  no 
other  way,  but  it  will  be  best  if  you  can  be  sufficient  for  your- 
selves" (i3th-25th  January).  "  The  expedition  is  urgent  ;  the 
earlier  the  better"  ^th-igth  February). 

Such  were  the  instructions,  a  little  premature  and  inconse- 
quent, that  Paul  sent  daily  with  incomplete  maps  to  Orlof-Denis- 
sof.  These  letters  abound  in  contradictions.  He  promised  his 
Cossacks  all  the  wealth  of  the  Indies,  and  forbids  them  to  attack 
princes  who  remain  neutral ;  in  the  same  line  he  enjoins  them 
to  free  the  princes,  and  to  place  them  under  the  sovereignty  of 
Russia.  To  go  from  the  Don  to  the  Volga,  from  the  Oural  to 
the  Indus,  from  the  Indus  to  the  Ganges,  is  far  from  being  an 
easy  undertaking,  and  he  entrusts  the  Ataman  besides  with  mis- 
sions to  Khiva  and  Bokhara.  These  letters  of  Paul,  published 
by  the  Rousska'ia  Starina*  made  some  noise  in  the  Russian  press 
at  the  beginning  of  the  present  quarrels  with  England. 

This  plan  really  began  to  be  executed,  as  we  see  by  the 
'  Memoirs  of  the  Ataman  Denissof,'  nephew  of  the  late  Ataman, 
published  in  the  same  collection.  He  assembled  eleven  polks 
of  Cossacks,  and  succeeded  in  crossing  the  Volga  on  the  floating 
ice,  in  the  midst  of  unheard-of  difficulties.  This  vanguard  of  the 
great  Cossack  army  had  reached  the  left  bank  of  the  river, 

*  Ronsskaia  Starina  of  1873,  vol.  viii.  p.  209.  See  also  vol.  xii.  p.  237, 
and  vol.  xv.  p.  216  ;  the  Ncrvoie  Vremia  of  the  I4th-r6th  Nov.  1876  ;  and 
the  Univcrs  Pittoresque,  by  Dubois  cle  Jancigny,  p.  105. 


j  4o  HISTOR  Y  OF  KUSSTA. 

when  in  March  1801  its  chief  suddenly  received  the  news  of  th« 
death  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  order  to  return. 

The  other  expedition  was  to  be  composed  of  35,000  French 
and  35,000  Russians,  at  whose  head  Paul,  with  noble  and 
chivalrous  feeling,  insisted  on  placing  the  victor  of  Zurich, 
Masse'na.  The  35,000  French  were  to  start  from  the  banks  of 
the  Rhine,  descend  the  Danube  in  ships  furnished  them  by  the 
Austrian  Government,  embark  at  the  mouth  in  Russian  ships, 
which  would  transport  them  to  Taganrog,  then  go  up  the  Don  as 
far  as  Piati-Isbanskai'a,  cross  the  Volga  at  Tzaritsyne,  drop 
down  as  far  as  Astrakhan,  and  thence,  navigating  the  Caspian  in 
Russian  vessels,  arrive  at  Asterabad  on  the  Persian  shore, 
where  the  35,000  Russians  would  await  them.  The  combined 
army  was  then  to  march  by  way  of  Herat,  Ferah,  and  Kandahar 
to  the  Upper  Indus,  and  begin  the  war  against  the  English. 
This  project,  on  the  margin  of  which  are  scrawled  the  criticisms 
of  Bonaparte  and  the  reply  by  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  enters 
into  the  most  minute  details.  Twenty  days  were  reckoned  to 
descend  the  Danube,  fifty-five  days  to  reach  Asterabad,  and 
forty-five  to  arrive  at  the  Indus — 120  days  in  all  from  the  Rhine 
to  S'cinde.  Aerosticians,  artificers,  and  a  body  of  savants  such 
as  went  to  Egypt,  were  to  accompany  the  expedition.  The 
French  Government  was  to  send  precious  objects,  the  produce 
of  the  national  industry. 

"  Distributed  with  tact  amon^  the  princes  of  these  countries, 
and  offered  with  the  grace  and  courtesy  natural  to  the  French," 
says  the  Russian  note,  "these  gi'ts  will  enable  these  races  to 
form  the  highest  idea  of  the  magnificence  of  French  industry 
and  power,  and  will  in  consequence  open  an  important  branch 
of  commerce."  To  inspire  the  people  with  the  most  exalted 
conception  of  France  and  Russia,  brilliant  f£tes  were  to  be 
given,  accompanied  by  such  military  evolutions  "  as  celebrate  in 
Paris  great  events  and  memorable  epochs."  Paul  I.  seemed  to 
be  reconciled  to  the  anniversaries  of  the  Revolution. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Paul  ever  doubted  the  success  of 
this  hazardous  expedition.  Bonaparte  naturally  made  this  ob- 
jection :  "  Supposing  the  combined  army  to  be  reunited  at 
Asterabad,  how  do  you  propose  that  it  should  get  to  India 
through  countries  almost  barbarous,  and  without  any  resources, 
having  to  march  a  distance  of  300  leagues,  from  Asterabad  to 
the  frontiers  of  Hindostan  ? "  The  Tzar  replied  that  these 
countries  were  neither  barbarous  nor  arid,  that  caravans 
traversed  them  every  year  and  made  the  journey  in  thirty-five 
or  forty  days,  and  that  in  1739  and  1740  Nadir  Shah  had 
marched  through  the  reverse  way,  from  Delhi  to  the  Caspian, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA,  I4t 

Paul  ended  by  saying,  "  The  French  and  Russian  armies  are 
eager  for  glory;  they  are  brave,  patient,  and  unwearied;  their 
courage,  their  perseverance,  and  the  wisdom  of  their  leaders  will 
know  how  to  surmount  all  obstacles.  .  .  .  What  a  really  Asiatic 
army  did  in  1739  and  1740,  we  cannot  doubt  that  an  army  of 
French  and  Russians  can  do  to-day  !  " 

On  the  Continent  Paul  did  his  best  to  make  Prussia  declare 
against  England.  The  League  of  Neutrality  made  the  British 
Government  so  uneasy,  that,  notwithstanding  the  peace,  Admirals 
Parker  and  Nelson  seized  the  Danish  Fleet  (Naval  Battle  of 
Copenhagen,  2nd  of  April,  1801).  An  event  still  more  extraor- 
dinary broke  up  the  coalition,  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Paul  in 
the  night  of  the  23rd-24th  of  March,  1801  (nth  or  i2th  March, 
O.S.).  On  the  24th  of  March  Alexander  was  proclaimed. 

England  could  not  help  being  satisfied  by  the  simultaneous 
news  of  the  destruction  of  the  Danish  fleet  and  the  terrible 
death  of  the  Tzar,  who  was  the  soul  of  the  coalition.  In  France 
the  consternation  was  great.  Bonaparte,  who  saw  the  downfall 
of  his  vast  projects,  could  not  contain  himself.  He  caused  the 
following  lines,  full  of  rage  and  hate  against  England,  to  be 
printed  in  the  Moniteur,  making  himself  the  mouthpiece  of  an 
absurd  suspicion  :  "It  is  for  history  to  clear  up  the  secret  of  this 
tragic  death,  and  to  say  what  national  policy  was  interested  in 
provoking  such  a  catastrophe." 


14*  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XII.  . 

ALEXANDER  I.  :  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  (1801-1825). 

First  war  with  Napoleon  :  Austerlitz,  Eylau,  Friedland,  and  Treaty  of  Tilsit 
— Interview  at  Erfurt:  wars  with  England,  Sweden,  Austria,  Turkey,  and 
Persia — Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw:  causes  of  the  second  war  with  Napo- 
leon— The  "Patriotic  War"  :  battle  of  Borodino;  burning  of  Moscow; 
destruction  of  the  Grand  Army — Campaigns  of  Germany  and  France  ; 
treaties  of  Vienna  and  Paris — Kingdom  of  Poland ;  congresses  at  Aix-la« 
Chapelle,  Carlsbad,  Laybach,  and  Verona. 


FIRST  WAR  WITH  NAPOLEON  :   AUSTERLITZ,  EYLAU,  FRIEDLAND,  AND 
TREATY  OF  TILSIT. 

WITH  the  new  reign  began  a  new  foreign  policy.*  Immedi' 
ately  after  "his  accession,  Alexander  addressed  a  letter  of  recon^ 
ciliation  to  George  III.  He  ordered  the  embargo  on  English 
vessels  to  be  raised,  and  the  sailors  who  had  been  captured  to 
be  set  at  liberty ;  he  also  entreated  Admiral  Parker  to  cease 
hostilities  against  Denmark.  Those  acts  announced  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  League  of  Neutrality.  On  the  iyth  of  July,  1801, 
a  compromise  was  agreed  on  by  which  England  consented  to 
define  more  strictly  what  articles  should  be  understood  to  be 
contraband  in  war,  admitted  that  a  blockade  must  be  effective 
before  it  could  be  considered  binding,  and  gave  up  boarding 
foreign  men-of-war. 

The  concessions  of  Russia  were  of  a  much  graver  kind.  They 
consisted  in  the  abandonment  of  the  principles  of  the  armed  neu- 
trality, and  the  disavowal  of  the  naval  policy  of  Catherine  II. 
and  Paul  I.  Alexander  allowed  that  the  flag  was  not  to  cover 
the  merchandise ;  vessels  of  war  were  not  to  have  the  right  to 
hinder  the  inspection,  nor  even  the  seizure  of  the  merchant 
ships  that  they  escorted.  England  restored  the  islands  taken 

*  A  short  time  after  Alexander's  accession,  Pahlen,  Zoubof,  and  Panine, 
the  "  men  "  of  the  24th  of  March,  1801,  had  been  successively  disgraced. 
Alexander  surrounded  himself  with  young  men, — Czartoryski,  Novossiltsof, 
Strogonof,  and  Kotchoubey,  who  were  supposed  to  be  English  partisans. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


143 


from  the  Swedes  and  Danes.  Denmark  and  Sweden,  consider- 
ing  the  common  cause  betrayed,  confined  themselves  to  making 
peace  with  Great  Britain  without  touching  the  disputed  points. 

Alexander  affected,  nevertheless,  a  desire  to  remain  on  good 
terms  with  France,  and  instructed  Count  Markof  to  continue  at 
Paris  the  negotiations  begun  by  Kolychef.  Affairs  had  gone  on 
so  rapidly  under  Paul,  that  the  two  States  had  arranged  an  of- 
fensive alliance  without  ever  having  concluded  a  formal  treaty 
of  peace.  The  First  Consul  was  greatly  irritated  at  the  abrupt 
change  in  the  Russian  policy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  instruc- 
tions given  by  Alexander  to  Markof  breathed  defiance  towards 
Bonaparte,  who,  "  by  flattering  the  deceased  Emperor,  had 
chiefly  in  view  the  use  of  him  as  a  weapon  against  England,  and 
who  doubtless  only  thought  of  gaining  time." 

Bonaparte,  however,  sent  Duroc  to  represent  him  at  Alex- 
ander's coronation.  He  received  Count  Markof  courteously, 
assuring  him  of  his  esteem  for  Alexander,  but  he  made  him  un- 
derstand that  the  situation  was  no  longer  the  same,  and  that 
Russia  had  not  the  right  to  exact  so  much  from  France.  "  My 
obligations  towards  the  Emperor  Paul,  whose  great  and  mag- 
nanimous ideas  corresponded  perfectly  with  the  views  of  France, 
were  such  that  I  should  not  have  hesitated  to  become  the  lieu- 
tenant of  Paul  I."  He  complained  that  Russia  insisted  on  such 
important  trifles  as  that  of  the  "  little  kinglet  "  of  Sardinia,  and 
that  she  wished  to  treat  France  "  like  the  republic  of  Lucca." 

In  his  demands  in  favor  of  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia,  Alexan- 
der did  not  feel  that  he  had  the  support  of  England,  who,  in  nego- 
tiating herself  for  peace,  had  advised  Cornwallis  "  not  to  em- 
barrass himself  with  questions  foreign  to  purely  British  inter- 
ests." On  the  8th  of  October,  then,  a  treaty  was  signed 
between  France  and  Russia,  and  on  the  nth  of  October  there 
was  a  secret  convention,  of  which  the  principal  articles  were  as 
follow  : 

i.  The  common  mediation  of  the  two  Powers  for  the  Ger- 
manic indemnities  stipulated  by  the  Peace  of  Luneville.  2.  An 
agreement  about  Italian  affairs.  3.  The  mediation  of  Russia 
for  the  establishment  of  a  peace  between  France  and  Turkey. 
4.  The  neutrality  of  Naples,  and  the  evacuation  of  her  territory 
by  the  French,  after  the  latter  had  evacuated  Egypt.  5.  The 
indemnity  of  the  King  of  Sardinia  "  according  to  present  cir- 
cumstances." 6.  A  suitable  indemnity  to  the  sovereigns  of 
Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and  Baden.  7.  independence  and  neu- 
trality of  the  Ionian  Isles. 

The  two  parties  also  bound  themselves  to  do  all  that  lay  in 
their  power  to  strengthen  the  general  peace,  to  re-establish  the 


,4^  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

equilibrium  of  the  different  parties  of  the  world,  and  to  insure 
liberty  of  navigation. 

The  treaty  of  the  8th  of  October  tollowed  that  of  Lunevihe 
between  France  and  Austria,  and  prepared  that  of  Amiens,  with 
England.  It  secured  the  dictatorship  of  France  and  Russia  in 
the  regulation  of  continental  affairs.  Common  mediation  for 
the  indemnities,  and  joint  action  in  Italian  affairs, — these  were 
the  principles  that  the  late  Tzar  would  have  wished  to  see  pre- 
vail ;  but  circumstances  were  changed.  Out  of  regard  for  Paul 
I.,  Bonaparte  might  have  renounced  Piedmont,  Naples,  and  Italy, 
but  Paul  I.  fought  for  the  liberty  of  the  seas,  threatened  Eng- 
land in  the  Baltic  and  India,  and  assured  the  revenge  of  the 
French  against  Great  Britain.  The  first  act  of  Alexander  had 
been,  on  the  contrary,  to  desert  his  allies,  and  seek  a  reconcilia- 
tion with  England. 

In  the  regulation  of  German  affairs,  the  will  of  France  nat- 
urally preponderated.  If  Bonaparte  increased  the  dominions  of 
the  houses  of  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  Baden,  and  Darmstadt, 
which  were  related  to  the  imperial  family  of  Russia,  it  was 
doubtless  to  please  Alexander,  but  above  all  because  he 
wished  to  recompense  their  fidelity  to  the  French  alliance.  It  was 
the  influence  of  France,  and  not  that  of  Russia,  that  was  in- 
creased on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  This  was  plainly  to  be 
seen  in  1805,  when  all  these  princes  hastened  to  conclude  sep- 
arate treaties  with  France,  which  already  announced  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine.  For  the  moment  it  was  the  self-esteem 
of  Alexander  that  was  specially  wounded ;  he  saw  that  every- 
thing was  worked  from  Paris,  that  Bonaparte  was  all-powerful, 
and  that  his  envoy,  Markof,  was  only  sought  by  the  German 
princes  after  they  had  paid  court  to  Talleyrand.* 

In  Italy  the  question  of  the  King  of  Sardinia's  indemnity 
dragged  on  slowly.  On  the  nth  of  September,  1802,  Bonaparte 
had  announced  the  union  of  Piedmont  to  France,  but  he  al- 
ways declined  to  fix  the  promised  equivalent.  He  had  at  first 
suggested  Parma  and  Piacenza,  then  had  given  them  to  an  Infant 
of  Spain.  He  had  no  longer  offered  anything  beyond  Siena, 
Orbitello,  and  a  pension  of  500,000  livres,  saying,  "  As  much 
money  as  you  like,  but  nothing  more  ; "  and  again,  "  This  affair 
ought  not  to  interest  the  Emperor  Alexander  more  than  the 
affairs  of  Persia  interest  me,  the  First  Consul." 

In  Switzerland,  in  that  Helvetia  which  Souvorof  had  hoped 
to  march  through  as  victor,  it  was  Bonaparte  who  laid  down  the 
law,  accepting  the  title  of  mediator,  and  occupying  cantons  trou- 

*  Rambaud,  '  Les  Francis  sur  le  Rhin'  and  '  L'Allemagne  sous  Napo 
loon  I.' 


HISTOR  \  OF  R  USSIA.  1 45 

bled  by  intestine  discords.  It  is  true  that  in  the  Ionian  Islands, 
ceaselessly  agitated  by  small  civil  wars,  it  was  a  Russian  pleni- 
potentiary that  arrived  to  appease  the  popular  excitement,  while 
the  Emperor  of  Russia  guaranteed  the  constitution. 

The  Peace  of  Amiens  was  on  the  eve  of  being  broken,  and, 
to  hinder  the  rupture  between  France  and  England,  Russia 
would  have  wished  to  offer  her  mediation.  She  feared  above 
everything  the  French  occupation  of  Naples  and  Hanover.  The 
occupation  of  Naples  meant  the  humiliation  of  another  Italian 
client  of  Russia  ;  that  of  Hanover  brought  the  French  very  near 
to  the  Elbe  and  Hamburg.  The  fears  of  Alexander  were  real- 
ized. In  a  war  against  England,  Bonaparte  could  not  neglect 
such  important  points.  Gouvion  Saint  Cyr  occupied  Tarento, 
Otranto,  and  Brindisi ;  Mortier  invaded  Hanover  and  got  a  loan 
from  Hamburg;  Holland  and  Tuscany  were  also  garrisoned 
with  French  troops  (June-July,  1803). 

The  choice  of  Markof  as  the  Russian  representative  at  Paris 
had  not  been  happy.  Like  almost  all  the  Russian  aristocracy, 
he  hated  equally  new  France,  the  Revolution,  and  Bonaparte. 
He  was  the  declared  friend  of  the  emigre's,  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  royalist  plots  put  the  life  of  the  First  Consul  in  danger. 
His  Austrian  sympathies  were  notorious.  He  proved  to  be 
proud,  excessively  obstinate,  and  even  impertinent.  When  the 
consular  court  and  all  the  diplomatic  body  went  into  mourning 
on  the  death  of  General  Leclerc,  Bonaparte's  brother-in-law,  he 
alone  declined  to  wear  it.  He  was  compromised  by  the  seizure 
of  some  pamphlets  published  against  the  Government,  his  name 
being  found  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  subscribers.  He  had  the 
audacity  to  say,  "  The  Emperor  of  Russia  has  his  will,  but  the 
nation  also  has  hers."  The  Russian  Government  refused  to  re- 
call him,  in  spite  of  Talleyrand's  declaration  that  since  the  re- 
newal of  the  war  with  England  "  the  presence  of  so  ill-disposed 
a  man  was  more  than  unpleasant  to  the  First  Consul."  Bona- 
parte also  complained  of  some  French  emigres  whose  intrigues 
were  protected  by  Russia ;  of  Christin,  formerly  secretary  to 
Calonne,  at  Paris,  of  Vernegues  at  Rome,  of  D'Entraigues  at 
Dresden.  At  last,  after  an  angry  scene,  Markof  appeared  no 
more  at  the  Tuileries,  and  was  finally  recalled.  The  French 
were,  however,  no  better  contented  with  D'Oubril,  who  re- 
mained at  Paris  as  charge'  d'affaires. 

The  seizure  and  execution  of  the  Due  d'Enghien  increased 
the  misunderstanding  between  the  two  cabinets.  The  news  of 
this  murder  reached  St.  Petersburg  on  the  eve  of  a  diplomatic 
reception ;  when  the  reception  itself  took  place,  the  Emperor 
and  all  his  court  were  in  mourning.  Alexander  passed  General 


1 4£  HISTOR  y  OF  RUSSIA. 

\ 

He'douville,  the  French  Ambassador,  without  speaking  to  him. 
D'Oubril  presented  to  the  French  Government  a  note  protesting 
against  the  violation  of  international  law  and  of  neutral  territory. 
Alexander,  in  his  character  as  guarantor  of  the  German  Empire 
— a  title  which  he  maintained  that  he  had  acquired  by  the 
Treaty  of  Teschen — caused  a  similar  note  to  be  laid  before  the 
Diet  at  Ratisbon,  which  Sweden  and  England  hastened  to  ratify, 
but  which  terribly  embarrassed  the  Diet  and  all  the  Germanic 
body.  Bonaparte  retorted  by  recalling  He'clouville.  He  replied 
officially  to  D'Oubril's  note  by  complaining  of  the  unfriendly  acts 
of  the  Russian  Government  towards  him,  of  the  ill-will  of  all  her 
agents,  of  the  embarrassing  situation  which  they  sought  to  create 
for  France  by  everywhere  patronizing  the  tmigrts,  contested  the 
right  of  Russia  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Germany,  and  declared 
that  in  the  affair  of  Ettenheim  the  Government  had  only  acted 
in  self-defence.  "  The  cry  raised  by  Russia  to-day  compels  us 
to  ask  if,  when  England  meditated  the  assassination  of  Paul  I., 
men  had  been  aware  that  the  authors  of  the  conspiracy  were 
lurking  within  a  league  from  the  frontiers,  they  would  not  have 
hastened  to  capture  them  ?  "  After  such  an  interchange  of  let- 
ters, the  charges  d'affaires  themselves  were  recalled,  and  all 
diplomatic  relations  broken. 

Napoleon  had  just  been  crowned  Emperor ;  he  had  taken  at 
Milan  the  crown  of  Italy,  united  Genoa  to  the  French  territory, 
and  modified  the  constitution  of  Holland.  From  the  camp  at 
Boulogne  he  threatened  England,  but  a  coalition  was  already 
formed  against  him.  Novossiltsof,  one  of  the  favorite  ministers 
of  Alexander,  had  left  for  London  with  special  instructions  drawn 
up  by  the  Emperor ;  we  find  in  them  all  kinds  of  Utopian 
schemes,  sometimes  generous,  often  incoherent,  which  he  still 
cherished  at  this  epoch.  He  proposes  to  wrest  from  the  French, 
who  gave  themselves  out  as  the  champions  of  liberty,  the  dan- 
gerous weapon  of  propaganda  ;  to  give  to  the  troubled  world  a 
good  example  by  restoring  the  King  of  Sardinia  ;  to  render  back 
to  Switzerland  and  Holland  the  liberty  to  choose  their  own 
rulers  ;  to  declare  to  the  French  nation,  which  would  gladly 
welcome  the  allies,  that  the  war  was  directed,  not  against  her, 
but  against  her  Government,  from  which  she  suffered  as  severely 
as  the  rest  of  Europe.  In  this  note  Alexander  renewed  the  ques- 
tion of  the  reconstitution  of  Europe  :  taking  count  of  natural 
frontiers,  of  crests  of  mountains,  of  groups  of  nationalities, 
he  added  a  scheme  for  the  partition  of  the  Ottoman  empire,  in 
the  case  of  its  existence  becoming  incompatible  with  the  present 
state  of  Europe.  The  British  Cabinet  received  these  communi- 
cations somewhat  coldly,  but  concluded  a  treaty  of  subsidies  in 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'47 


the  proportion  of  .£1,200,000  for  every  100,000  men  put  undei 
arms  by  Russia. 

Sweden  and  Naples  entered  the  coalition ;  Austria  had  al- 
ready attacked  Bavaria,  the  ally  of  Napoleon.  Alexander  also 
wished  to  assure  himself  of  Frederic  William  III.,  who  always 
vacillated  between  France  and  Russia,  and  who  had  undertaken 
engagements  towards  both.  Alexander  thought  to  gain  him  by 
announcing  that  his  army  was  about  to  cross  Silesia  and  Pome- 
rania,  but  the  King  of  Prussia  instantly  mobilized  his  troops,  to 
cause  his  neutrality  to  be  respected.  The  violation  of  the  terri- 
tories of  Anspach  and  Baireuth  by  the  French  soon  changed  the 
course  of  his  ideas.  Alexander  had  his  famous  interview  near 
Frederic  the  Great's  tomb,  with  the  King  and  Queen  of  Prussia. 
By  the  Treaty  of  Potsdam,  Prussia  undertook  to  furnish  80,000 
men  to  the  coalition  if  Napoleon  did  not  accept  its  ultimatum. 
The  ultimatum  stipulated  for  the  independence  of  Germany  and 
Italy,  and  the  indemnity  to  the  King  of  Sardinia.  Haugwitz 
was  ordered  to  carry  it  to  Napoleon. 

During  these  negotiations  the  Russian  army  was  put  in 
motion.  Behind  the  three  great  Austrian  armies  (those  of  the 
Archduke  Charles  in  Italy,  the  Archduke  John  in  the  Tyrol,  and 
Mack  with  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  against  Bavaria)  were 
ranged  the  Russian  troops.  Besides  the  20,000  men  (under 
Tolstoi)  who  were  to  join  the  Swedes  and  disembark  at  Stral- 
sund,  and  the  20,000  (under  Admiral  Seniavine)  who  were 
to  join  the  English  and  disembark  at  Naples,  there  were  the 
troops  who  guarded  the  frontiers  of  Turkey  and  Prussia,  and 
the  great  army  of  Germany.  The  latter  had  as  its  vanguard 
Koutouzof,  who,  with  45,000  men,  hastened  to  the  Inn  to  unite 
with  Mack.  In  Moravia  strong  forces  were  gathering  unde* 
the  orders  of  Buxhcewden  and  the  eyes  of  the  Emperor.  Aley 
ander  had  with  him  his  three  ministers — Czartoryski,  Novo* 
siltsof,  and  Strogonof.  All  the  Imperial  Guard  was  there — th« 
Horse  Guards,  the  Knights,  the  Preobrajenski,  the  Semenovskv 
the  Ismallovski,  the  Pavlovski,  and  the  flower  of  the  army. 

Koutouzof  had  already  reached  Braunau  on  the  Inn,  when 
he  heard  of  the  Capitulation  of  Ulm,  and  the  annihilation  of 
Mack's  army.  He  found  his  own  position  very  critical,  bcinp: 
at  a  great  distance  from  the  main  body.  He  had  under  him  ex- 
cellent troops,  and  three  admirable  lieutenants  :  Prince  Bagra- 
tion,  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  campaign  of  1799,  the  favorite 
pupil  of  old  Souvorof;  Doktourof,  the  intrepid  leader  of  the 
Grenadiers  ;  Miloradovitch,  surnamed  the  Murat  of  the  Russian 
army,  and  of  whom  it  was  said,  "  Whoever  wishes  to  follow 
Miloradovitch  must  have  a  spare  life."  To  escape  being  cu* 


43  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

off  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube  by  Murat's  cavalry,  by 
Oudinot  and  by  Lannes,  and  on  the  left  bank  by  the  corps  of 
Mortier,  Koutouzof  retreated,  giving  battle  to  Oudinot  at  Lam- 
bach  in  AmsteUcn.  He  then  crossed  the  Danube  at  Krems, 
fought  the  battle  of  Dirnstein  with  Mortier,  and  marched  to  the 
north  to  join  the  great  Russian  army.  The  surprise  of  the 
bridge  of  Vienna  by  Lannes  and  Murat  endangered  him  on  his 
left  flank  during  his  retreat  into  Moravia.  To  save  his  army, 
his  rear-guard  must  be  sacrificed.  The  dogged  Bagration  was 
charged  to  check  the  pursuit  of  the  French.  He  intrenched 
himself  at  Hollabrunn  and  Schongraben.  Murat  came  up  first, 
and  desired  to  gain  time  in  order  to  allow  Lannes  to  join  him  ; 
Bagration  wished  to  give  Koutouzof  time  to  escape.  He  re- 
ceived Murat's  envoy  favorably,  and  sent  to  propose  an  armistice 
in  the  name  of  the  Tzar.  Ten  hours  passed  while  they  awaited 
the  answer  of  Napoleon.  The  latter,  furious  at  Murat's  credulity, 
sent  orders  that  he  was  to  attack  immediately.  Bagration's 
10,000  men  fought  desperately  during  twelve  hours.  At  night 
Bagration  retreated,  having  lost  2000  men  and  all  his  guns. 
Koutouzof,  who  had  been  saved  by  his  devotion,  embraced  him 
and  exclaimed,  "  You  live,  and  that  is  enough  for  me." 

The  junction  of  Koutouzof,  Buxhceweden,  and  the  Austrians 
took  place  at  Olmiitz,  and  Napoleon  was  concentrating  his  forces 
at  Briinn.  He  had  collected  about  70,000  men,  the  P^mperors 
of  Russia  and  Austria  about  80,000.  The  greatest  exultation 
reigned  in  the  Russian  head-quarters.  The  young  Emperor  and 
his  young  officers,  proud  of  the  splendid  battles  fought  by  Kou- 
touzof and  Bagration,  spoke  with  profound  contempt  of  the  Aus- 
trians, who  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  so  easily  trapped  at 
Ulm  ;  they  had  only  hatred  and  disdain  for  "  Buonapartd  the 
Corsican,"  who  owed  his  victories  to  the  imbecility  of  his  adver- 
saries. A  small  success  of  the  vanguard  at  Wischau,  the  appar- 
ent timidity  of  Napoleon,  and  the  arrival  of  General  Savary  as 
envoy,  completely  turned  their  heads.  Alexander  sent  the 
young  Prince  Dolgorouki  to  the  French  head-quarters,  with  a 
note  addressed  to  the  "head  of  the  French  nation."  It  was 
necessary,  said  the  Prince  to  Napoleon,  that  PYance  should 
abandon  Italy,  if  she  wanted  immediate  peace.  If  she  were 
vanquished,  she  would  have  to  lose  not  only  the  Rhine,  but 
Piedmont,  Savoy,  and  Belgium,  which  would  be  formed  into 
barriers  against  her.  "  What !  Brussels  also  ?  "  exclaimed 
Napoleon,  and  coldly  dismissed  him.  "These  people  are 
mad,"  he  said.  "  What  would  they  do  with  France  if  I  were 
defeated ! " 

"  It  is  difficult,"  relates  a  Russian  eye-witness,  JirkieVitch, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


149 


the  lieutenant  of  artillery,  "  to  picture  the  enthusiasm  that  ani- 
mated us  all,  and  the  strange  and  ridiculous  infatuation  that 
accompanied  this  noble  sentiment.  It  seemed  to  us  that  we 
were  going  straight  to  Paris.  No  one  spoke  of  anything  but 
Dolgorouki,  a  young  man  of  twenty-five,  who  presented  himself 
to  Napoleon  with  a  letter  from  the  Emperor,  and  all  admired 
the  cleverness  of  the  superscription,  in  which  the  imperial  title 
of  Napoleon  had  been  so  skilfully  avoided.  It  was  even  added 
that  when  Dolgorouki  gave  the  letter  to  Napoleon,  as  the  latter 
remained  covered,  Dolgorouki  replaced  his  hat.  A  few  days 
passed,  and  our  ideas  became  greatly  changed."  The  scheme 
conceived  by  Weirother  the  Austrian,  and  approved  by  Alex- 
ander, was  that  Bagration  on  the  right  should  keep  Lannes  in 
check ;  the  two  Imperial  Guards  would  be  sufficient  to  watch 
the  plateau  of  Pratzen;  Doktourof,  Langeron,  Prjebichevski, 
even  Koutouzof  and  Miloradovitch,  were  to  descend  into  the 
valley  of  Goldbach  to  turn  Napoleon,  cut  him  off  from  the 
Danube,  and  force  him  back  on  the  mountains  of  Bohemia. 

The  evening  before  the  battle  it  was  still  believed  that  Napo- 
leon would  retreat.  Dolgorouki  recommended  his  soldiers  "  to 
watch  well  which  way  the  French  retired."  On  the  morning  of 
the  and  of  December,  1805,  the  valley  of  Goldbach  was  covered 
by  a  fog,  from  the  waves  of  which  emerged,  as  from  the  bosom 
of  a  milky  sea,  the  mountain  summits  gilded  by  the  early  rays 
of  the  sun  ;  on  the  west  lay  the  heights  of  Schlapanitz,  where 
Napoleon  had  taken  up  his  position ;  on  the  east,  the  hills  of 
Pratzen,  where  the  allied  emperors  were  encamped.  Napoleon 
distinctly  saw  the  Russian  columns  descend  the  plateau  of 
Pratzen,  and  lose  themselves  in  the  fog ;  and  from  the  side  of 
Lakes  Sokolnitz,  Satchan,  and  Menitz — that  is  to  say,  to  the 
right — he  heard  the  noise  of  their  artillery  carriages.  He  was 
therefore  certain  that,  as  he  had  foreseen,  the  allies  hoped  to 
turn  this  wing.  When  the  plateau  of  Pratzen,  the  centre  of  the 
Russian  army,  seemed  to  him  sufficiently  bare,  he  gave  the  sig- 
nal. In  twenty  minutes  the  corps  of  Soult  scaled  the  slopes  in 
heavy  masses,  and  attacked  Koutouzof  and  Miloradovitch,  whose 
divisions  alone  remained  on  the  plateau.  There  a  desperate 
battle  was  fought.  The  Emperor  of  Russia  found  himself  under 
fire,  his  men  were  dispersed,  and  he  himself  was  obliged  to 
retire  at  a  gallop,  attended  only  by  his  doctor,  a  single  company, 
and  two  Cossacks.  A  little  to  the  right  of  the  plateau,  the 
TzareVitch  Constantine  with  the  Guards  tried  to  oppose  the 
cavalry  of  Murat  and  the  French  Guards.  It  was  an  epic 
struggle,  where  fought  on  one  side  the  famous  Russian  regiments 
of  the  Foot  Guards,  the  Horse  Guards,  the  elite  of  the  Russian 


, 50  HISTOR  Y  OF  XUSSIA. 

nobility,  the  Uhlans,  the  chasseurs  of  the  Guard,  the  Cossack* 
and  the  Cuirassiers  of  Lichtenstein ;  on  the  other,  the  Mamo 
lukes  of  Rapp,  the  mounted  Grenadiers  of  Bessieres,  the  light 
cavalry  of  Kellermann,  the  Cuirassiers  of  Hautpoul  and  of  Nan- 
souty.  At  the  extreme  right  of  the  Russians,  Bagration  could 
easily  beat  a  retreat  before  Lannes ;  but  on  their  left,  the  columns 
of  Doktourof,  Langeron,  and  Prjebichevski,  entangled  in  the 
network  of  lakes,  engaged  since  morning  by  the  corps  of 
Davoust,  and  suddenly  attacked  in  their  rear  by  the  victorious 
troops  returning  from  the  plateau  of  Pratzen,  found  themselves 
in  a  frightful  situation  :  2000  men  perished  on  the  ice,  which 
Napoleon  had  broken  by  shots  from  the  guns.  Doktourof  pro- 
tected the  retreat.  "  It  was  impossible,"  says  Dumas,  "at  the 
end  of  a  lost  battle,  to  put  a  better  face  on  things." 

Such  was  "the  battle  of  the  three  emperors."  The  Russians 
fell  back  on  Austerlitz.  Without  reckoning  the  Austrian  loss, 
their  own  amounted  to  21,000  men,  133  cannon,  and  30  flags. 
They  were  furious  against  their  allies.  As  happened  after  the 
battle  of  Zurich,  they  accused  them  of  incapacity,  and  even  of 
treason.  It  was  the  Austrians  who  had  sketched  the  plan  of  the 
battle  :  now,  fighting  in  their  own  country,  on  a  soil  which  they 
had  studied  at  leisure  in  the  manoeuvres  on  parade,  they  had 
wholly  failed  in  strategy,  and  had  provided  neither  forage  nor 
ammunition.  Dolgorouki,  in  a  report  to  the  Emperor,  remarks  : 
"They  conducted  the  army  of  your  majesty  rather  to  deliver  it 
to  the  enemy  than  to  fight ;  and  what  puts  the  finishing  touch  to 
this  infamy  is,  that  our  dispositions  were  known  to  the  enemy,  a 
fact  of  which  we  have  certain  proof."  Rostopchine  echoes  him  : 
"  The  plan  had  been  treacherously  communicated  to  Bonaparte  ; 
forty-eight  hours  before  we  were  ready,  the  latter  began  the  at- 
tack at  break  of  day.  From  the  beginning,  half  of  the  Austrians 
took  up  arms ;  the  other  half  crossed  over  to  the  enemy,  and 
some  even  fired  on  us." 

On  the  4th  the  Emperor  Francis  had  an  interview  with  Na- 
poleon, and  obtained  for  the  Russian  army,  which  was  greatly 
imperilled  after  its  disaster,  and  was  closely  pressed  by  Davoust, 
leave  to  retire,  on  condition  that  it  should  return  to  Russia  by 
stages,  to  be  regulated  by  Napoleon.  On  the  26th  the  Treaty 
of  Presburg  was  signed,  which  deprived  Francis  II.  of  Venice, 
the  Tyrol,  and  Austrian  Swabia ;  he  was  likewise  to  give  up  the 
title  of  Emperor.  This  new  intervention  of  the  Russians  in 
Europe  ended  in  a  formidable  growth  of  French  power.  The 
King  of  Naples  was  dethroned  and  replaced  by  Joseph ;  the 
kingdom  of  Italy  was  increased  by  Venice  ;  Murat  became  Grand 
Duke  of  Berg ;  the  sovereigns  of  Bavaria,  Wurtemburg,  and 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  1 3 1 

Baden,  strengthened  by  the  spoils  of  Austria,  decorated  with  the 
titles  of  king  and  grand  duke,  formed,  with  the  new  Prince-Pri- 
mate Charles  of  Dalberg,  the  Grand  Duke  of  Hesse-Darmstadt, 
and  fifteen  other  sovereign  princes,  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine 
(Rheinbuna).  There  was  no  longer  a  Russian  clientele  in  Germany. 
Already  Napoleon's  family  was  contracting  matrimonial  alliances 
with  those  of  Bavaria,  Wurtemburg,  and  Baden.  The  German 
vassals  of  the  successor  of  Charles  the  Great,  of  the  new  Em- 
peror of  the  West,  could  add  to  his  army  from  100,000  to  150,000 
men.  Haugwitz,  who  had  been  ordered  to  inform  Napoleon  of 
the  ultimatum  stipulated  by  the  Treaty  of  Potsdam,  found  him- 
self at  Schonbrunn  in  the  presence  of  a  defiant  and  invincible 
conqueror ;  he  was  forced  to  sign  a  treaty  imposing  on  Prussia 
the  acceptance  of  Hanover,  in  exchange  for  Anspach  and  Bai- 
reuth,  and  irrevocably  embroiling  her  with  England.  The  coali- 
tion was  therefore  beaten  in  the  field  and  dissolved  in  the  cabinet. 
Russia,  isolated  by  the  ruin  of  Naples,  the  desertion  of  Austria, 
and  the  defection  of  Prussia,  found  herself  almost  alone  on  the 
Continent. 

We  all  know  how  from  this  same  Treaty  of  Schonbrunn, 
which  appeared  to  attach  Prussia  to  Napoleon,  sprang  a  new 
war.  The  coalition  was  renewed  between  Russia,  England, 
Sweden,  and  Prussia.  The  Prussians  showed  in  1806  the  same 
precipitation  as  the  Austrians  in  1805  ;  like  them,  they  did 
not  allow  time  for  the  Russians  to  join  them ;  and  when 
Alexander  found  himself  able  to  undertake  a  second  campaign, 
he  learnt  the  twofold  catastrophe  of  Jena  and  Auerstadt,  as  he 
had  formerly  learnt  that  of  Ulm.  For  the  second  time,  her  prin- 
cipal ally  being  beaten,  the  whole  weight  of  the  war  fell  upon 
Russia.  On  this  occasion  the  disaster  was  even  greater,  for  the 
Prussian  monarchy  had  ceased  to  exist.  The  French  occupied 
Berlin,  and  took  the  fortresses  on  the  Oder  and  the  Vistula. 
Nothing  remained  to  Frederic  William  in  the  north  but  three 
fortresses,  Dantzig,  Konigsberg,  and  Memel,  and  a  small  body 
of  14,000  men  under  Lestocq. 

These  events  had  followed  one  another  with  a  rapidity  so  start- 
ling that  Russia  found  herself  taken  unawares.  After  Austerlitz 
she  had  tried  to  negotiate  with  Napoleon,  and  sent  D'Oubril  to 
Paris;  but  D'Oubril,  who  had  consented  to  the  evacution  of  Cattaro 
and  the  Ionian  Isles,  and  the  recognition  of  the  principle  of  Otto- 
man integrity,  had  been  disavowed  at  St.  Petersburg,  like  Haug- 
witz at  Berlin.  Russia  found  herself  in  a  terrible  plight ;  and 
she  had  in  addition  the  prospect  of  a  double  war  against  Persia 
and  Turkey.  Czartoryski,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  addressed 
a  memorial  to  the  Emperor,  counselling  peace.  He  showed 


j  s  2  tf/S  TOK  Y  OF  R  USSIA . 

that  Russia  had  two  vulnerable  points, — Poland,  and  the  serfage 
of  the  peasants.  Invasion  must  be  avoided  at  all  costs,  for  the  in- 
vader would  not  fail  to  proclaim  the  re-establishment  of  Poland, 
and  the  freedom  of  the  serfs.  It  was  of  little  consequence  that 
Germany  was  subject  to  Napoleon,  if  the  latter  would  consent 
not  to  pass  the  Weser  or  even  the  Elbe.  It  was  necessary  to 
consent  to  the  evacuation  of  Cattaro  and  the  Ionian  Isles,  to 
guarantee  Sicily  only  to  the  King  of  Naples,  and  to  obtain  some 
sort  of  an  indemnity  for  the  King  of  Sardinia.  It  would  be 
.  better  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  Napoleon  for  regulating  the 
affairs  of  Turkey.  Only  one  thing  was  important,  the  safety  of 
the  empire. 

But  Alexander,  secure  of  Prussia,  at  this  moment  still  intact, 
inclined  to  war.  He  demanded  a  new  conscription  of  one  man 
in  every  hundred,  lowered  the  regulation  height  one  inch,  or- 
dered muskets  even  from  private  manufacturers  and  foreigners, 
created  new  regiments,  summoned  students  and  young  nobles, 
promising  them  the  grade  of  officer  after  six  months'  service, 
for  the  fight  at  Pratzen  had  made  terrible  havoc  with  the  Guards. 
A  plan  of  organizing  militia  was  talked  of,  which  would  have 
given  them  612,000  men.  The  priests  were  ordered  to  proclaim 
everywhere  that  war  was  made,  "  not  for  vain  glory,  but  for  the 
salvation  of  the  country."  England  was  asked  for  a  loan  of 
^"6,000,000.  Austria  was  once  more  appealed  to.  When  Prussia 
was  crushed,  the  14,000  Prussians  of  Lestocq  were  sent  for. 

Buxhcewden  had  28,000  men ;  another  army  of  60,000  men 
was  confided  to  Bennigsen,  a  learned  man  of  boundless  energy 
(one  of  the  conspirators  of  1801),  with  a  certain  genius  for 
tactics.  He  has,  however,  been  reproached  with  indecision  at 
the  critical  moment,  with  neglecting  discipline,  and  not  knowing 
how  to  repress  pillage  ;  the  marauders  did  not  respect  even  his 
head-quarters  or  his  own  house.  These  defects  were,  how- 
ever, partially  atoned  for  by  a  tenacity  destined  to  astonish 
Napoleon.  The  old  Field-marshal  Kamenski,  nominated  General- 
issimo, had  concentrated  all  his  forces  on  the  Vistula.  \Yhen 
his  infirmities  obliged  him  to  resign  his  command,  Bennigsen 
succeeded  him. 

Murat,  Davoust,  and  Lannes  had  entered  Warsaw,  then  a 
Prussian  possession,  and  had  established  themselves  on  the  Bug, 
forming  the  right  of  the  Grand  Army.  Soult  and  Augereau 
crossed  the  Vistula  at  Modlin,  and  formed  the  centre ;  on  the 
left  Ney  and  Bernadotte  occupied  Thorn  and  Elburg.  In  the  rear 
Mortier  acted  in  Pomerania  against  the  Swedes ;  Lefebvre 
besieged  Dantzig ;  and  Jerome  Bonaparte,  with  Vandamme, 
finished  the  conquest  of  Silesia.  Pressed  by  the  Grand  Armyf 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'53 


Bennigsen  was  obliged  to  evacuate  Poland,  after  some  severe 
fighting,  especially  at  Pultusk  (December  26),  and  retired  by 
way  of  Ostrolenka,  leaving  in  the  mud  of  Poland  eighty  field- 
pieces  and  nearly  10,000  men;  he  stopped  on  the  Alle  to  cover 
Konigsberg. 

Winter  had  arrived  :  the  Grand  Army  reposed  in  camp,  when 
Bennigsen  conceived  the  audacious  project  of  moving  hb  left 
wing,  passing  between  the  two  forces  of  Bernadotte  and  Ney, 
crushing  Bernadotte  and  forcing  Ney  into  the  sea  ;  of  relieving 
Dantzig  and  carrying  the  war  into  Brandenburg  on  the  rear 
of  Napoleon.  Bernadotte,  however,  resisted  so  stubbornly  at 
Mohrungen  and  Osterode,  that  Napoleon  had  time  to  come  up, 
and  Bennigsen  himself  was  on  the  point  of  having  his  left  wing 
turned,  and  seeing  his  lines  of  communication  cut.  An  inter- 
cepted despatch  warned  him  of  the  risk  he  ran  ;  it  was  necessary 
to  sound  a  retreat,  and  Bagration  was  again  called  on  to  protect 
it.  As  at  Schongraben,  he  covered  himself  with  glory,  and  al- 
lowed himself  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  salvation  of  the  army  ;  his 
"  incomparable  regiment  of  Kostroma  "  was  almost  annihilated, 
and  he  himself  severely  wounded.  During  this  time  Bennigsen 
marched  to  Eylau  and  took  up  a  position  to  the  east  of  the  town, 
on  a  line  of  heights  which  extended  from  Schloditten  to  Serpal- 
len  ;  behind  his  centre  lay  the  village  of  Sansgarten,  his  front 
was  covered  by  250  pieces  of  cannon. 

When  Napoleon  arrived  at  Eylau,  which  was  taken  on  the  7th 
of  February,  he  had  only  with  him  Soult,  Augereau,  Murat,  and 
the  Guard ;  Davoust,  who  was  to  form  his  right  wing,  and  Ney, 
who  was  to  form  his  left  wing,  and  who  had  been  delayed  by  his 
pursuit  of  Lestocq,  were  still  wanting,  Bennigsen,  on  his  side, 
awaited  Lestocq,  who  was  to  compose  his  right.  The  battle, 
however,  began  (February  8),  and  was  one  of  the  bloodiest  of  the 
century.  A  thick  snow  was  falling,  which  ever  and  anon  hid 
the  battle-field  from  sight ;  the  sky  was  of  a  livid  gray  ;  the  land- 
scape was  as  gloomy  as  the  action.  The  battle  began  by  a 
formidable  cannonade,  which  lasted  all  the  day.  The  French, 
sheltered  by  the  buildings  of  the  town  of  Eylau,  and  disposed 
in  thin  lines,  suffered  from  it  less  than  the  Russians,  who  had 
little  cover,  and  were  ranged  in  compact  masses.  The  corps  of 
Augereau  and  the  division  of  St.  Hilaire,  entrusted  with  the 
attack  on  the  Russian  left  wing,  went  astray,  blinded  by  a  snow- 
storm ;  when  the  sky  cleared,  the  two  divisions  of  Augereau  found 
themselves  opposite  the  Russian  centre,  forty  paces  from  a  bat- 
tery of  seventy-two  guns  ;  mown  down  at  the  cannon's  mouth, 
they  lost  in  a  few  minutes  5200  men.  Augereau  and  his  two 
generals  of  division  were  wounded.  At  the  same  moment  an 


'54 


tilSTOKY  OF  RUSSIA. 


enormous  mass  of  cavalry,  uhlans,  and  cuirassiers  dashed  them- 
selves against  St.  Hilaire's  infantry,  upsetting  everything  in  their 
passage.  The  infantry  of  the  Russian  centre  advanced  almost 
to  the  cemetery  of  Eylau,  where  stood  Napoleon.  It  was  then 
that  Murat,  in  his  turn,  assembled  eighty  squadrons,  and  led 
against  this  infantry  the  most  frightful  charge  mentioned  in  the 
annals  of  these  wars ;  solid  squares  were  broken  by  his  cuiras- 
siers. Then  the  two  armies  continued  to  watch  and  to  fire  at 
each  other.  The  battle  made  little  progress  till  Davoust  at  last 
joined  the  right  wing  of  the  French  army,  turned  the  Russian 
left  and  threw  it  back  upon  the  centre,  and  reached  Sansgarten 
on  their  rear.  The  Prussians  of  Lestocq  arrived  in  their  turn  at 
the  other  extremity  of  the  line,  but  they  were  followed  by  Ney, 
who  in  the  darkness  of  night,  at  half-past  nine  o'clock,  began  to 
break  Bennigsen's  right  wing.  The  Russians  now  ran  the  risk 
of  being  surrounded.  They  had  suffered  cruel  losses  :  one  of  their 
divisions,  that  of  Count  Ostermann  Tolstoi,  no  longer  counted 
more  than  2500  men.  "The  general  in  chief,"  says  M.  Bogda- 
novitch,  "trembled  as  he  read  the  reports  of  the  generals  of 
divisions."  He  had  not  30,000  men  under  arms ;  26,000  were 
killed  or  wounded ;  among  the  latter  were  Barclay  de  Tolly, 
Doktourof,  and  seven  other  generals.  He  profited  by  the  dark- 
ness to  beat  a  retreat,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  claim  as  a  victory 
what  in  reality  had  only  been  a  glorious  resistance. 

The  French  had  more  right  to  call  themselves  victorious,  as 
they  remained  masters  of  the  field  of  battle.  Unlike  the  Rus- 
sians, some  of  their  troops  were  still  intact,  such  as  Ney's  corps 
and  the  Foot  Guards,  but  they  had  likewise  suffered  terribly,  and 
a  gloomy  sadness  hung  over  the  survivors.  Such  efforts,  so  much 
blood  shed,  yet  such  small  results,  so  few  trophies !  This  melan- 
choly impression  is  reflected  even  in  Napoleon's  despatch,  where 
he  allows  himself  to  describe  the  funereal  aspect  of  the  battle- 
field, the  thousands  of  heaped-up  corpses,  the  gunners  killed  on 
their  pieces,  "  all  thrown  into  relief  by  a  background  of  snow." 
Ney  shrugged  his  shoulders  on  seeing  the  carnage.  "  What  a  mas- 
sncre,"  he  said,  "  and  without  result !  "  The  French  suffered 
hunger  and  cold  ;  the  immense  spaces,  the  broken  roads,  the 
marshy  plains,  the  stoical  resistance  of  the  Russians,  had  dis- 
concerted the  calculations  of  Napoleon.  Eylau  gave  him  a  fore- 
taste of  1812  ;  the  delay  of  Ney  a  foretaste  of  Waterloo.  Fortune 
took  care  to  warn  him  that  she  would  not  always  be  punctual  to 
her  rendezvous.  The  effect  produced  on  Europe  was  unlucky 
for  France  ;  in  Paris  the  Funds  fell.  Bennigsen  boldly  ordered 
the  Te  Deiim  to  be  sung. 

In  order  to  confirm  his   victory,  re-organize  his  army,  reas- 


&ISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  !  c  < 

/  -  .  -K  .       °° 

sure  France,  re-establish  the  opinion  of  Europe,  encourage  the 
Polish  insurrection,  and  to  curb  the  ill-will  of  Germany  and 
Austria,  Napoleon  remained  a  week  at  Eylau.  He  negotiated  : 
on  one  side  he  caused  Talleyrand  to  write  to  Zastrow,  the  Prus- 
sian foreign  minister,  to  propose  peace  and  his  alliance ;  he  sent 
Bertrand  to  Memel  to  offer  to  re-establish  the  King  of  Prussia, 
on  the  condition  of  no  foreign  intervention.  He  also  tried  to 
negotiate  with  Bennigsen ;  to  which  the  latter  made  answer, 
"that  his  master  had  charged  him  to  fight,  and  not  negotiate.'' 
After  some  hesitation,  Prussia  ended  by  joining  her  fortunes  to 
those  of  Russia.  By  the  convention  of  Bartenstein  (25111  April, 
1807),  the  two  sovereigns  came  to  terms  on  the  following 
points  : — 

i.  The  re-establishment  of  Prussia  within  the  limits  of  1805. 
2.  The  dissolution  of  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine.  3.  The 
restitution  to  Austria  of  the  Tyrol  and  Venice.  4.  The  accession 
of  England  to  the  coalition,  and  the  aggrandizement  of  Hanover. 
5.  The  co-operation  of  Sweden.  6.  The  restoration  of  the  house 
of  Orange,  and  indemnities  to  the  kings  of  Naples  and  Sardinia. 
This  document  is  important ;  it  nearly  reproduces  the  conditions 
offered  to  Napoleon  at  the  Congress  of  Prague,  in  1813. 

Russia  and  Prussia  proposed  then  to  make  a  more  pressing 
appeal  to  Austria,  Sweden,  and  England ;  but  the  Emperor 
Francis  was  naturally  undecided,  and  the  Archduke  Charles, 
alleging  the  state  of  the  finances  and  the  army,  strongly  advised 
him  against  any  new  intervention.  Sweden  was  too  weak  ;  and 
notwithstanding  his  fury  against  Napoleon,  Gustavus  III.  had 
just  been  forced  to  treat  with  Mortier.  The  English  minister 
showed  a  remarkable  inability  to  conceive  the  situation  ;  he  re- 
fused to  guarantee  the  new  Russian  loan  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
millions,  and  would  lend  himself  to  no  maritime  diversion. 

Napoleon  showed  the  greatest  diplomatic  activity.  The 
Sultan  Selim  III.  declared  war  against  Russia  ;  General  Se- 
bastiani,  the  envoy  at  Constantinople,  put  the  Bosphorus  in  a 
state  of  defence,  and  repulsed  the  English  fleet  ;  General  Gar- 
dane  left  for  Ispahan,  with  a  mission  to  cause  a  Persian  outbreak 
in  the  Caucasus.  Dantzig  had  capitulated,  and  Lefebvre's  40,000 
men  were  therefore  ready  for  service.  Massena  took  36,000  of 
them  into  Italy. 

In  the  spring,  Bennigsen,  who  had  been  reinforced  by  10,000 
regular  troops,  6000  Cossacks,  and  the  Imperial  Guard,  being 
now  at  the  head  of  100,000  men,  took  the  offensive  ;  Gortchakof 
commanding  the  right  and  Bagration  the  left.  He  tried,  as  in 
the  preceding  year,  to  seize  Ney's  division  ;  but  the  latter  fought, 
as  he  retired,  two  bloody  fights,  at  Gutstadt  and  Ankendorff. 


IS6  HJSTOR  Y  <  >F  RUSSIA. 

Bennigsen,  again  in  danger  of  being  surrounded,  retired  on 
Heilsberg.  He  defended  himself  bravely  (June  10)  ;  but  the 
French,  extending  their  line  on  his  right,  marched  on  Eylau,  so 
as  to  cut  him  off  from  Konigsberg.  The  Russian  generalissimo 
retreated  ;  but  being  pressed,  he  had  to  draw  up  at  Frie  dland, 
on  the  Alle. 

The  position  he  had  taken  up  was  most  dangerous.  All  his 
army  was  enclosed  in  an  angle  of  the  Alle,  with  the  steep  bed 
of  the  river  at  their  backs,  which  in  case  of  misfortune  left  them 
only  one  means  of  retreat,  over  the  three  bridges  of  Friedland. 
The  French  vanguard  arrived  at  two  in  the  morning,  filled  the 
woods  of  Posthenen  with  sharpshooters,  and  held  the  Russians 
in  check  till  the  arrival  of  the  Emperor.  The  Russian  army  was 
almost  hidden  in  the  ravine  of  Alle.  "  Where  are  the  Russians 
concealed  ?  "  asked  Napoleon  when  he  came  up.  When  he  had 
noted  their  situation,  he  exclaimed,  "  It  is  not  every  day  that 
one  surprises  the  enemy  in  such  a  fault."  He  put  Lannes  and 
Victor  in  reserve,  ordered  Mortier  to  oppose  Gortchakof  on  the 
left  and  to  remain  still,  as  the  movement  which  "  would  be  made 
by  the  right  would  pivot  on  the  left."  As  to  Ney,  he  was  to  cope 
on  the  right  with  Bagration,  who  was  shut  in  by  the  angle  of  the 
river ;  he  was  to  meet  them  "  with  his  head  down,  without 
taking  any  care  of  his  own  safety.  Ney  led  the  charge  with 
irresistible  fury;  the  Russians  were  riddled  by  his  artillery  at 
150  paces  :  he  successively  crushed  the  chasseurs  of  the  Russian 
Guard,  the  Ismailovski,  and  the  Horse  Guards,  burnt  Friedland 
by  shells,  and  cannonaded  the  bridges  which  were  the  only 
means  of  retreat.  In  a  quarter  of  an  hour  the  Ismailovski  lost 
400  men  out  of  520.  Bagration,  surrounded  by  the  grenadiers 
of  Moscow,  had  to  use  his  sword  :  his  lieutenants,  Raievski, 
Ermolof,  and  Baggowut,  wasted  their  strength  in  useless  efforts. 
The  Russian  left  wing  was  almost  thrown  into  the  river  ;  Bagra- 
tion, with  the  Semenovski  and  other  troops,  was  hardly  ably  to 
cover  the  defeat.  On  the  Russian  right,  Gortchakof,  who  had 
advanced  to  attack  the  immovable  Mortier,  had  only  time  to 
ford  the  Alle.  Count  Lambert  retired  with  29  guns  by  the  left 
bank;  the  rest  fled  by  the  right  bank,  closely  pursued  by  (he 
cavalry.  Meanwhile  Murat,  Davoust,  and  Soult,  who  had  taken 
no  part  in  the  battle,  arrived  before  Konigsberg.  Lestocq,  with 
25,000  men,  tried  to  defend  it,  but  on  learning  the  disaster  of 
Friedland  he  hastily  evacuated  it.  Only  one  fortress  now  re- 
mained to  Frederic  William — the  little  town  of  Memel.  The 
Russians  had  lost  at  Friedland  from  15,000  to  20,000  men,  be- 
sides 80  guns  (June  14  1807). 

Alexander,  who  was  established  at  Jurburg,  received  a  report 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  I ^ 

from  Bennigsen  merely  announcing  that  he  had  been  obliged  to 
evacuate  the  banks  of  the  Alle,  and  that  he  would  wait  in  a  more 
advantageous  position  till  Lobanof  Rostovski  brought  him  re- 
inforcements. Now,  Lobanof  had  only  a  few  thousand  Kal- 
mucks, and  it  was  to  these  badly-armed  savages  that  they  looked 
for  the  salvation  of  Russia.  More  explicit  accounts  reached 
Alexander  from  the  TzareVitch  Constantine  and  other  officers. 
The  situation  was  desperate  :  Alexander  had  no  longer  an  army. 
Only  one  man,  Barclay  de  Tolly,  proposed  to  continue  the  war  ; 
but  in  order  to  do  this  it  would  be  necessary  to  re-enter  Russia, 
to  penetrate  into  the  very  heart  of  the  empire,  to  burn  everything 
on  the  way,  and  only  present  a  desert  to  the  enemy.  Alexander 
hoped  to  get  off  more  cheaply.  He  wrote  a  severe  letter  to 
Bennigsen,  and  gave  him  powers  to  treat.  Prince  Lobanof  left 
for  the  head-quarters  of  Napoleon,  who  sent  in  his  turn  the  Captain 
de  Talleyrand-Perigord.  Alexander  had  at  that  time  a  common 
sentiment  with  Napoleon — hatred  of  the  English.  He  neither 
pardoned  them  for  their  refusal  to  guarantee  a  Russian  loan, 
nor  for  the  calculated  insufficiency  of  their  diversions,  nor  for 
their  mercantile  selfishness. 

On  June  25th  the  interview  on  the  raft  at  Tils4t  took  place. 
Alexander  and  Napoleon  conversed  for  nearly  two  hours.  The 
King  of  Prussia  was  not  admitted  to  a  conference  on  which 
depended  the  fate  of  his  dynasty.  On  horseback  on  the  shore, 
he  pushed  his  steed  into  the  stream,  or  sat  with  his  eyes  fixed  on 
the  fatal  raft.  Even  the  personal  graces  of  the  Queen  of  Prussia 
could  not  soften  the  severity  of  the  treaty.  It  was  from  "  re- 
spect for  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  desire  to  unite  the  two 
nations  in  a  bond  of  eternal  friendship,"  that  Napoleon  "  con- 
sented "  to  restore  to  Frederic  William  III.  Old  Prussia,  Pome- 
rania,  Brandenburg,  and  Silesia  (July  8,  1807). 

These  articles  consummated  the  fall  of  Prussia.  On  the 
west,  Napoleon  deprived  her  of  all  her  possessions  between  the 
Rhine  and  the  Elbe,  with  Magdeburg  ;  he  dethroned  her  allies 
of  Brunswick  and  Cassel,  and  on  the  east  confiscated  all  Poland. 
He  thus  broke  the  two  wings  of  the  Prussian  eagle.  On  its  right 
he  established  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia  ;  on  its  left  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Warsaw.  Dantzig  was  declared  a  free  town  ;  the 
district  of  Belostok,  part  of  the  dismembered  Black  Russia, 
again  became  Russian  soil.  The  States  of  the  princes  of 
Mecklenburg  and  Oldenburg  were  restored  to  them  ;  but  they 
had  to  suffer  the  occupation  of  their  territory  for  the  carrying 
out  of  the  continental  blockade,  and,  like  Saxony,  the  States  of 
Thuringia,  and  all  the  small  princes  of  Germany,  they  were 
forced  to  accede  to  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine.  The  King 


1 5g  H1STOR  Y  OF  K USSIA. 

of  Prussia  adhered  to  the  continental  blockade.  His  dominions 
were  not  to  be  given  back  to  him  till  after  the  complete  pay- 
ment of  a  war  indemnity. 

Besides  the  conditions  relative  to  Prussia,  the  Treaty  of 
Tilsit  established  :  (i)  Russian  mediation  between  France  and 
England,  French  mediation  between  England  and  Turkey ;  (2} 
Alexander's  recognition  (likewise  that  of  Frederic  William  III.) 
of  the  kings  Joseph  of  Naples,  Louis  of  Holland,  Jerome  of 
Westphalia,  as  well  as  the  recognition  of  the  Confederation 
of  the  Rhine,  and  of  all  States  founded  by  Napoleon ;  (3)  recip- 
rocal guarantees  lor  the  integrity  of  the  present  possessions  of 
Russia  and  France. 

A  second  treaty  with  secret  articles  stipulated  that  Cattaro 
should  be  restored  to  France  ;  that  the  Ionian  Isles  should  be 
hers  in  perpetuity  ;  that  if  Ferdinand  were  deprived  of  Sicily,  he 
should  have  no  other  equivalent  than  the  Balearic  Isles,  or  Cyprus 
and  Candia  ;  that  in  this  case  Joseph  should  be  acknowledged 
King  of  the  Two  Sicilies  ;  that  an  amnesty  should  be  accorded 
to  the  Montenegrins,  Herzegovinians,  and  other  peoples  who 
had  revolted  at  the  call  of  Russia  ;  that  if  Hanover  were  united 
to  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  Prussia  should  receive  in  exchange 
a  territory  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Elbe,  with  300,000  or  400,000 
inhabitants. 

A  third  treaty,  offensive  and  defensive,  provided  that  (i)  an 
ultimatum  should  be  addressed  to  England  on  the  ist  of  Novem- 
ber, and  that  if  it  had  no  results  war  should  be  declared  against 
her  by  Russia  on  the  ist  of  December  ;  (2)  that  Turkey  should 
be  allowed  a  delay  of  three  months  to  make  her  peace  with  the 
Tzar,  and  that  then  "  the  two  high  contracting  Powers  should 
come  to  an  understanding  to  withdraw  all  the  Ottoman  provinces 
in  Europe,  Constantinople  and  Roumelia  excepted,  from  the 
yoke  and  tyranny  of  the  Turks  "  ;  (3)  that  Sweden  should  be 
summoned  to  break  with  England,  and  if  she  refused  Denmark 
was  to  be  invited  to  take  part  in  the  war  against  her,  and  Finland 
was  to  be  annexed  to  Russia  ;  (4)  that  Austria  should  be  invited 
to  accede  to  the  s)stem  of  continental  blockade  at  the  same  time 
as  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Portugal. 

In  certain  respects  this  peace  deserved  the  name  of  the 
"  treacherous  peace  "  that  the  English  agent  Wilson  applied  to 
it  in  his  disappointment.  Turkey  was  abandoned,  delivered  over, 
by  her  old  friend  France,  though  it  is  true  that  Napoleon  al- 
leged in  excuse  the  revolution  which  had  just  overthrown  his 
friend  the  Sultan  Selim.  He  acted  in  the  same  way  with  regard 
to  Sweden,  another  old  ally.  He  made  all  these  sacrifices  to 
have  the  right  of  executing  his  Macchiavellian  designs  against 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  j^ 

Spain,  \vhose  troops  fought  loyally  under  his  banners.  Alexander 
did  not  make  fewer  sacrifices  of  honor  and  interest  to  the  new  com- 
bination. He  abruptly  consented  to  go  to  war  with  his  former 
ally,  England  ;  he  renounced  the  principle  of  the  integrity  of 
Prussia,  and  even  accepted  as  spoil  the  province  of  Belostok  ; 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  wrest  Finland  from  his  brother-in-law 
Gustavus  IV. ;  he  consented  to  see,  under  the  euphemism  of  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  a  nucleus  of  Poland  formed  on  the 
frontier.  This  strange  treaty  might,  however,  if  it  had  been 
loyally  executed,  have  contented  the  two  States.  The  part  of 
Russia  was  more  brilliant  on  the  whole  than  that  of  Napoleon  : 
while  France  was  to  exhaust  herself  in  a  barren  war  with  Spain, 
splendid  vistas  opened  in  the  East  and  on  the  Danube  to  the 
ambition  of  Alexander.  Thanks  to  the  French  alliance,  he  could 
follow  on  this  side  the  glorious  traces  of  Sviatoslaf,  of  Peter 
the  Great,  and  his  grandmother  Catherine.  During  some  days, 
at  least,  Alexander  seemed  enthusiastic  about  his  ally.  They 
exchanged  the  ribbons  of  their  orders ;  each  decorated  one  of  the 
bravest  soldiers  of  the  other  army;  the  grenadier  Lazaref 
received  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor ;  a  battalion  of  the 
Imperial  Guard  offered  a  fraternal  banquet  to  the  Preobra- 
ienski. 


INTERVIEW  AT   ERFURT  ;  WARS  WITH  ENGLAND,  SWEDEN,  AUSTRIA, 
TURKEY,  AND  PERSIA. 

The  change  in  the  foreign  policy  was  to  bring  with  it  a  change 
in  the  composition  of  the  Government.  Alexander  separated 
himself  from  the  friends  of  his  youth — Novossiltsof,  Kotchoubey, 
Strogonof,  and  Adam  Czartoryski — who  had  been  his  counsellors 
in  the  preceding  war.  Partisans  of  the  new  policy  were  called 
to  his  cabinet — Roumantsof  to  foreign  affairs,  and  Speranski  to 
the  Council  of  State.  The  latter  did  not  conceal  his  admiration 
for  the  genius  of  the  Emperor  of  the  French,  for  the  principles 
born  of  the  Revolution,  and  embodied  in  the  Civil  Code.  He 
seriously  desired  the  maintenance  of  the  French  alliance  ;  and 
M.  Pogodine,  one  of  the  Slavophils  of  our  time,  has  not  the 
courage  to  condemn  this  policy.  "  It  proves,  on  the  contrary," 
he  says,  "  his  perspicacity  as  a  statesman.  The  conditions  im- 
posed by  Napoleon  I.  would  certainly  have  been  more  easy  to 
bear  than  those  imposed  by  Napoleon  III.  at  Sebastopol.  The 
destinies  of  Europe  would  have  been  different.  Sebastopol 
would  still  have  shone  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  the 
Continent  would  not  lately  have  been  inundated  with  blood  by 


tgo  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

two  cruel  wars."  "  The  Eastern  question,"  says  another  Slavo- 
phil (M.  Oreste  Mtlller),  "  had  in  this  case  been  settled,  and 
English  preponderance  been  extinguished  in  the  Levant." 

We  must  recognize  the  fact  that  in  1807  Russian  opinion  was 
hostile  to  this  peace.  The  aristocracy  were  not  yet  reconciled 
with  the  state  of  things  to  which  the  Revolution  had  given  rise. 
The  Empress-mother  surrounded  herself  with  French  etnigr/s ; 
her  court  was  the  centre  of  the  English  and  Austrian  party.  It 
was  not  only  the  sudden  abandonment  of  the  ancient  alliances  that 
was  blamed,  but  it  was  also  the  partial  restoration  of  the  hered- 
itary enemy,  Poland  ;  yet  the  question  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Warsaw  seemed  secondary — "  it  was  considered  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  subjection  to  Napoleon."  The  dismissal  of  Louis 
XVI 1 1.,  who  was  forced  to  leave  Mittau  for  England,  and  the 
attempt  at  Bayonne  against  the  Bourbons  of  Spain,  exasperated 
passions  still  further. 

Savary,  Napoleon's  ambassador,  had  to  bear  this  emotional 
reaction.  The  selection  of  him  was  by  no  means  happy,  as 
Savary  was  supposed  to  have  been  more  or  less  concerned  in 
the  affair  of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  "  Opinion  ran  so  high  against 
the  French,"  says  Savary,  "  that  no  furnished  hotel  would  take 
me  as  a  lodger.  .  .  .  The  general  reception  of  myself  and  my 
companions  was  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  kindness  of  the 
Emperor  Alexander.  During  the  first  six  weeks  of  my  stay  here 
I  could  not  get  a  single  door  opened  to  me.  The  Emperor  of 
Russia  saw  all  this,  and  wished  it  had  been  otherwise.  At  the 
moment  of  my  arrival  at  St.  Petersburg,  prayers  were  publicly 
recited  against  us,  and  particularly  against  the  Emperor  Napo- 
leon." The  shops  and  libraries  were  full  of  pamphlets  against 
France,  against  Napoleon,  and  against  the  French  ambassador, 
"  Nothing,"  continues  Savary,  "  was  equal  to  the  irreverence  with 
which  the  youthful  population  of  Russia  dared  to  express  itself 
about  its  sovereign.  For  some  time  I  was  much  disturbed  at  the 
consequences  this  licence  might  have  in  a  country  where  revolu- 
tions in  the  palace  were  only  too  common."  Napoleon's  envoy 
thought  it  even  his  duty  to  place  in  Alexander's  hands  a  cor- 
respondence lately  seized,  in  which  the  writer  sent  letters  of  this 
kind  from  Prussia  to  his  friends  in  the  interior  :  "  Have  you  no 
longer  any  Pahlens,  any  Zoubofs,  and  Bennigsens  ? " 

Stedingk,  the  Swedish  ambassador,  also  wrote  to  Gustavus 
IV.  :  "  The  discontent  against  the  Emperor  Alexander  increases 
daily,  and  things  are  said  at  this  moment  which  are  frightful  to 
hear.  The  partisans  of  the  Emperor  are  in  despair,  but  there  is 
no  one  among  them  who  dares  to  remedy  the  evil,  or  to  reveal 
to  him  the  full  horror  of  the  situation.  A  change  of  government 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA.  1 6 1 

Js  spoken  of,  not  only  in  private  conversations,  but  in  public 
meetings."  Some  echo  of  the  public  discontent  did,  how- 
ever, reach  the  ears  of  Alexander.  Admiral  Mordvinof  wrote 
to  him  :  "  Though  the  days  of  glory  may  be  passed,  those 
in  which  Russia  laid  down  the  law ;  though  she  may  have 
lost  the  bright  hopes  which  she  cherished  in  our  youth,  the 
sons  of  Russia  are  ready  to  shed  the  last  drop  of  their  blood 
rather  than  bow  ignoininiously  before  the  sword  of  him  whose 
only  advantage  over  them  is  that  he  has  known  how  to  use 
weakness,  treachery,  and  incapacity."  The  historian  Karamsin 
was  already  preparing  for  the  Emperor  his  work  on  'Ancient 
and  Modern  Russia.' 

In  general,  the  literature  of  this  epoch  has  a  very  pronounced 
anti-French  character.  The  national  tragedies  of  Krioukovski 
and  Ozerof,  the  patriotic  odes  of  Joukovski,  even  the  comedies 
and  fables  of  "grandfather"  Krylof;  the  productions  of  the 
press,  represented  by  Glinka,  Gretch,  Batiouchkof,  and  Schichkof 
— all  breathe  hate  against  Napoleon  ;  aversion  for  that  new 
France  which  the  Russians,  accustomed  to  admire  and  imitate 
the  old  France  of  Versailles,  looked  on  with  the  eyes  of  the 
/»//£r/y  themselves.  The  most  impetuous  of  the  Gallophobes 
of  this  epoch  was  the  Count  Rostopchine.  About  1807  he 
published  his  new  satire  '  Oh,  the  French  ! '  and  a  comedy  en- 
titled the  '  News,'  or  the  '  Living-dead,'  in  which  he  attacked 
the  alarmists,  and  the  exaggerated  partisans  of  Western  cus- 
toms. In  his  '  Spoken  Thoughts  on  the  Red  Staircase,'  in  1807, 
he  exclaims,  "  How  long  shall  we  go  on  imitating  monkeys  ?  .  .  . 
As  soon  as  a  Frenchman  arrives  who  has  escaped  the  gallows, 
we  fly  to  welcome  him,  and  he  represents  himself  as  a  prince  or 
a  gentleman  who  has  lost  his  fortune  for  faith  or  loyalty,  when 
in  reality  he  is  only  a  lackey,  a  shopman,  or  a  tax  collector,  or  a 
suspended  priest  who  has  fled  in  fear  from  his  country.  What 
do  they  teach  children  to-day  ?  To  pronounce  French  properly, 
to  turn  their  toes  out,  and  to  frizz  their  hair.  He  alone  is  a  wit 
whom  a  Frenchman  takes  for  his  countryman.  How  can  men 
love  their  country  when  they  do  not  even  know  their  native 
tongue  ?  Is  it  not  a  shame  ?  In  every  country  French  is  taught 
to  children,  but  only  that  they  may  understand  it,  and  not  in 
order  that  it  may  replace  their  native  language."  He  continues 
with  violent  invectives  against  French  ambition,  and  invokes 
the  brave  soldiers  of  Eylau.  "  Glory  to  thee,  victorious  Russian 
army,  bearing  the  sword  in  the  name  of  Christ !  Glory  to  our 
Emperor  and  to  our  mother  Russia  !  Salutation  to  you,  Russian 
heroes,  TolstoT,  Kojine,  Galitsyne,  Doktourof,  Volkonski,  Dol- 
gorouki!  Eternal  peace  to  you  in  heaven,  young  and  gallant 


!  62  fflSTOK  Y  OF  R  USS1A. 

Galitsyne  !  Triumph,  Russian  empire  !  the  enemy  of  the  human 
race  recoils  before  thee  ;  he  cannot  struggle  against  thy  invinci- 
ble strength.  He  came  as  a  savage  lion,  thinking  to  devour 
everything  ;  he  flies  like  a  hungry  wolf,  grinding  his  teeth." 

By  a  contradiction,  explained  by  his  education,  it  is  chiefly 
in  his  correspondence,  and  his  works  written  in  French,  that 
Rostopchine  attacks  the  nation  so  bitterly  ;  it  is  in  French  that 
the  Russian  nobles,  pupils  of  the  French  of  the  i8th  century, 
curse  France.  Miss  Wilmot,  with  an  obvious  intention  of  dis- 
paraging both  nations,  scoffs,  about  1805,  "  at  the  absurdity  of 
Bruin  the  bear,  when  he  gambols  with  a  monkey  on  his  shoul- 
ders." "In  the  midst  of  this  adoption  of  French  "manners, 
habits,  and  language,  there  is  something  stupidly  puerile  in  dec- 
lamation against  Bonaparte  and  the  French,  when  the  Russians 
cannot  dine  without  a  French  cook  to  make  ready  their  repast ; 
when  they  cannot  bring  up  their  children  without  the  help  of  ad- 
venturers come  from  Paris,  under  the  names  of  tutors  and  gover- 
nors ;  in  a  word,  when  all  their  notions  of  fashion,  luxury,  and 
elegance  are  borrowed  from  France.  What  arrant  folly  !  " 

Such  was  Russian  society  after  Tilsit.  From  these  evil  dis- 
positions towards  France,  the  indignation  raised  by  the  abomi- 
nable attempt  of  England  against  Denmark,  and  the  bombard- 
ment of  Copenhagen  in  a  time  of  peace  (September  1807),  only 
made  a  diversion  of  short  duration.  At  one  moment  we  might 
almost  believe  that  the  Peace  of  Tilsit  had  only  three  partisans 
in  Russia — the  Emperor,  the  Chancellor  Roumantsof,  and 
Speranski.  Yet  Alexander  began  to  learn  the  worth  of  more 
than  one  illusion  :  all  the  acts  of  his  ally  wounded  his  convic- 
tions. After  the  exile  of  the  kings  of  Sardinia  and  of  Naples, 
he  had  to  see  the  expulsion  of  the  house  of  Braganza,  the  de- 
thronement of  the  Bourbons  of  Spain,  the  forced  flight  of  the 
Pope  of  Rome ;  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  increased  be- 
yond all  measure,  now  extended  to  the  other  side  of  the  Elbe, 
and  had  set  foot  on  the  Baltic  by  way  of  Liibeck  and  Mecklen- 
burg ;  on  the  Vistula,  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  received 
a  formidable  organization.  Tolstoi,  who  certainly  had  done 
nothing  to  make  himself  liked  at  Paris,  who  quarrelled  with  Ney, 
and  entered  into  relations  with  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain,  was 
not  able  in  any  way  to  soften  the  lot  of  Frederic  William  III., 
or  to  obtain  the  promised  evacuation  of  the  Prussian  States. 
Scanty  was  the  compensation  for  all  these  sacrifices.  The  first 
campaign  against  Sweden  had  been  far  from  brilliant.  The 
naval  war  with  England  had  ruined  Russian  commerce.  At  Con- 
stantinople, Guilleminot,  Napoleon's  ambassador,  had  managed 
to  conclude  an  armistice  between  Turkey  and  Russia,  in  virtue 


H1STOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  163 

of  which  the  latter  had  to  evacuate  the  Danubian  principalities. 
There  was  no  longer  any  question  of  the  partition  of  the  Otto- 
man empire, that  brilliant  prospect  which  had  led  astray  the  lively 
imagination  of  Alexander. 

The  famous  Franco-Russian  alliance  was  shaken.  Napoleon, 
who  had  on  his  hands  a  terrible  war  in  Spain,  and  who  descried 
on  the  horizon  another  war  with  Austria,  felt  that  he  must  give 
his  ally  some  satisfaction.  Then  the  interview  at  Erfurt  took 
place.  Alexander  came  accompanied  by  his  brother  Constan- 
tine,  the  ministers  Tolstoi,  Roumantsof,  Speranski,  and  the 
French  ambassador  Caulaincourt ;  Napoleon  brought  with  him 
Berthier,  the  diplomatists  Talleyrand,  Champagny,  Maret,  and 
the  Russian  ambassador  Tolstoi.  There  was  also  another  court, 
formed  by  his  German  vassal ;  the  Prince-Primate  of  the 
Rhcinbund;  the  Kings  of  Saxony,  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and 
Westphalia ;  the  Grand  Dukes  of  Baden,  Darmstadt,  Olden 
burg,  and  Mecklenburg;  and  the  sovereigns  of  Thuringia. 
Prussia  was  represented  by  Prince  William,  who  came  to  plead 
for  the  interests  of  his  brother ;  Austria  by  Baron  Vincent, 
charged  to  salute  the  two  emperors  in  the  name  of  his  master. 
The  irritable  self-respect  of  the  Russians  did  not  fail  to  take 
notice  of  the  superior  influence  of  the  French.  "  I  seem  to  see 
my  country  degraded  in  the  person  of  her  sovereign,"  says 
Nicholas  Tourguenief  with  passionate  exaggeration.  "  There 
was  no  need  to  know  what  was  passing  in  European  cabinets  ; 
you  could  tell  at  a  glance  which  of  the  two  emperors  was  mas- 
ter at  Erftirt  and  in  Europe."  It  is  true  that  Napoleon  wished 
to  receive  the  Tzar  in  a  town  that  was  his  own  property,  at 
Erftirt ;  it  is  true  that  it  was  around  him  that  this  assemblage  of 
sovereigns  specially  pressed,  but  these  appearances  really  an- 
swered to  a  superiority  of  power.  Napoleon  neglected  nothing 
to  make  the  young  Emperor  forget  all  that  was  unequal  in  their 
respective  situations,  but  he  could  not  undo  the  fact  that  Alex- 
ander had  not  been  the  victor  at  Friedland. 

In  turn  with  fetes,  banquets,  balls,  theatrical  representations, 
and  hunting  parties,  serious  interests  were  discussed  between 
the  two  sovereigns  and  their  ministers.  On  the  i2th  of  October. 
1808,  Champagny  and  Roumantsof  signed  the  following  conven- 
tion, which  was  to  remain  secret : — i.  The  Emperors  of  France 
and  Russia  renewed  their  alliance  with  all  solemnity,  and  en- 
gaged  to  make  peace  or  war  in  common.  2.  They  were  to  com- 
municate to  each  other  all  proposals  that  might  be  made  to 
them.  3.  They  were  to  propose  an  immediate  peace  to  Eng- 
land, in  a  manner  as  public  and  as  conspicuous  as  possible,  so 
as  to  render  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  British  Cabinet  more  dif- 


!  64  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

ficult  (this  proposition  took  the  form  of  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
British  Government,  and  signed  by  the  two  emperors).  4.  They 
were  to  negotiate  on  the  base  of  uti  possidetis :  France  was  only 
to  consent  to  a  peace  which  secured  Finland,  Wallachia,  and 
Moldavia  to  Russia ;  Russia  to  a  peace  which  confirmed  France 
in  all  her  actual  possessions,  and  to  Joseph  Bonaparte  the  crown 
of  Spain  and  the  Indies.  5.  Russia  might  act  immediately  to 
obtain  the  Danubian  provinces  from  Turkey,  whether  by  peace 
or  war ;  but  the  French  and  Russian  plenipotentiaries  had  come 
to  an  agreement  about  the  language  to  be  held,  "  so  as  not  to 
compromise  the  existing  friendship  between  France  and  the 
Porte."  6.  If  Russia,  by  the  acquisition  of  the  Danubian  prov- 
inces, or  France  about  its  Italian  or  Spanish  affairs,  found  them- 
selves exposed  to  a  rupture  writh  Austria,  the  two  allies  were  to 
make  war  in  common.  Talleyrand  touched  on  the  question  of  a 
Russian  marriage  for  Napoleon.  The  recall  of  Tolstoi  was  de- 
manded, and  he  was  replaced  by  Prince  Kourakine.  Prussia 
obtained  a  remission  of  twenty  millions  of  her  war  indemnity, 
and  the  evacuation  of  her  territory,  on  condition  that  she  should 
reduce  her  army  to  42,000  men.  To  recapitulate  :  Alexander 
guaranteed  to  Napoleon  the  tranquillity  of  the  Continent  during 
his  operations  in  Spain,  while  Napoleon  ratified  the  seizure  of 
Finland  and  the  Danubian  provinces.  Napoleon  accompanied 
his  guest  some  way  on  the  road  from  Erfurt  to  Weimer ;  they 
then  embraced  and  separated.  This  was  the  last  time  they  saw 
each  other  (September-October  1808). 

The  alliance  concluded  at  Tilsit  and  confirmed  at  Erftlrt  was 
to  involve  Russia  in  three  new  wars — against  England,  against 
Sweden,  against  Austria.  Besides  these,  the  wars  still  continued 
which  had  begun  with  Turkey  in  1806,  and  against  Persia  and 
the  populations  of  the  Caucasus,  since  Alexander's  accession. 

The  war  with  England  only  presents  one  fact  worth  record- 
ing. The  Russian  fleet  of  the  Archipelago,  commanded  by  Ad- 
miral Seniavine,  was  forced,  when  it  regained  the  ocean,  to  seek 
refuge  in  the  Tagus,  where,  according  to  the  Convention  of 
Cintra,  signed  by  Junot,  it  was  obliged  to  surrender  to  Admiral 
Cotton.  It  was  convoyed  to  England ;  the  officers  and  crews 
were  treated  there  with  diplomatic  courtesy,  and  instantly  sent 
back  to  Russia  at  England's  expense.  Five  years  later  Russia 
recovered  her  ships.  The  embargo  over  English  ships  was  kept 
up,  and  Russia  in  a  certain  measure  took  part  in  the  system  of 
continental  blockade. 

The  King  of  Sweden,  Gustavus  IV.,  was  not  quite  in  his 
right  mind  ;  his  fury  against  Napoleon  equalled  his  powerless- 
ness  to  harm  him ;  a  great  reader  of  the  Bible,  he  saw  in  the 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  1 65 

Emperor  of  the  French  the  beast  of  the  Apocalypse.  He  caused 
a  contemptible  pamphlet  called  the  '  Nights  of  St.  Cloud  '  to  be 
translated  into  Swedish.  After  having  concluded  an  armistice 
with  Mortier  in  1806,  he  had  broken  it  at  the  moment  of 
the  negotiation  of  Tilsit,  so  that  his  last  Pomeranian  fort- 
resses were  taken  from  him.  He  neither  knew  how  to  live  in 
peace  with  England,  whom  he  defied,  nor  with  Prussia,  whose 
misfortunes  he  insulted,  nor  with  his  brother-in-law  Alexander. 
He  alone  of  the  European  sovereigns  applauded  the  bombard- 
ment of  Copenhagen,  and  he  regaled  Admirals  Gambier  and 
Jackson  at  Helsingfors.  When  Alexander  had  to  make  him  the 
first  overtures,  relative  to  the  peace  with  France  and  the  adop- 
tion of  the  continental  system,  Gustavus  IV.  impertinently  re- 
turned the  ribbon  o'f  St.  Vladimir.  On  the  i8th  of  February, 
1808,  he  signed  a  treaty  with  England.  Then  60,000  Russians, 
under  Buxhcewden,  crossed  the  Kiumen,  which  had  been,  since 
the  time  of  Elizabeth,  the  boundary  between  the  two  States.  A 
proclamation  was  addressed  to  the  Finns,  advising  them  not  to 
resist  "  their  friends,  their  protectors,"  and  to  appoint  deputies 
tor  the  diet  which  Alexander  intended  to  assemble.  The  Swed- 
ish troops  were  dispersed,  and  retreated  to  the  north ;  Finland 
was  almost  conquered  in  March  1808  :  Helsingfors,  the  impreg- 
nable Sveaborg,  Abo,  and  the  Isles  of  Aland  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Russians.  Fortune  seemed  for  one  moment  to  hesitate 
when  Klingspor  gained  two  important  successes  over  the  Rus- 
sians, but  he  was  immediately  after  obliged  to  retire  into  the 
deserts  of  Bothnia.  Another  proclamation  was  issued  to  the 
Finnish  soldiers  serving  in  the  Swedish  army,  inviting  them  to 
desert  with  arms  and  baggage,  promising  them  two  roubles  for 
every  gun,  one  rouble  for  a  sabre,  and  six  for  a  horse.  During 
the  winter  the  Russians  fortified  themselves  in  the  Isles  of 
Aland ;  and  three  corps,  commanded  by  Kulner,  Bagration,  and 
Barclay  de  Tolly,  crossed  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  on  the  ice,  and 
carried  the  war  into  the  Swedish  country.  A  military  revolution 
broke  out  in  Stockholm  (i3th  of  March,  1809).  No  blood  was 
shed,  but  Gustavus  IV.  was  arrested,  and  confined  at  Drottir.g- 
holm  with  his  family.  Later  he  was  set  at  liberty,  and  travelled 
in  Europe  under  the  name  of  Colonel  Gustaffson.  His  uncle, 
the  Duke  of  Sudermania,  assumed  the  crown  under  the  title  of 
Charles  XIII.  He  signed  the  peace  of  Fredericksham,  which 
ceded  Finland  as  far  as  the  Tornea.  In  1810,  when  Christian 
Augustus  of  Holstein-Augustenburg,  the  prince  royal  elected  by 
the  States,  died,  Bernadotte,  marshal  of  France,  was  chosen  to 
fill  his  place.  Napoleon  had  little  sympathy  with  this  proceed- 
ing ;  he  would  have  preferred  a  Danish  prince,  whose  accession 


1 66  I/IS 7V K  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

would  have  brought  about  a  Scandinavian  union.  The  success 
of  the  Swedish  war  caused  scant  enthusiasm  in  St.  Petersburgh. 
"  Poor  Sweden  !  poor  Swedes !  "  said  the  people.  Finland,  cov- 
eted for  so  long,  had  lost  its  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  Russians  ; 
it  seemed  too  much  a  gift  of  Napoleon.  According  to  his  prom- 
ise, Alexander  had  convoked  the  Diet  of  Finland,  and  guaran- 
teed to  the  "  grand  duchy  "  its  privileges,  its  university,  and  its 
constitution. 

In  April,  1809,  began  Napoleon's  war  with  Austria  (fifth 
coalition).  Alexander,  whom  the  Treaty  of  Erfurt  obliged  to 
furnish  a  contingent,  had  done  all  he  could  to  prevent  this  war. 
He  had  warned  the  Cabinet  of  Vienna  that  he  had  made  an  al- 
liance with  Napoleon,  and  offered,  on  the  part  of  himself  and 
his  ally,  to  guarantee  the  integrity  of  the  Austrian  possessions 
Forced  to  put  a  contingent  under  arms,  he  gave  the  command 
of  30,000  men  to  Prince  Sergius  Galitsyne,  to  act  in  concert 
with  Poniatovski  and  Dombrovski,  generals  of  the  Grand  Duchy 
of  Warsaw,  against  the  Archduke  Ferdinand.  This  war  of  the 
Russians  against  the  Austrians  was  a  comedy  ;  they  detested 
their  Polish  allies,  and  feared  their  success  in  Gallicia  above 
everything.  In  the  whole  campaign  there  were  only  two  en- 
counters between  the  Russians  and  Austrians  :  at  the  battle  of 
Oulanovka  there  was  only  one  killed  and  two  wounded,  and  the 
Austrian  major  sent  excuses  to  Galitsyne,  saying  he  thought  he 
was  attacking  the  Poles ;  at  the  battle  of  Podgourje*,  under 
Cracow,  there  were  two  killed  and  two  wounded. 

The  conflicts  between  the  Russians  and  Poles  were  much 
more  frequent.  Galitsyne  allowed  Sandomir  to  be  taken  by  the 
Austrians  under  his  very  eyes,  and  Poniatovski  in  vain  de- 
nounced to  Alexander  this  "  traitorous  conduct."  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Russians  entered  Lemberg  when  the  Poles  had  al- 
ready taken  it,  and  attempted  to  prevent  the  people  swearing 
allegiance  to  Napoleon.  At  Cracow,  the  Russian  and  Polish 
armies  actually  came  to  blows.  The  Poles  were  uneasy  at  see- 
ing the  Muscovites  in  Gallicia,  and  the  Russians  attributed  all 
kinds  of  dangerous  projects  to  the  Poles.  "  Our  allies  disturb 
me  more  than  the  Austrians,"  writes  Galitsyne  to  his  master. 
He  complains  that  Poniatovski,  after  having  taken  the  title  of 
commandant  of  the  "  Warsaw  troops,"  or  of  "  the  ninth  corps  of 
the  Grand  Army,"  appropriated  that  of  "  commandant  of  the 
Polish  army."  "  There  is  no  Polish  army,"  he  said  ;  "  there  is 
only  an  army  of  Warsaw."  "  The  Emperor  of  the  French  is  at 
liberty  to  give  what  names  he  chooses  to  the  corps  which  are 
under  his  orders,"  replied  Poniatovski. 

Galitsyne   announced   that  Poniatovski  had  reinforced   his 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  167 

army  with  Polish  soldiers,  deserters  from  Austrian  regiments, 
and  Lithuanian  nobles,  subjects  of  Russia.  In  the  theatres  of 
the  Gallician  towns,  the  King  of  Poland  was  represented  leaving 
his  tomb,  the  Dwina  and  the  Dnieper  forming  the  frontiers  of 
new  Poland.  Galitsyne  counselled  Alexander  to  take  from  the 
French  this  weapon  of  Polish  propaganda,  by  proclaiming  him- 
self restorer  of  Poland.  The  Tzar  refused,  alleging  the  incon- 
stancy of  the  Poles,  and  the  necessity  of  preserving  the  Lithua- 
nian provinces  from  all  contagion. 

At  the  Congress  of  Schonbrunn,  which  preceded  the  Treaty 
of  Vienna,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  declined  to  have  himself  rep- 
resented. He  did  not  intend  to  sanction  the  results,  but  by  so 
doing  he  left  Austria  unsupported.  She  was  obliged  to  cede 
her  Illyrian  provinces  and  all  Gallicia.  Western  Gallicia 
(1,500,000  souls)  Napoleon  added  to  the  Grand  Duchy  of  War- 
saw, while  he  gave  Eastern  Gallicia  and  a  population  of  400,000 
to  Russia  (October  14,  1809).  This  gift  was  not,  however,  suf- 
ficient to  compensate  Alexander  for  the  danger  of  an  aggran- 
dized Poland. 

The  war  with  Turkey  had  already  gone  on  for  many  years. 
In  1804  Russia  had  proposed  to  the  Divan  an  alliance  against 
France,  but  she  demanded  at  the  same  time  that  the  subjects  of 
the  Sultan  professing  the  orthodox  religion  should  be  placed 
under  the  immediate  protection  of  her  diplomatic  agents. 
Selim  III.  repelled  a  proposal  that  threatened  the  very  integrity 
of  his  empire.  He  tried  to  make  advances  to  France,  applauded 
the  victories  of  Napoleon,  and  after  Austerlitz  acknowledged  his 
imperial  title  and  sent  an  envoy  to  Paris  with  presents,  in  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  Russian  ambassador  Italinski.  After  Jena 
an  Ottoman  ambassador  left  for  Berlin,  to  strengthen  the  al- 
liance with  \.\\o.  padishah  of  the  French.  Ypsilanti  and  Morousi, 
hospodars  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  who  were  devoted  to 
Russia,  were  stripped  of  their  dominions.  This  was  an  infrac- 
tion of  the  Peace  of  lassy  with  Catherine  II. 

About  this  time  began  the  troubles  of  Servia.  The  Janissa- 
ries of  this  country  formed  a  turbulent  militia,  like  that  of  Egypt 
and  Algiers,  oppressed  the  Christian  populations,  entered  into  a 
contest  with  the  Pasha  of  Belgrade,  the  spahis,  or  noble  cavalry, 
and  other  Mussulmans,  and  even  trod  under  foot  the  authority 
of  the  Sultan.  They  would  only  obey  their  chiefs,  four  in  num- 
ber, who  were  called  dakhie  or  deys.  Against  these  insubordi- 
nate subjects  Selim  III.  authorized  the  resistance  of  the  rayahs. 

Many  of  the  Christians  had  learned  to  bear  arms  in  the  last 
war  of  Catherine .  II.  and  Joseph  II.  against  the  Turks,  and 
many  had  served  with  the  Russian  or  Austrian  troops.  Pushed 


X68  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

to  extremity  by  the  murder  or  torture  of  a  certain  number  of 
their  Inezes,  they  rose  against  the  Janissaries  and  the  deys  ;  put 
Tchernyi  George,  or  George  the  Black,  a  rich  pork  merchant,  at 
their  head ;  and  expelled  the  Mussulmans  from  Belgrade  and 
the  rest  of  the  fortresses,  affecting  all  the  time  to  be  only  exe- 
cuting the  orders  of  the  Sultan.  When  Selim  wished  to  recall 
them  to  obedience  and  demanded  the  restitution  of  the  strong 
places,  they  broke  with  the  Sultan  himself,  and  declared  them- 
selves independent.  They  would  have  been  crushed  by  the  su- 
perior forces  of  the  neighboring  pachas,  if  the  Russians  had  not 
taken  up  arms  in  1806,  which  freed  the  frontiers.  Alexander 
sent  them  an  auxiliary  corps  under  Colonel  Bala. 

The  Russian  ambassador  had  protested  against  the  deposi- 
tion of  Ypsilanti  and  Morousi,  and  against  the  violation  of  the 
Treaty  of  I  assy.  The  English  ambassador  had  almost  induced 
the  Divan  to  yield  on  October  17,  1806,  when  without  a  declara- 
tion of  war  the  Russian  general  Michelsen  crossed  the  frontier, 
invaded  Moldavia  with  35,000  men,  took  Khotin  and  Bender, 
entered  Bucharest,  and  advanced  towards  the  Danube.  The 
British  ambassador  wished  to  interpose  his  good  offices,  but  he 
was  not  listened  to,  and  left  Constantinople  with  Jdat.  It  was 
then  that  the  English  fleet  under  Admiral  Duckworth  passed  the 
Dardanelles,  burnt  the  Turkish  vessels  in  the  Sea  of  Marmora, 
and  appeared  at  the  entrance  of  the  Bosphorus.  The  demon- 
stration failed  before  the  firmness  of  the  Sultan  Selim  and  the 
military  preparations  of  the  French  ambassador  Sebastiani. 
Engineer  and  artillery  officers  hastened  from  the  French  army 
of  Dalmatia.  The  English  vessels  retraced  their  path,  and  the 
Turkish  fleet,  crossing  the  Dardanelles  in  its  turn,  gave  battle 
to  the  Russian  Admiral  Seniavine',  in  the  waters  of  Tenedos. 
It  was  beaten.  A  short  time  after  Selim  III.  was  deposed  in 
consequence  of  a  revolt  of  the  Janissaries,  and  Napoleon  used 
his  fall  as  a  pretext  for  sacrificing  Turkey  at  Tilsit. 

Guilleminot,  Sebastiani's  successor,  had  received  an  order 
to  aid  the  Russians  "  in  everything,  not  officially,  but  effectively." 
In  spite  of  the  armistice  concluded  by  his  exertions,  the  Rus- 
sian troops  continued  to  occupy  the  principalities,  whose  ad- 
ministration was  confined  to  a  divan  composed  of  Russians  and 
Roumanian  boyards.  After  Erfurt,  the  Sultan  having  refused 
to  subscribe  to  the  dismemberment  of  his  empire,  the  war  re- 
commenced. The  campaign  of  1809  was  partially  successful ; 
the  Russians  conquered  nearly  all  the  fortresses  of  the  Danube, 
but  were  defeated  in  Bulgaria  by  the  Grand  Vizier.  In  1810 
Field-marshal  Kamenski  reconquered  Bulgaria  as  far  as  the 
Balkans,  and  gained  a  brilliant  victory  at  Batynia,  near  Kouch- 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  r  69 

tchouk.  In  1811  his  successor,  Koutouzof,  managed  to  draw 
the  Grand  Vizier  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Danube,  and  crushed 
him  at  Slobodzei.  The  imminence  of  a  rupture  with  France 
forced  the  Tzar  to  withdraw  five  divisions  of  the  army  of  the 
Danube.  A  congress  assembled  at  Bucharest  in  1812  : 
Russia  renounced  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  but  kept  Bessarabia, 
a  Roumanian  district,  with  the  fortresses  of  Khotin  and  Bender  ; 
the  Pruth  and  the  Lower  Danube,  where  Russia  acquired  Ismail 
and  Kilia,  formed  the  limit  of  the  two  empires.  The  hospodars 
of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia  were  to  be  restored,  and  all  the 
ancient  privileges  of  those  countries  confirmed.  The  eighth 
article  stipulated  for  an  amnesty  in  favor  of  the  Servians,  who 
were  to  remain  subjects  of  the  Sultan,  but  to  be  governed  by 
George  the  Black,  assisted  by  the  skoitpchtchina  or  national 
assembly.  Turkey  took  no  part  in  the  wars  of  1812  and  1813  ; 
she  profited  by  them  to  violate  the  eighth  article,  to  crush  the 
Servian  army,  and  to  re-establish  the  ancient  order  of  things. 
George  the  Black,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  Servian  voievodes, 
fled  to  Austrian  soil ;  others  were  put  to  death  ;  one  alone  re- 
mained in  the  country,  and  managed  to  gain  the  respect  and 
even  confidence  of  the  Turks.  This  was  Miloch  Obrenovitch. 
When  the  oppression  became  too  intolerable,  he  gave  the  signal 
for  a  new  insurrection  (1815),  reconquered  the  independence 
of  his  country,  and  made  the  Porte  accept  a  treaty  in  1817  which 
recognized  the  autonomy  of  Servia  under  the  sceptre  of  the 
Sultan,  with  a  national  government  composed  of  Miloch,  the 
hereditary  prince,  and  a  skovpchtchtna,  but  with  the  occupation 
of  the  principal  fortresses  by  Ottoman  garrisons.  This  system 
lasted  till  1817. 

At  the  same  time  as  the  Turkish  war,  hostilities  began  in 
1806  against  Persia,  which  wished  to  regain  its  authority  over 
Georgia,  and  against  the  tribes  of  the  Caucasus.  Prince  Titsi- 
anof,  Count  Goudovitch,  Tormassof,  and  Kotliarevski  all  distin- 
guished themselves  in  this  campaign.  In  1803  Titsianof  had 
caused  Maria,  the  Tzarina-mother  of  Georgia,  to  be  transported 
to  St.  Petersburg,  as  she  refused  to  recognize  the  legitimacy  of 
the  cession  made  by  her  eldest  son  to  Paul  I.  He  subdued  the 
Chirvan,  but  was  treacherously  assassinated  by  the  khan  Hus- 
sein-Kouli,  under  the  walls  of  Bakou.  Glasenop  punished  Ali- 
Khan,  an  accomplice  in  the  crime,  by  depriving  him  of  Derbend. 
Persia  attempted  to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Caucasian  tribes ; 
Prince  Abbas-Mirza  passed  the  Araxes  with  20,000  men,  but  was 
defeated.  This  laborious  war  prolonged  itself  till  1813.  A  more 
serious  struggle  already  absorbed  all  the  attention  and  forces  of 
Russia. 


170 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


GRAND  DUCHY  OF    WARSAW  :   CAUSES   OF  THE  SECOND   WAR   WITH 

NAPOLEON. 

The  misunderstanding  between  Alexander  and  Napoleon 
became  more  bitter  day  by  day.  The  most  important  of  the 
causes  leading  to  it  were  the  following  : — i.  The  growth  of  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  ;  2.  The  discontent  of  Napoleon  at  the 
conduct  of  the  Russians  in  the  campaign  of  1809  ;  3.  The 
abandonment  of  the  project  of  a  Russian  marriage,  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  an  Austrian  marriage ;  4.  The  increasing  rivalry  of 
the  two  States  at  Constantinople  and  on  the  Danube  ;  5.  The 
Napoleonic  encroachments  of  1810  in  northern  Germany  ;  6. 
Irritation  produced  by  the  continental  blockade ;  7.  Mistrust 
occasioned  by  the  respective  armaments. 

At  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit,  Napoleon  had  formed  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Warsaw  out  of  the  Prussian  provinces  (Warsaw,  Posen, 
and  Bromberg),  with  a  population  of  2,500,000.  At  the  Treaty 
of  Vienna  he  had  increased  it  by  Western  Gallicia  (Cracow, 
Radom,  Lublin,  and  Sandomir),  inhabited  by  1,500,000  people. 
He  had  reserved  to  himself  all  the  means  for  reconstituting 
Poland ;  he  had  given  Dantzig  to  no  one,  and  had  declared  it  a 
free  city  ;  the  Illyrian  provinces  of  Austria  might  in  his  hands 
soon  be  exchanged  for  the  rest  of  Gallicia;  the  treaty  of  1812 
with  the  Emperor  Francis  was  to  realize  this  calculation.  There 
was  no  need  even  to  take  away  the  acquisitions  of  the  third 
partitioner,  Russia,  for  at  that  time  Russia  only  possessed  Lithu- 
ania and  White  Russia.  Now  we  know  that  these  provinces 
are  not  Polish.  It  sufficed  to  take  back  what  he  had  himself 
ceded  to  Alexander  out  of  the  spoils  of  Prussia  and  Austria — 
Belostok  and  Western  Gallicia,  the  latter  being  still  in  great 
part  Little  Russia.  The  name  of  Poland  was  not  pronounced 
officially,  but  in  fact  she  already  existed.  No  doubt  she  had 
a  stranger,  the  King  of  Saxony,  for  the  sovereign,  but  the  an- 
cestors of  Frederic  Augustus  had  reigned  over  Poland,  and  it 
was  to  the  house  of  Saxony  that  the  patriots  of  the  3rd  of  May, 
1791,  had  wished  to  secure  the  succession  after  Stanislas  Ponia- 
tovski. 

The  Constitution  of  1807,  compiled  by  a  Polish  commission 
and  approved  by  Napoleon,  was  almost  that  of  the  3rd  of  May 
1791.  Napoleon  had  advised  the  King  of  Saxony  to  dismiss 
the  Prussian  officials,  and  to  govern  Poland  with  the  Poles.  The 
executive  power  belonged  to  the  king,  who  was  assisted  by  a 
council  of  responsible  ministers  with  a  president  at  their  head. 
The  legislative  power  was  divided  between  the  king,  the  senate, 


tflSTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  I  y  f 

and  the  legislative  body.  The  senate  was  composed  of  six 
bishops,  six  palatines,  and  six  castellans ;  the  legislative  body, 
of  sixty  deputies  elected  in  the  districts  from  the  nobility,  and 
forty  deputies  from  the  towns ;  their  chief  work  lay  in  the  im- 
position of  taxes  and  the  compilation  of  the  laws.  After  the 
annexation  of  Western  Gallicia,  the  number  of  members  of 
parliament  was  increased.  Napoleon  could  boast  of  having 
"  raised  a  tribune  in  the  midst  of  the  silent  atmosphere  of  the 
neighboring  governments  "  (Bignon).  The  Zamok,  the  old 
royal  castle  in  which  the  Parliament  sat,  was  the  centre  of  the 
Polands  still  disunited.  Napoleon  had  given  the  Grand  Duchy 
his  Civil  Code,  which  did  not  express  the  actual  social  state  of 
the  country,  but  on  which  the  social  state  was  to  model  itself. 
He  had  proclaimed  the  freedom  of  the  serfs,  while  preserving  to 
their  former  masters  the  right  of  property  over  the  lands.  With 
regard  to  this,  the  present  Russian  government  has  proceeded 
in  a  more  radical  fashion.  Napoleon  created  parliamentary 
Poland, — a  Poland  whose  liberty  was  more  based  on  equality 
than  in  former  times. 

The  army  of  the  Grand  Duchy  was  raised  to  30,000  men  after 
1807,  to  50,000  after  1809  ;  at  its  head  was  Joseph  Poniatovski, 
nephew  of  the  last  king,  the  man  who  was  vanquished  at  Zie'lence', 
the  hero  of  many  a  Napoleonic  battle.  Under  him  served  Dom- 
brovski,  a  soldier  of  the  campaign  of  1799  ;  Zai'ontchek,  who  had 
fought  with  the  French  in  Egypt ;  and  Chlopigki,  the  intrepid 
leader  of  the  Polish  legions  in  Spain.  The  sentiments  which 
animated  the  army  are  still  reflected  in  the  recently  published 
'  Memoirs  of  a  Polish  Officer '  (which  are  those  of  General 
Brandt). 

In  a  country  where  every  peasant  is  born  a  horseman,  the 
cavalry  was  always  admirable ;  the  infantry  had  lately  been 
improved ;  the  artillery  had  been  organized  by  the  Frenchman 
Bontemps  and  Pelletier ;  the  fortresses  of  Plock,  Modlin,  Thorn, 
and  Zamosc  restored  by  Haxo  and  Alix.  The  army,  where  the 
former  serf  elbowed  the  gentleman,  was  a  school  of  equality. 
The  famous  legions  of  the  Vistula,  made  use  of  by  Napoleon  for 
his  own  private  ends,  acquired  an  imperishable  glory  in  the  wars 
of  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Russia. 

The  ministers  of  the  Grand  Duchy— Stanislas  Potoc.ki 
(president  of  the  council),  Joseph  Poniatovski  (war),  Lubienski 
(justice),  Matuszevicz  (finance),  Sobolevski  (police),  &c. — were 
upright  and  intelligent  men.  Bignon,  Napoleon's  representative, 
was  full  of  devotion  to  Poland.  Unfortunately  he  was  replaced, 
on  the  eve  of  a  supreme  crisis,  by  the  Archbishop  of  Malines, 
Abbe*  of  Pradt,  a  noisy  and  vain  character,  complicated  by 


j 7 1  ffIS TORY  Off  R USSIA. 

literary  vanity.  No  doubt  Warsaw  had  its  parties.  The  Czartory- 
skis  had  with  reason  made  up  their  minds,  in  case  of  need,  to 
have  recourse  to  Alexander's  generosity  ;  but  in  1811,  when  the 
guns  of  Warsaw  announced  the  birth  of  the  King  of  Rome,  all 
thought  themselves  in  safety  under  the  protectorate  of  France. 
Never  had  the  lively  and  witty  Polish  society  been  so  brilliant. 
The  growth  of  the  Warsaw  army,  which  was  in  reality  the  van- 
guard of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Vistula,  was  always  an  object  of 
disquietude  for  Alexander  and  anger  for  the  Russians.  The 
"  mixed  subjects  " — that  is,  the  nobles  who  held  lands  in  the 
Grand  Duchy  and  in  Lithuania,  and  who  passed  from  one  service 
to  the  other — were  the  pretext  for  perpetual  diplomatic  intrigues. 
Alexander  remarked  bitterly  that  they  worked  "  the  spectre  of 
Poland  "  on  the  uncertain  frontier  of  Lithuania. 

Napoleon  had  not  hesitated  to  complain  to  Kourakine  of  the 
way  in  which  the  Gallician  campaign  had  been  conducted. 
"  You  were  lukewarm,"  he  said  ;  "  you  never  drew  the  sword 
once." 

The  projected  marriage  with  Anna  Pavlovna,  Alexander's 
sister,  had  met  with  difficulties  in  more  than  one  direction.  The 
Empress-mother,  Mary  of  Wurtemberg,  had  been  invested  by 
the  will  of  Paul,  which  was  kept  at  the  Assumption  in  the 
Kremlin,  with  absolute  power  to  dispose  of  the  hands  of  her 
daughters.  Now,  she  alleged  that  the  laws  of  the  orthodox 
church  did  not  allow  marriage  with  a  divorced  man.  Anna  was 
already  betrothed  to  the  Prince  of  Saxe-Coburg,  as  her  sister 
Catherine,  perhaps  with  a  view  to  a  request  of  this  nature,  had 
been  married  to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Oldenburg.  The  first  marri- 
age of  Napoleon  had  been  barren,  and  he  might  a  second  time 
repudiate  his  wife.  The  difference  of  religion  was  another 
barrier.  Anna  could  not  embrace  Catholicism,  and  the  idea  of 
seeing  a  Russian  priest  and  chapel  at  the  Tuileries  was  repug- 
nant to  Napoleon.  Alexander  took  little  pains  to  press  the 
negotiation  ;  he  complicated  it  by  another  negotiation  for  a  formal 
promise  that  Poland  should  never  be  re-established.  Napoleon 
lost  all  patience,  and,  as  the  house  of  Hapsburg  seemed  to  be 
ready  to  meet  his  wishes,  the  Austrian  marriage  was  concluded. 

Alexander  felt  both  anger  and  regret.  A  closer  alliance 
between  France  and  Austria  was  prejudicial  to  the  essential  in- 
terests of  Russia  in  the  East  and  on  the  Danube.  In  1809 
Talleyrand  had  submitted  to  Napoleon  a  project  which  consisted 
in  indemnifying  Austria  by  putting  her  in  possession  of  the  Rou- 
manian principalities  and  of  the  Slav  provinces  of  Turkey,  which 
would  have  created  a  permanent  conflict  of  interests  between 
Russia  and  Austria.  The  former,  repulsed  from  the  Danube, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSTA. 


173 


would  have  been  forced  to  turn  towards  Central  Asia,  towards 
Hindostan.  In  this  emergency  she  would  in  her  turn  have 
found  herself  at  perpetual  war  with  England,  and  all  germs  of 
coalition  against  the  French  empire  would  by  this  means  have 
been  extinguished.  In  the  same  year  Duroc  laid  before  Napo- 
leon another  memorial,  in  which  he  showed — i,  that  the  Russian 
alliance  was  contrary  to  French  traditional  policy  ;  2,  that  the 
French  possessions  in  Italy  and  Dalmatia  were  threatened  by 
the  action  of  Russia  in  Servia  and  Greece  ;  3,  that  Russia  only 
defended  Prussia,  because  she  reckoned  on  the  use  of  her  army 
if  needed ;  4,  that  she  favored  the  Spanish  enterprise,  in  the 
hope  of  seeing  200,000  Frenchmen  perish  in  the  Peninsula;  5, 
that  the  interest  of  the  Napoleonic  dynasty  demanded  that 
Russia  should  be  pushed  as  far  as  possible  to  the  East ;  6,  that 
the  dismemberment  of  Poland  had  been  the  shame  of  the  old 
dynasty,  and  that  her  re-establishment  was  necessary  to  the 
greatness  of  France  and  the  security  of  Europe.  Prince  Koura- 
kine  managed  to  procure  a  copy  of  this  memorial,  and  sent  it 
to  the  Emperor  Alexander  (March  1809),  pointing  out  "  how 
dangerous  it  was  for  Russia  to  permit  the  ruin  of  Austria." 
Alexander  remembered  this  in  the  campaign  of  1809. 

In  1810  the  Senatus  Consultumof  July  pronounced  the  union, 
of  the  whole  of  Holland  to  the  French  empire  ;  that  of  Decem- 
ber, the  future  union  of  three  Hanseatic  towns,  of  Oldenburg, 
and  other  German  territories.  It  was  not  a  simple  occupation 
to  secure  the  execution  of  the  continental  blockade  ;  it  was  an 
annexation.  In  the  jus  gentium  as  understood  by  Napoleon, 
these  decisions  of  the  Senate  were  to  replace  treaties.  Where 
were  these  encroachments  to  stop  ?  Hamburg,  Bremen,"  and 
Lu'beck — free  towns,  whose  existence  was  an  object  of  interest 
to  the  commerce  of  the  whole  world,  and  especially  to  Russia — 
had  become  French.  By  means  of  Liibeck,  the  French  empire 
would  strengthen  her  hold  on  the  Baltic,  on  that  "  Varangian 
Sea  "  where  the  Russians,  since  Peter  I.,  disputed  the  prepon- 
derance of  the  Scandinavians.  Another  of  these  annexations, 
that  of  Oldenburg,  wounded  Alexander  yet  more  deeply.  He 
saw  his  sister  Catherine  and  her  husband,  robbed  of  their 
crowns,  fly  to  St.  Petersburg.  The  wrong  to  his  interests  and  his 
affections  was  yet  further  increased  by  the  want  of  respect  tow- 
ards him.  He  had  neither  been  consulted  nor  informed  of  the 
step.  Like  the  rest  of  the  world,  Alexander  heard  of  this  con- 
quest, in  the  height  of  peace,  through  the  Moniteur.  It  is  true 
that  since  that  time  many  other  German  allies  of  the  imperial 
house  have  been  deprived  of  their  crowns  or  their  essential  pre- 
rogatives, without  any  remonstrance  from  Russia. 


'74 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


Kourakine  was  charged  to  communicate  with  Champagny, 
who  talked  of  necessity,  and  assured  him  that  the  Grand  Duke 
should  receive  an  indemnity.  The  Russian  court  sent  a  note  to 
all  the  other  cabinets,  in  which,  while  affirming  the  maintenance 
of  her  alliance  with  Napoleon,  she  protested  against  the  annexa- 
tion of  Oldenburg.  The  conqueror  was  deeply  irritated  at  the 
publicity  of  this  note,  as  well  as  at  the  remarks  accompanying 
the  protest. 

As  to  the  continental  blockade,  although  it  was  observed  by 
Russia  less  strictly  than  by  France,  she  still  suffered  cruelly 
from  it.  The  commerce  with  England  was  stopped.  In  1801 
the  Russian  aristocracy  had  made  a  plot  to  re-open  the  sea  to 
her  hemp,  her  grains,  and  other  natural  productions  of  the 
country.  The  rouble  which  was  worth  67  kopecks  in  1807,  was 
not  worth  more  than  25  in  1810.  In  December  of  this  same 
year,  Alexander  promulgated  an  edict  which,  with  the  apparent 
design  of  preventing  specie  from  leaving  the  country,  proscribed 
the  importation  of  objects  of  luxury  from  whatever  country  they 
came,  particularly  of  silks,  ribbons,  embroideries,  bronzes,  and 
porcelains :  wine  was  heavily  taxed.  This  chiefly  struck  at 
French  commerce.  The  forbidden  goods  were  ordered  to  be 
burnt.  Napoleon  was  exasperated,  and  said,  "  I  would  rather 
have  received  a  blow  on  the  cheek." 

During  some  time  Kourakine,  the  Russian  envoy  at  Paris, 
while  recognizing  the  fact  that  Russia  could  not  cope  with  Na- 
poleon, advised  a  policy  of  intimidation  by  collecting  great  arm- 
aments. Accordingly  five  divisions  of  the  army  of  the  Danube 
were  recalled  ;  a  levy  of  four  men  in  every  five  hundred  was  to 
be  raised,  and  the  fortresses  of  the  Dwina  and  the  Dnieper 
were  to  be  repaired.  These  preparations  provoked  those  of  Na- 
poleon. Such  an  emulation  in  threatening  measures  naturally 
led  to  a  rupture.  Soon  the  "  army  of  Warsaw  "  was  put  on  a 
warlike  footing,  the  army  of  occupation  in  Northern  Germany 
was  reinforced  ;  Napoleon  summoned  some  regiments  from  Spain, 
and  notably  the  Polish  legions ;  the  army  of  Naples  advanced 
towards  Upper  Italy,  the  army  of  Italy  towards  Bavaria ;  in  the 
vast  military  establishment  known  as  the  Grand  Army,  and 
which  covered  the  entire  Continent,  from  Madrid  to  Dantzig,  a 
movement  from  the  West  to  the  East  was  felt.  The  grievances 
of  the  two  emperors  against  each  other  were  brought  forward  in 
some  lively  interviews  of  Napoleon,  first  with  the  ambassador 
Kourakine,  and  then  with  the  aide-de-camp  Tchernichef,  Alex- 
ander's envoy  extraordinary.  Napoleon  received  Tchernichef 
courteously,  and  even  pinched  his  ear,  but  passionately  dis« 
cussed  all  the  questions  relative  to  Poland,  to  the  Danubian 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


'75 


principalities,  to  Oldenburg,  to  the  continental  blockade,  to  the 
oukaze  of  December,  to  the  menacing  preparations  of  Alexan- 
der. He  at  once  rejected  the  idea  of  giving  Dantzig  as  an  in- 
demnity for  Oldenburg.  The  mission  of  Tchernichef  was  unsuc- 
cessful ;  he  even  compromised  himself  seriously  :  an  employ^  of 
the  War  Minister  was  shot  for  allowing  himself  to  be  bribed, 
and  for  having  delivered  to  him  the  estimates  of  the  Grand 
Army.  It  was  about  this  period  that  Napoleon  ordered  the 
publication  in  the  newspapers  of  a  series  of  articles  wherein  he 
proved  "  that  Europe  found  herself  in  train  to  become  the  prey 
of  Russia,"  and  spoke  of  "  the  invasion  that  must  be  checked, 
of  the  universal  domination  that  must  be  extinguished."  It  was 
then  that  Lesur  published  the  famous  book  entitled  '  Of  the 
Progress  of  the  Russian  Power,'  in  which  we  meet  for  the  first 
time  with  the  apocryphal  document  called  the  '  Will  of  Peter  the 
Great.' 

Napoleon  recalled  Caulaincourt,  whom  he  thought  too  Rus- 
sian, and  who,  being  conciliatory,  was  much  embarrassed  with 
the  part  he  had  to  play.  He  replaced  him  by  Lauriston,  who 
could  not  reckon  on  the  confidence  of  Alexander.  Everything 
proved  that  war  was  inevitable.  Alexander,  like  Napoleon, 
only  negotiated  in  order  to  gain  time  and  finish  his  preparations. 
The  rupture  of  the  alliance  was  patent  to  all.  At  the  court  of 
Murat  the  French  envoy,  Durand,  fought  a  duel  with  the  Russian 
envoy  Dolgorouki.  Alexander  suddenly  disgraced  Speranski, 
the  friend  of  France  ;  he  sent  for  Stein,  the  great  German 
patriot,  Napoleon's  mortal  foe,  placed  by  him  under  the  ban  of 
the  Confederation.  Russia  hastened  to  conclude  peace  with 
Turkey ;  she  negotiated  with  Sweden  for  an  alliance,  with  Eng- 
land for  a  treaty  of  subsidies.  Napoleon,  on  his  side,  signed 
two  conventions  with  Prussia  and  Austria,  which  assured  him 
the  help  of  20,000  Prussians  and  30,000  Austrians  in  the  pro- 
jected expeditions.  Sweden  and  Turkey  would  have  been  more 
certain  allies,  but  the  treaties  of  Tilsit  and  Erfurt  had  alienated 
them  from  the  French  ;  Sweden  had  suffered,  like  Russia,  from 
the  continental  blockade,  and  the  Prince  Royal  Bernadotte  had 
not  pardoned  Napoleon  for  his  refusal  to  give  him  Norway,  and 
for  having  occupied  Swedish  Pomerania.  On  the  gth  of  May, 
1812,  Napoleon  left  Paris  for  Dresden,  for  the  centre  of  his 
army.  The  ambassadors,  Kourakine  and  Lauriston,  demanded 
their  passports. 


1 76  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

THE   "  PATRIOTIC   WAR :  "    BATTLE  OF   BORODINO ;    BURNING   OP 
MOSCOW:    DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   GRAND   ARMY. 

With  the  military  resources  of  France,  which  then  counted 
130  departments,  with  the  contingents  of  her  Italian  kingdoms, 
of  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  War- 
saw, and  with  the  auxiliary  forces  of  Prussia  and  Austria,  Naro- 
Jeon  could  bring  a  formidable  army  into  the  field.  On  the  ist  of 
June  the  Grand  Army  amounted  to  678,000  men,  356,000  of  whom 
were  French,  and  322,000  foreigners.  It  included  not  only  Belgi- 
ans, Dutchmen,  Hanoverians,  Hanseats,  Piedmontese.  and  Ro- 
mans, then  confounded  under  the  name  of  Frenchmen,  but  al  o 
the  Italian  army,  the  Neapolitan  army,  the  Spanish  regiments, 
natives  of  Germany,  Badois,  Wurtemburgers,  Bavarians,  1  )arm- 
stadt  Hessians,  Jerome's  Westphalians,  soldiers  of  the  half- 
French  grand  duchies  of  Berg  and  Frankfort,  Saxons,  Thurin- 
gians,  and  Mecklenburgers.  Besides  Napoleon's  marshals,  it  had 
at  its  head  Eugene,  Viceroy  of  Italy ;  Murat,  King  of  Naples  ; 
Jerome,  King  of  Westphalia ;  the  princes  royal  and  heirs  of 
nearly  all  the  houses  in  Europe.  The  Poles  alone  in  this  war, 
which  recalled  to  them  that  of  1612,  mustered  60,000  men  under 
their  standards.  Other  Slavs  from  the  Illyrian  provinces, 
Carinthians,  Dalmatians,  and  Croats,  were  led  to  assault  the 
great  Slav  empire.  It  was  indeed  the  "  army  of  twenty  nations," 
as  it  is  still  called  by  the  Russian  people. 

Napoleon  transported  all  these  races  from  the  West  to  the 
East  by  a  movement  similar  to  that  of  the  great  invasions,  and 
swept  them  like  a  human  avalanche  against  Russia. 

When  the  Grand  Army  prepared  to  cross  the  Niemen,  it  was 
arranged  thus  : — To  the  left,  before  Tilsit,  Macdonald  with 
10,000  French,  and  20,000  Prussians  under  General  York  of 
Wartenburg  ;  before  Kovno,  Napoleon  with  the  corps  of  Davoust, 
Oudinot,  Ney,  the  Guard  commanded  by  Bessieres,  the  immense 
reserve  cavalry  under  Murat — in  all  a  total  of  180,000  men  ; 
before  Pilony,  Eugene  with  50,000  Italians  and  Bavarians  ;  be- 
fore Grodno,  Jerome  Bonaparte,  with  60,000  Poles,  Westpha- 
lians, Saxons,  £c.  We  must  add  to  these  the  30,000  Austrians 
of  Schwartzenberg,  who  were  to  fight  in  Gallicia  as  mildly 
against  the  Russians  as  the  Russians  had  against  the  Austrians 
in  1809.  Victor  guarded  the  Vistula  and  the  Oder  with  30,000 
men,  Augereau  the  Elbe  with  50.000.  Without  reckoning  the 
divisions  of  Macdonald,  Schwartzenberg,  Victor,  and  Augereau, 
it  was  with  about  290,000  men,  half  of  whom  were  French,  that 
Napoleon  marched  to  cross  the  Niemen  and  threaten  the  centre 
of  Russia. 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  1 77 

Alexander  had  collected  on  the  Niemen  90,000  men  com- 
manded by  Bagration  ;  on  the  Bug,  tributary  of  the  Vistula, 
60,000  men,  commanded  by  Barclay  de  Tolly  ;  those  were  what 
were  called  the  Northern  army  and  the  army  of  the  South.  On 
the  extreme  right,  Wittgenstein  with  30,000  men  was  to  oppose 
Macdonald  almost  throughout  the  campaign  ;  on  the  extreme 
left,  to  occupy  the  Austrian  Schwartzenberg,  as  harmlessly  as 
possible,  Tormassof  was  placed  with  40,000.  Later  this  latter 
army,  reinforced  by  50,000  men  from  the  Danube,  became  for- 
midable, and  was  destined,  under  Admiral  Tchitchagof,  seriously 
to  embarrass  the  retreat  of  the  French.  In  the  rear  of  all  these 
forces  was  a  reserve  of  80,000  men — Cossacks  and  militia  (ppolt- 
che'nie}.  Only  a  few  contingents  of  the  opoltch/nie,  brave  mougiks 
with  long  beards,  were  to  figure  in  the  campaign,  but  its  impos- 
ing total  of  612,000  men  could  hardly  have  existed  except  on 
paper.  In  reality,  to  the  290,000  men  Napoleon  had  mustered 
under  his  hand,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  could  only  oppose  the 
150,000  of  Bagration  and  Barclay  de  Tolly.  He  counted  on  the 
devotion  of  the  nation.  "  Oh  that  the  enemy,"  says  a  proclama- 
tion of  the  Tzar,  "  may  encounter  in  each  noble  a  Pojarski,  in 
each  ecclesiastic  a  Palitsyne,  in  each  citizen  a  Minine.  Rise,  all 
of  you  !  With  the  cross  in  your  hearts  and  arms  in  your  hands, 
no  human  force  can  prevail  against  you." 

At  the  opening  of  the  campaign  the  head-quarters  of  Alexan- 
der were  at  Wilna.  Besides  his  generals,  he  had  there  his 
brother  Constantine,  his  ministers  Araktche'ef,  Balachef,  Kot- 
choubey,  and  Volkonski.  There  were  also  collected  refugees  of 
all  nations — Stein  from  among  the  Germans,  the  generals  Wol- 
zogen  and  Pfuhl,  the  Piedmontese  Michaux,  the  Swede  Armfelt, 
and  the  Italian  Paulucci.  They  deliberated  and  argued  much. 
To  attack  Napoleon  was  to  furnish  him  with  the  opportunity  he 
wished ;  to  retire  into  the  interior,  as  Barclay  had  advised  in 
1807,  seemed  hard  and  humiliating.  A  middle  course  was 
sought  by  adopting  the  scheme  of  Pfuhl — to  establish  an  in- 
trenched camp  at  Drissa,  on  the  Dwina,  and  to  make  it  a 
Russian  Torres  Vedras.  The  events  in  the  Peninsula  filled  all 
minds.  Pfiihl  desired  to  act  like  Wellington  at  Torres  Vedras. 
Others  proposed  a  guerilla  warfare  like  that  of  Spain.  When 
they  heard  of  the  passage  of  the  Niemen,  Barclay  had  to  fall 
back  on  the  Dwina,  and  Bagration  on  the  Dnieper. 

Napoleon  made  his  entry  into  Wilna,  the  ancient  capital  of 
the  Lithuanian  Gedimin.  He  had  said  in  his  second  proclama- 
tion, "  The  second  Polish  war  has  begun  !  "  The  Diet  of  War- 
saw had  pronounced  the  re-establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  Po- 
land, and  sent  a  deputation  to  Wilna  to  demand  the  adhesion  of 


jyg  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Lithuania,  and  to  obtain  the  protection  of  the  Emperor.  We 
can  understand  with  what  ardor  the  Lithuanian  nobility  crowded 
around  Napoleon.  The  decision  of  the  Polish  diet  was  solemnly 
accepted  by  the  Lithuanians.  "  This  ceremony,"  relates  Fezen- 
sac,  "  took  place  in  the  cathedral  of  Wilna,  where  all  the  no- 
bility had  assembled  together.  The  men  were  dressed  in  the 
ancient  Polish  costume,  the  women  adorned  with  red  and  violet 
ribbons,  the  national  colors."  As  to  the  Poles,  properly  so 
called,  although  Napoleon,  by  dispersing  the  army  of  60,000 
men  among  the  divisions,  had  rendered  it  invisible,  nothing 
could  equal  their  enthusiasm ;  boundless  hope  filled  all  hearts. 
The  work  begun  at  Tilsit  at  the  expense  of  Prussia,  continued  at 
Vienna  at  the  expense  of  Austria,  was  to  be  finished  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Russia !  At  last  they  were  to  taste  the  revenge  which 
France  had  prepared  for  eighteen  years  for  the  faithful  legions 
of  Dombrovski !  This  was  the  splendid  gift  with  which  the  Em- 
peror was  going  to  reward  the  zeal  of  his  grumblers  of  the  Vis- 
tula !  "  The  young  officers  had  recovered  their  confidence  in 
the  star  of  Napoleon,"  relates  Brandt.  "  Our  elders  might  well 
laugh  at  our  enthusiasm,  and  call  us  mad  and  possessed  ;  we 
only  dreamed  of  battles  and  victories ;  we  feared  only  one  thing, 
a  too  great  anxiety  for  peace  on  the  part  of  the  Russians.  .  .  . 
We  had  in  our  ranks  numerous  descendants  of  the  Lithuanians 
who  had  fought  a  hundred  years  before,  under  the  banners  of 
Charles  XII. — Radzivills,  Sapiehas,  Tysenhauses,  and  Chods- 
kos."  However,  the  enormous  incapacity  of  Pradt  at  Warsaw, 
and  the  somewhat  reserved  answers  of  Napoleon  at  Wilna,* 
caused  a  little  hesitation.  In  Lithuania  the  movement  could 
not  be  truly  national,  since  the  people  were  not  Poles.  Napo- 
leon, whether  to  please  Austria,  whether  to  preserve  the  possi- 
bility of  peace  with  Russia,  or  whether  he  was  afraid  to  make 
Poland  too  strong,  only  took  half-measures.  He  gave  Lithuania 
an  administration  distinct  from  that  of  Poland ;  assembled  a 
commission,  which  voted  the  creation  of  a  Lithuanian  army, 
formed  of  four  regiments  of  infantry  and  five  of  cavalry ;  and 
spent  400,000  francs  in  aid  of  their  equipment.  A  national 
guard — of  infantry  in  the  towns,  of  horse  in  the  country — was  to 
watch  over  the  security  of  the  convoys,  and  to  help  the  French 

*  "  If  I  had  reigned  during  the  partitions  of  Poland,"  replied  Napoleon 
•o  the  deputation  from  Warsaw,  "  I  should  have  armed  all  my  subjects  to 
support  you.  I  applaud  all  that  you  have  done  ;  I  authorize  the  efforts  that 
you  wish  to  make  :  all  that  depends  on  me  to  second  your  resolutions  I  will 
do.  But  I  have  guaranteed  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria  the  integrity  of  his 
States.  Let  Lithuania,  Samogitia,  Volhynia,  the  Ukraine,  and  Podolia  be 
animated  by  the  same  spirit  that  I  have  seen  in  Great  Poland,  and  Provi- 
dence will  crown  with  success  the  sanctity  of  your  cause." 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  , 79 

gendarmerie  to  maintain  discipline.  A  last  attempt  to  negotiate 
a  peace  had  failed.  To  gain  time,  Alexander  had  sent  Balachef 
to  Wilna.  Napoleon  had  proposed  two  unacceptable  conditions 
— the  abandonment  of  Lithuania,  and  the  declaration  of  war 
against  Great  Britain.  If  Napoleon,  instead  of  plunging  into 
Russia,  had  contented  himself  with  organizing  and  defending 
the  ancient  principality  of  Lithuania,  no  power  on  earth  could 
have  prevented  the  re-establishnent  of  the  .  Polish-Lithuanian 
State  within  its  former  limits.  The  destinies  of  France  and 
Europe  would  have  been  changed. 

The  road  which  led  to  Wilna  passed  through  a  sort  of  natural 
pass,  due  to  the  configuration  of  the  Dwina  and  the  Dnieper,  the 
one  making  an  angle  near  Vitepsk,  the  other  near  Orcha,  there- 
by ceasing  to  bar  the  way  to  the  invader.  There  were  still  the 
raised  works  at  Drissa  on  the  Dwina,  the  Torres  Vedras  of  the 
learned  Pfiihl ;  but  the  place  of  the  camp  was  so  badly  chosen, 
with  the  river  at  the  back,  and  only  four  bridges  in  case  of  re- 
treat, and  was  so  easily  turned  from  Vitepsk,  that  it  was  resolved 
to  abandon  it.  There  existed  in  the  army  immense  irritation 
against  Pfiihl,  against  the  Germans,  against  the  division  of  com- 
mands. The  Tzar  seemed  out  of  place  with  the  army ;  they  re- 
membered Austerlitz.  The  Russian  nobles  made  up  their  minds 
to  induce  him  to  depart ;  Araktche'ef  himself,  and  Balachef,  the 
Minister  of  Police,  respectfully  represented  to  him  that  his  pres- 
ence would  be  more  useful  at  Smolensk,  at  Moscow,  or  at  St. 
Petersburg,  where  he  could  convoke  the  orders  of  the  State,  de- 
mand sacrifices  both  in  men  and  money,  and  keep  up  the  patri- 
otic enthusiasm.  From  that  time  Barclay  and  Bagration  com- 
manded their  armies  alone. 

Napoleon  feared  to  penetrate  into  the  interior ;  he  would 
have  liked  to  gain  some  brilliant  success  not  far  from  the 
Lithuanian  frontier,  and  seize  one  of  the  two  Russian  armies. 
The  vast  spaces,  the  bad  roads,  the  misunderstandings,  the 
growing  disorganization  of  the  army,  caused  all  his  movements  to 
fail.  Barclay  de  Tolly,  after  having  given  battle  at  Ostrovno  and 
Vitepsk,  fell  back  on  Smolensk ;  Bagration  fought  at  Mohilef 
and  Orcha,  and  in  order  to  rejoin  Barclay  retreated  to  Smolensk. 
There  the  two  Russian  generals  held  council.  Their  troops 
were  exasperated  by  this  continual  retreat,  and  Barclay,  a  good 
tactician,  with  a  clear  and  methodical  mind,  did  not  agree  with 
Bragration,  impetuous,  like  a  true  pupil  of  Souvorof.  The  one 
held  firmly  for  a  retreat,  in  which  the  Russian  army  would 
become  stronger  and  stronger,  and  the  French  army  weaker  and 
weaker,  as  they  advanced  into  the  interior  ;  the  other  wished  to 
act  on  the  offensive,  full  of  risk  as  it  was.  The  army  was  on  tht 


,g0  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

side  of  Bagration,  and  Barclay,  a  German  of  the  Baltic  provinces, 
was  suspected  and  all  but  insulted.  He  consented  to  take  the 
initiative  against  Murat,  who  had  arrived  at  Krasnoe",  and  a 
bloody  battle  was  fought  (August  14).  On  the  i6th,  lyth,  and  i8th 
of  August  another  desperate  fight  took  place  at  Smolensk,  which 
was  burnt,  and  20,000  men  perished.  Barclay  still  retired, 
drawing  with  him  Bagration.  In  his  retreat  Bagration  fought 
Ney  at  Valoutina  ;  it  was  a  lesser  Eylau  :  15,000,  men  of  both 
armies  remained  on  the  field  of  battle. 

Napoleon  felt  that  he  was  being  enticed  into  the  interior  of 
Russia.  The  Russians  still  retreated,  laying  waste  all  behind 
them.  "  Tell  us  only  when  the  moment  is  come,  we  will  set  fire  to 
our  isfras,"  they  said.  The  French  lost  three  days  at  Smolensk  ; 
but  the  Russians  on  their  side  were  astonished  that  the  ancient 
fortress,  which  had  sustained  so  many  lengthy  sieges  in  the 
i6th  and  lyth  centuries,  had  only  resisted  Napoleon  that  time. 
The  Grand  Army  melted  before  their  very  eyes.  P'rom  the 
Niemen  to  Wilna,  without  every  having  seen  the  enemy,  it  had 
lost  50,000  men  from  sickness,  desertion,  and  marauding;  from 
Wilna  to  Mohilef  nearly  100,000.  Ney  was  reduced  from  36,000 
men  to  22,000;  Oudinot  from  38,000  to  23,000;  Murat  from 
22,  ooo  to  14,000 ;  the  Bavarians,  attacked  by  dysentery,  from 
27,000  to  13,000;  the  Italian  division  Pinofrom  n, ooo  105,000  ; 
the  Italian  Guard,  the  Westphalians,  the  Poles,  the  Saxons,  and 
the  Croats  had  not  suffered  less.  The  "  ignoble  and  dangerous 
crowds  of  marauders "  (Brandt)  encumbered  all  the  roads,  pil- 
laged the  convoys  and  the  magazines,  plundered  by  actual  force 
the  villages  and  towns,  not  even  respecting  isolated  officers. 
They  had  devoured  Poland  and  Lithuania  in  their  passage 
through  them.  At  Minsk,  whilst  the  Te Deum  was  being  chanted 
for  the  deliverance  of  Lithuania,  Cuirassiers  had  broken  into  the 
magazines.  In  this  offensive  march,  the  miseries  of  the  retreat 
might  be  clearly  foreseen.  Napoleon  did  what  he  could  to  fill 
the  voids  which  were  already  so  sensible.  He  ordered  Victor's 
army  to  advance  into  Lithuania,  Augereau  to  pass  the  Elbe  and 
the  Oder,  and  the  hundred  cohorts  of  the  national  guards  to 
make  themselves  ready  to  cross  the  Rhine.  In  the  north  Mac- 
donald  repulsed  Wittgenstein,  took  Polotsk  after  a  battle  (iSth 
of  August),  occupied  Diinaburg,  threatened  to  invest  Riga,  and 
disquieted  St.  Petersburg  ;  and  in  the  south  Tormassof  obtained 
some  success  over  Reynier  and  Schwartzenberg. 

In  the  Russian  army,  the  discontent  grew  with  the  retreating 
movement ;  they  always  retired,  now  on  Dorogobouge,  now  on 
Viasna :  they  began  to  murmur  as  much  against  Bagration  as 
against  Barclay.  It  was  then  that  Alexander  united  the  two 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  !  g  f 

armies  under  the  supreme  command  of  Koutouzof.  Koutouzof 
had  on  his  side  the  reminiscences  of  Amstetten,  Krems,  and 
Dirnstein  ;  it  was  not  to  him  that  Austerlitz  was  imputed.  He 
was  a  true  Russian  of  the  old  school,  indolent  and  sleepy  in  ap- 
pearance, but  very  judicious  and  very  patriotic.  No  one  under- 
stood better  than  he  did  the  Russian  soldier  and  the  national 
character.  Men  needed  hope  above  all  things.  His  appoint- 
ment excited  general  enthusiasm  :  the  rumor  immediately  spread 
in  the  army  that  "  Koutouzof  had  come  to  beat  the  French." 
Happy  sayings  raised  his  popularity  to  the  skies.  Passing  his 
regiments  in  review,  "  With  such  soldiers,"  he  exclaimed,  "  who 
would  think  of  beating  a  retreat  ?  "  He  ordered,  however,  a  re- 
trograde movement ;  but  "  all  felt  that  in  retiring  they  were 
marching  against  the  French."  They  "  recoiled,"  but  only  to 
reinforce  themselves,  to  await  the  troops  Miloradovitch  was  to 
bring  them,  the  Cossacks  that  Platof  was  to  recruit  on  the  Don, 
the  bearded  militia  which  rose  at  the  voice  of  the  Tzar,  the 
famous  droujina  of  Moscow,  promised  by  the  Governor  Rostop- 
chine. 

Koutouzof  halted  at  Borodino.  He  had  then  72,000  infantry 
18,000  regular  cavalry,  7000  Cossacks,  10,000  opoltchtme  or 
militiamen,  and  640  guns  served  by  14,000  artillerymen  or 
pioneers;  in  all  121,000  men.  Napoleon  had  only  been  able  to 
concentrate  86,000  infantry,  28,000  cavalry,  and  587  guns,  served 
by  16,000  pioneers  or  artillerymen.  This  was  about  equal  to 
the  effective  force  of  the  Russians,  but  his  army,  now  tempered 
by  the  long  march  of  800  leagues,  was  still  the  most  admirable 
of  modern  times.  On  the  5th  of  September  the  French  took 
the  redoubt  of  Chevaradino  ;  the  7th  was  the  day  of  the  great 
battle  :  this  was  known  as  the  battle  of  Borodino  among  the 
Russians,  as  that  of  the  Moskowa  in  the  bulletins  of  Napoleon, 
though  the  Moskowa  flows  at  some  distance  from  the  field  of 
carnage. 

The  front  of  the  Russian  army  was  bounded  on  the  right  by 
the  village  of  Borodino  on  the  Kolotcha ;  on  the  centre  by  the 
Red  Mountain,  where  rose  what  the  French  called  the  Great 
Redoubt,  and  the  Russians  the  Raievski  battery,  on  the  spot 
where  now  stands  the  memorial  column  ;  and  on  the  left  by 
three  little  redoubts  or  outworks  of  Bagration's,  on  the  site  of 
the  monastery  since  founded  by  Madame  Toutchkof.  Between 
the  Red  Mountain  and  Bagration's  outworks  ran  the  ravine  of 
Semenevskoe',  with  the  village  of  the  same  name.  During  the 
battle  Napoleon  remained  near  the  redoubt  of  Chevardino ; 
Koutouzof  at  the  village  of  Gorki.  Barclay  de  Tolly  commanded 
on  the  right,  and  through  Miloradovitch  he  occupied  Borodino, 


!g2  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

and  through  Doktourof,  Gorki.  Bagration  commanded  the  left, 
and  by  Rai'evski  he  occupied  the  Red  Mountain  and  Semenev- 
skod,  by  Borosdine  the  three  redoubts.  Napoleon  had  placed 
Eugdne,  with  the  army  of  Italy  and  the  Bavarians,  opposite  the 
great  redoubt ;  Ney,  with  Junot  and  the  Wurtembergers,  oppo- 
site the  three  small  ones  ;  Davoust  with  the  Poles  and  Saxons, 
and  Murat  with  his  numerous  cavalry,  were  to  turn  the  Russians 
by  their  left.  On  the  extreme  right  Poniatovski  was  to  clear 
the  woods  of  Oustitsa.  In  the  rear,  the  division  of  Friant  and 
the  Guard  formed  an  imposing  reserve. 

Profound  silence  reigned  in  the  Russian  camp  on  the  eve  of 
the  battle ;  religious  fervor  and  patriotic  fury  inflamed  all 
hearts  :  they  passed  the  night  confessing  and  communicating  ; 
they  put  on  white  shirts  as  if  for  a  wedding.  In  the  morning 
100,000  men  were  blessed  on  their  knees,  and  sprinkled  with 
holy  water  by  their  priests ;  the  wonder-working  Virgin  of 
Vladimir  was  carried  in  procession  round  the  front  of  the  troops 
in  the  midst  of  sobs  and  enthusiasm  ;  an  eagle  hovered  over 
the  head  of  Koutouzof,  and  a  loud  "  hurrah  "  saluted  this  happy 
omen.  The  battle  began  by  a  frightful  cannonade  of  1200  guns, 
which  was  heard  at  30  leagues  round.  Then  the  French,  with 
an  irresistible  charge,  took  Borodino  on  one  side,  and  the  re- 
doubts on  the  other  ;  Ney  and  Murat  crossed  the  ravine  of 
Semenevskoe',  and  cut  the  Russian  army  nearly  in  two.  At  ten 
o'clock  the  battle  seemed  won,  but  Napoleon  refused  to  carry 
out  his  first  success  by  employing  the  reserve,  and  the  Russian 
generals  had  time  to  bring  up  new  troops  in  line.  They  re- 
captured the  great  redoubt,  and  Platof,  the  Cossack  made  an 
incursion  on  the  rear  of  the  Italian  army ;  an  obstinate  fight 
took  place  at  the  outworks.  At  last  Napoleon  made  his  reserve 
troops  advance  ;  again  Murat's  cavalry  swept  the  ravine  ;  Cau- 
laincourt's  cuirassiers  assaulted  the  great  redoubt  from  behind, 
and  flung  themselves  on  it  like  a  tempest,  while  Eugene  of  Italy 
scaled  the  ramparts.  Again  the  Russians  had  lost  their  out- 
works. Then  Koutouzof  gave  the  signal  to  retreat,  and  collect- 
ed his  troops  on  Psare'vo.  Napoleon  refused  to  hazard  his  last 
reserves  against  these  desperate  men,  and  to  "  have  his  Guard 
demolished."  He  contented  himself  with  crushing  them  with 
artillery  during  the  flight.  The  French  had  lost  30,000  men, 
the  Russians  40,000  ;  the  former  had  49  generals  and  37  colo- 
nels killed  and  wounded,  the  Russians  almost  as  many,  and 
they  numbered  Bagration,  Kouta'izof,  and  the  two  Toutchkofs 
among  their  dead.  Napoleon  still  concentrated  100,000  men 
under  his  own  eye,  Koutouzof  only  50,000  ;  but  Napoleon's 
losses  were  irreparable  at  this  distance  :  the  Grand  Army  was 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  183 

condemned  to  gain  nothing  by  its  victories.  The  novelist  Tol- 
stoi uses  this  expression,  "  The  beast  is  wounded  to  death." 
"  Napoleon,"  says  Brandt,  the  Pole,  "  had  succeeded,  but  at 
what  a  price  !  The  great  redoubt  and  its  surroundings  offered 
a  spectacle  which  surpassed  the  worst  horrors  that  could  be 
dreamed  of.  The  ditches,  the  fosses,  the  very  interior  of  the 
outwork  had  disappeared  beneath  an  artificial  hill  of  dead  and 
dying,  six  or  eight  men  deep,  heaped  one  upon  another." 

Koutouzof  retired  in  good  order,  announcing  to  Alexander 
that  they  had  made  a  steady  resistance,  but  were  retreating  to 
protect  Moscow.  He  called  a  council  of  war  at  Fily,  on  one  of 
the  hills  which  overhangs  Moscow  ;  and  the  sight  of  the  great 
and  holy  city  extended  at  their  feet,  condemned  perhaps  to 
perish,  caused  inexpressible  emotion  to  the  Russian  generals. 
The  only  question  was  this,  Was  it  necessary  to  sacrifice  the 
last  army  of  Russia  in  order  to  save  Moscow  ?  Barclay  de- 
clared that  "  when  it  became  a  matter  of  the  salvation  of  Russia 
and  of  Europe,  Moscow  was  only  a  city  like  any  other."  Others 
said,  like  the  artillery  officer  Grabbe,  "  It  would  be  glorious  to 
die  under  Moscow,  but  it  is  not  a  question  of  glory."  "  But," 
said  Prince  Eugene  of  Wurtemberg,  "  many  hold  that  honor 
forces  them  to  put  a  stop  to  all  retrograde  movements  :  as  the 
tomb  is  the  end  of  all  earthly  journeys  accomplished  by  man, 
Moscow  ought  to  be  the  aim,  the  tomb  of  the  Russian  war- 
rior ;  beyond  her  another  world  already  begins."  Bennigsen, 
Ermolof,  and  Ostermann  were  in  favor  of  a  last  battle.  Kou- 
touzof listened  to  all,  and  then  said,  "  Here  my  head,  be  it  good 
or  bad,  must  decide  for  itself,"  and  ordered  a  retreat  through 
the  town.  Yet  he  felt  that  Moscow  was  not  "  only  a  city  like 
any  other."  He  would  not  enter  it,  and  passed  the  faubourgs 
weeping.  Even  for  the  retreat  there  were  two  alternative  paths. 
Barclay  advised  that  of  Vladimir,  which  allowed  St.  Peters- 
burg to  be  covered.  Koutouzof  preferred  that  of  Riazan,  by 
which  he  could  place  himself  on  the  right  flank  of  Napoleon 
to  draw  up  reinforcements  from  the  south,  and  to  bar  the 
way  to  the  most  fertile  provinces  of  the  empire  to  the  French. 
The  event  proved  that  he  was  right. 

Alexander,  however,  had  only  raised  the  opoltcheniJ  in  six- 
teen governments :  those  of  Moscow,  Tver,  laroslavl,  Vladimir, 
Riazan,  Toula,  Kalouga,  and  Smolensk  were  to  furnish  123,000 
men  ;  St.  Petersburg  and  Novgorod  25,000.  Alexander  had 
said  to  Michaux,  "We  will  make  of  Russia  a  new  Spain."  The 
Metropolitan  of  Moscow  and  all  the  priests  called  men  to  arms 
against  the  "  impious  Frenchman,  the  bold  Goliath,"  who  was 
to  be  thrown  to  the  earth  by  the  sling  of  a  new  David. 


184  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA, 

Alexander  had  appointed  Count  Rostopchine  as  Governor 
of  Moscow.  This  French  wit  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
nobles  and  the  people,  affected  the  picturesque  language  of  the 
peasants,  and  understood,  as  he  says,  "  how  to  throw  dust  in 
their  eyes."  The  patriot  Glinka  compared  him  to  Napoleon. 
His  correspondence  with  Semen  Voronzof,  his  proclamation  of 
1812,  his  Memoirs  written  in  1823,  his  pamphlet  of  the  same 
year  entitled  '  The  Truth  about  the  Burning  of  Moscow,'  may  be 
counted  amongst  the  most  curious  sources  of  history.  "  I  do 
everything"  he  writes  to  the  Emperor,  "  to  gain  the  goodwill  of 
every  one.  My  two  visits  to  the  Mother  of  God  at  Iberia,  the  free 
access  of  all  towards  myself,  the  verification  of  the  weights  and 
measures,  fifty  blows  with  a  stick  applied  in  my  presence  to  a 
sub-officer  who,  charged  with  the  sale  of  salt,  had  caused  the 
mougiks  to  wait  too  long,  have  won  me  the  confidence  of  your 
devoted  and  faithful  subjects."  "  I  have  resolved,"  he  says, 
"  at  every  disagreeable  piece  of  news  to  raise  doubts  as  to  its 
truth  ;  by  this  means  I  shall  weaken  the  first  impress-ion,  and 
before  there  is  time  to  verify  it  others  will  come  which  need  to 
be  examined."  He  organized  a  regular  system  of  spies  to 
watch  over  the  propagators  of  false  news,  the  Martinists,  the 
Freemasons,  and  the  Liberals.  He  was  jealous  of  Glinka,  who 
nevertheless  admired  him,  and  who  in  the  Russian  Messenger 
"unchained  the  furies  of  the  patriotic  war."  When  Alexander 
came  to  Moscow  and  convoked  the  three  orders  at  the  Kremlin, 
Rostopchine  caused  kibitkas  to  be  prepared  to  carry  into  Siberia 
any  who  might  ask  the  Emperor  indiscreet  questions.  These 
precautions  were  useless.  The  nobles  gave  their  peasants,  the 
merchants  their  money  ;  the  reading  of  the  imperial  manifesto 
was  received  with  enthusiasm.  "  At  first,"  relates  Rostopchine, 
"  they  listened  with  the  greatest  attention,  then  they  gave  some 
signs  of  anger  and  impatience  ;  when  they  came  to  the  phrase 
which  declared  that  the  enemy  came  with  '  flattery  on  their  lips 
and  irons  in  their  hands,'  the  general  indignation  burst  forth. 
They  beat  their  heads,  they  tore  their  hair,  they  bit  their  hands, 
and  tears  of  rage  fell  down  their  faces,  which  recalled  those  of 
the  ancients.  I  saw  one  man  grind  his  teeth."  At  bottom,  the 
Government  mistrusted  the  people,  who,  being  serfs,  might  allow 
themselves  to  be  tempted  by  the  proclamations  of  liberty  put 
forth  by  the  invader.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  Rostopchine 
placed  300,000  roubles  at  the  disposal  of  Glinka,  the  popular 
writer.  There  was  no  need  of  the  money,  and  Glinka  restored 
the  300,000  roubles.  When  Alexander  left  the  city,  he  gave  full 
powers  to  Rostopchine. 

Rostopchine  invented  good   news ;  one   day  he  posted  up 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  jgij 

"  Great  Victory  of  Ostermann,"  another  day  "  Great  Victory  of 
Wittgenstein."  Sensible  people  ended  by  never  believing  him. 
His  bulletins  had  always  firm  hold  on  the  people.  "  Fear 
nothing,"  he  said  :  "  a  storm  has  come  ;  we  will  dissipate  it;  the 
gain  will  be  ground,  and  become  meal.  Only  beware  of  drunk- 
ards and  fools  ;  they  have  large  ears,  and  whisper  folly  one  to 
the  other.  Some  believe  that  Napoleon  comes  for  good,  whilst 
he  only  thinks  of  flaying  us.  He  makes  the  soldiers  expect  the 
field-marshal's  staff,  beggars  mountains  of  gold,  and  while  they 
are  waiting  he  takes  every  one  by  the  collar  and  sends  him  to 
his  death.  And  for  this  reason  I  beg  you,  if  any  of  our  country- 
men or  foreigners  begin  to  praise  him  and  to  promise  this  or  that 
in  his  name,  seize  him,  whoever  he  may  be,  and  take  him  before 
the  police.  As  to  the  culprit,  I  shall  know  how  to  make  him  hear 
reason,  were  he  a  giant."  "  I  will  answer  with  my  head  that 
the  scoundrel  does  not  enter  Moscow.  And  see  on  what  I  base 
my  prophecy.  ...  If  that  is  not  enough,  then  I  shall  say,  '  For- 
ward, droujina  of  Moscow  !  let  us  march  likewise.  And  we 
shall  be  100,000  soldiers.  Let  us  take  with  us  the  image  of  the 
Mother  of  God,  150  guns,  and  we  shall  finish  the  affair  together.'  " 
After  Borodino  he  again  puts  forth  this  proclamation,  "  Brothers, 
we  are  numerous,  and  ready  to  sacrifice  our  lives  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  country  and  to  prevent  that  wretch  from  entering 
Moscow  ;  but  you  must  help  me.  Moscow  is  our  mother  ;  she 
has  suckled  us,  nourished  us,  enriched  us.  In  the  name  of  the 
Mother  of  God,  I  invite  you  to  the  defence  of  the  temples  of  the 
Lord,  of  Moscow,  of  Russia  !  Arm  yourselves  in  any  way  you 
can,  on  foot  or  on  horseback ;  take  only  enough  bread  for  three 
days,  go  with  the  cross,  preceded  by  the  banners  that  you  will 
take  from  the  churches,  and  assemble  at  once  on  the  three 
mountains.  I  shall  be  with  you,  and  together  we  will  extermi- 
nate the  invaders.  Glory  in  heaven  for  those  who  go  there  ! 
Eternal  peace  to  those  who  die  !  Punishment  in  the  last  judg- 
ment to  those  who  draw  back  ! " 

It  was  necessary,  however,  to  carry  to  Kazan  forty  French- 
men or  foreigners  settled  at  Moscow.  Domergue,  the  director 
of  the  French  theatre  at  Moscow,  describes  their  sad  journey. 
Rostopchine  made  a  certain  Leppich  or  Schmidt  work  mysteri- 
ously at  a  wonderful  balloon,  which  would  cover  with  fire  the 
whole  French  army.  He  removed  all  the  archives  and  the 
treasures  of  the  churches  and  palaces  to  Vladimir.  When  the 
Russian  army  left  Moscow,  he  also  quitted  it,  after  cruelly  slay- 
ing Verechtchaghine,  who  was  accused  of  having  spread  the 
proclamation  of  Napoleon.  He  caused  the  prisons  to  be  opened  ; 
distributed  among  the  people  the  muskets  of  the  arsenal,  took 


j86  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

away  the  pumps,  and  ordered  Voronenko  to  set  on  fire  the  stores 
of  brandy,  and  the  boats  loaded  with  alcohol.  The  burning  of 
Moscow  no  doubt  arose  from  this.  By  his  own  confession  it  was 
"  an  event  which  he  had  prepared,  but  which  he  was  far  from 
executing."  He  contented  himself  with  "  inflaming  the  spirits  of 
men."  Already  the  barriers  of  the  capital  were  crowded  with 
vehicles  of  all  sorts ;  every  one  emigrated  who  could  leave  the 
town. 

The  people  who  remained  at  Moscow  steadily  nursed  their 
illusions.  When  the  first  soldiers  of  the  Grand  Army  appeared 
they  thought  that  it  was  the  Swedes  or  English  who  had  come  to 
their  help.  The  pillage  of  the  deserted  houses  began,  and  the 
populace  rivalled  the  zeal  of  the  invaders.  Napoleon  arrived, 
and  tried  to  quell  the  disorder  ;  he  appointed  Mortier  governor 
of  the  town.  "  Above  all,  no  pillage  ! "  he  said ;  "  you  will 
answer  for  it  with  your  head."  The  troops  defiled  through  the 
streets  of  Bidlyi-gorod  and  Kitai-gorod,  singing  the  Marseillaise 
(Sept.  14).  Napoleon  ascended  the  Red  Staircase,  and  estab- 
lished himself  in  the  ancient  palace  of  the  Tzars.  Almost  im- 
mediately the  fires  broke  out  in  many  places.  The  night  of  the 
I5th-i6th  September  was  especially  terrible.  The  Kremlin 
itself,  with  the  artillery  wagons  of  the  Guard,  was  in  danger. 
Napoleon  had  to  leave  it,  and  force  his  way  through  the  flames ; 
he  almost  perished  on  the  road,  and  finally  reached  the  Petrov- 
ski  park.  The  courts-martial  condemned  about  four  hundred 
incendiaries,  real  or  suspected,  to  death.  All  was  over  with  the 
French  conquest ;  only  a  fifth  of  the  houses  and  churches  re- 
mained standing.  From  that  time  it  was  impossible  to  prevent 
the  plunder  of  the  cellars,  and  of  the  buildings  which  were  intact. 
The  German  allies  were,  according  to  the  Muscovites,  incompar- 
ably more  greedy  than  the  true  Frenchmen.*  They  deserved 
the  name  of  "  The  merciless  army  "  (bezpardonnoe  vo'isko). 

During  the  thirty-five  days  that  the  troops  remained  at 
Moscow,  their  disorganization  was  brought  to  a  climax,  and 
probably  10,000  or  12,000  men  perished  from  hunger.  The 
troops  began  to  eat  the  horses.  Napoleon,  however,  got 
together  a  troupe  of  comedians  in  the  house  of  Posniakof,  held 
concerts  in  the  Kremlin,  and  promulgated  the  decree  of  Moscow 
about  the  Theatre  Fran9ais  of  Paris  ;  but  in  spite  of  all  this  he 
was  a  prey  to  disquietude.  The  plan  of  a  march  to  St.  Peters- 
burg on  the  approach  of  winter  was  rejected  as  impracticable. 
His  attempts  to  open  negotiations  with  Alexander  were  unsuc- 
cessful. He  thought  of  declaring  himself  King  of  Poland,  of 

•  See  the  new  accounts  in  M.  Rambaud's  book  called '  Francais  et  Russes, 
Moscou  et  Sevastopol  ' 


HTSTOR  Y  OF  R  USSTA.  !  8  7 

re-establishing  the  principality  of  Smolensk,  and  of  dismembering 
Western  Russia  ;  he  studied  papers  relative  to  the  attempt  of 
1730,  to  see  if  he  could  not  seduce  the  nobles  by  the  bait  of  a 
constitution,  and  dreamed  of  decreeing  the  liberty  of  the  serfs 
and  of  raising  the  Tatars  on  the  Volga.  He  was  powerless ; 
without  means  of  action  ;  without  news  ;  almost  blockaded  in 
Moscow.  To  the  south  the  way  was  barred  by  Koutouzof, 
who  had  reinforced  himself  in  his  camp  of  Taroutino ;  by 
the  battle  of  Vinkovo  (October  18)  against  Murat,  the  road  to 
Riazan  was  shut ;  and  by  the  battle  of  Malo-Iaroslavets  (23rd- 
24th  Oct.)  that  to  Kalouga  was  to  be  blocked,  only  leaving  free 
the  road  to  Smolensk,  which  had  been  laid  waste.  Even  this 
was  no  longer  safe.  The  war  of  guerillas,  the  war  of  peasants, 
the  Cossack  war  had  begun.  Gerasimus  Kourine,  a  peasant  of 
the  village  of  Pavlovo,  assembled  5800  men  "  to  fight  for  the 
country  and  the  holy  temple  of  the  Mother  of  God  against  an 
enemy  who  threatened  to  burn  all  the  villages,  and  to  take  the 
skin  off  all  the  inhabitants." 

The  mougiks  fell  on  foraging  parties  and  marauders  ;  they 
killed  them  by  blows  with  pitchforks ;  they  hung  them,  they 
drowned  them.  Wilson  the  Englishman  relates  that  they  buried 
men  alive.  In  the  single  district  of  Borovsk,  3500  soldiers  were 
killed  or  taken.  The  guerilla  chiefs  Figner,  Sesslavine,  Davydof, 
Benkendorff,  and  Prince  Kourakine  captured  the  convoys  on  the 
road  to  Smolensk.  Dorokhof,  with  a  band  of  2500  men  and  a 
party  of  Cossacks,  took  Verei'a  by  assault.  The  peasant  Vas- 
silissa  and  Mademoiselle  Nade'jda  Dourova  gave  warlike 
examples  to  the  Russian  women.  Cossacks  already  appeared 
disguised  in  Moscow. 

On  the  i3th  of  October,  in  the  first  snow,  Napoleon  had 
made  the  ambulances  and  the  first  convoys  leave  Moscow. 
From  the  i8th  to  the  23rd,  90,060  combatants  quitted  Moscow. 
They  took  with  them  600  guns,  2000  artillery  wagons,  and  50,000 
non-combatants — invalids,  workmen,  women,  and  inhabitants  of 
the  towns  who  feared  the  first  excesses  of  the  Cossacks.  Mortier 
left  Moscow  the  last,  having  sprung  mines  under  the  Kremlin. 
The  palace  of  Elizabeth  was  blown  up  ;  the  gate  of  the  Saviour, 
that  of  the  Trinity,  and  the  tower  of  Ivan  the  Great  were  cracked 
by  the  explosions ;  there  were  many  gaps  in  the  walls  of  the 
Kremlin.  It  was  a  cruel,  useless  revenge,  \vhich  might  call 
down  horrible  reprisals  on  the  wounded  who  were  left  behind. 

The  only  road  to  Smolensk  was  opened  by  the  battle  of 
Viasma  (3rd  November),  where  Ney  and  Eugene,  cut  off  from 
Davoust  by  Miloradovitch,  defeated  40,000  Russians.  At 
Smolensk  they  found  the  magazines  empty  (November  12).  It 


1 88  fffS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSTA, 

was  there  that  hunger  and  18  degrees  of  cold  began  to  decimate 
the  remains  of  the  Grand  Army.  What  it  suffered  is  eloquently 
described  in  the  memoirs  and  accounts  of  Se'gur,  Labaume, 
Brandt,  Fezensac,  Dennie'e,  Chambray,  Fain,  Rend  Bourgeois, 
Domergue,  Madame  Fusil  (actress  at  the  French  theatre  at 
Moscow),  Madame  de  Choiseul-Gouffier,  and  Wilson.  A  repe- 
tition here  would  be  superfluous. 

At  Krasnoe"  Napoleon  was  obliged  to  send  the  Guard  to 
rescue  Davoust  ;  Ney,  who  commanded  the  rear-guard,  was 
forced  with  a  body  of  6000  fighting  men  and  6000  stragglers  to 
give  battle  to  60,000  Russians  (igth  November),  but  from 
Smolensk  to  Krasnoe'  26,000  stragglers  and  wounded,  208 
cannon,  and  5000  carriages  fell  into  the  hands  of  Koutouzof 

The  old  general,  who  had  collected  all  these  trophies  a\^,oct 
without  a  blow,  triumphed  in  his  success.  They  brought  him  a 
French  flag,  where  amidst  the  names  of  immortal  battles  might 
be  read  that  of  Austerlitz.  "  What  is  that  ?  "  he  asked  "  Aus- 
terlitz !  It  is  true  it  was  hot  work  at  Austerlitz.  But  I  wash 
my  hands  of  it  before  the  whole  army.  They  are  innocent  of 
Austerlitz."  This  was  at  the  camp  of  the  Semenovski,  and  one 
of  his  officers  exclaimed,  "  Hurrah  for  the  Saviour  of  Russia  ! " 
"  No,"  said  Koutouzof  ;  "  listen,  my  friends  !  It  is  not  to  me 
that  the  honor  belongs,  but  to  the  Russian  soldier."  And, 
throwing  his  cap  into  the  air,  he  cried  with  all  his  strength, 
"  Hurrah  !  hurrah  for  the  brave  Russian  soldier!  "  Then,  made 
communicative  by  the  joy  of  success,  he  said  to  his  officers, 
"  Where  does  the  son  of  a  dog  lie  this  night  ?  I  know  already 
that  he  will  not  sleep  quietly  at  Liady :  Sesslavine  has  given  me 
his  word  of  honor.  Listen,  gentlemen,  to  a  pretty  fable  that 
Krylof  the  good  story-teller  has  sent  me.  A  wolf  entered  into  a 
kennel  and  tormented  the  dogs.  As  to  his  entrance,  he  had 
managed  that  very  well ;  but  It  was  quite  another  affair  to  get 
out !  All  the  dogs  were  after  him,  and  he  was  driven  into  a 
corner  with  his  hairs  standing  on  end,  and  saying,  '  What  is  the 
matter,  my  friends  ?  What  is  your  grievance  against  me  ?  I 
simply  came  to  see  what  you  were  doing,  and  now  I  am  going 
away.'  The  huntsman  by  this  time  had  hastened  to  the  spot, 
and  replied,  '  No,  friend  Wolf,  you  will  not  impose  upon  us  !  It 
is  true  you  are  an  old  rascal  with  gray  hair,  but  I  am  also  gray, 
and  not  more  stupid  than  you.'  "  And,  taking  off  his  cap  and 
showing  his  gray  locks,  Koutouzof  continued,  "  You  shall  not  go 
as  you  have  come,  for  I  have  set  my  dogs  on  your  traces  " 
('  Memoirs  of  JirkieVitch '). 

The  situation  of  the  French  army  was  critical.  In  the  north 
St.  Cyr,  after  a  bloody  battle  at  Polotsk  (igth  October),  had 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  X89 

evacuated  the  line  of  the  Dwina.  Macdonald  was  therefore 
left  without  support,  expecting  the  desertion  of  some  of  his 
Prussians.  In  the  south,  Schwartzenberg  had  retreated  on  War- 
saw, more  occupied  with  Poland  than  with  the  safety  of  Napoleon. 
Thus,  Wittgenstein  on  the  north,  and  Tchitchagof  on  the  south, 
coui'd  hang  on  the  flanks  of  the  Grand  Army  ;  both  hoped  to 
come  up  with  it  at  the  passage  of  the  Berezina,  and  to  enclose 
it  between  themselves  and  Koutouzof.  Koutouzof  himself 
reckoned  on  this,  and  restrained  the  ardor  of  the  most  im- 
patient of  the  Cossacks,  and  of  Wilson  the  Englishman,  who 
said,  "What  a  shame  to  let  all  these  ghosts  roam  from  their 
graves  !  "  They  all  believed  that  a  breath  would  scatter  what 
had  been  the  Grand  Army,  but  Koutouzof  would  not  hazard 
what  he  had  gained  in  a  battle  ;  he  left  it  to  time,  to  hunger, 
and  to  winter.  The  cold  was  to  reach  26  degrees. 

In  spite  of  Koutouzof,  in  spite  of  Wittgenstein,  in  spite  of 
Tchitchagof,  the  ice,  the  breaking  down  of  the  bridges,  the 
French  army  crossed  the  Berezina  near  Stoudianka  (26th-29th 
November).  The  world  knows  what  a  price  the  passage  cost, 
but  still  it  was  a  great  success,  a  victory  of  the  desperate. 
Surrounded  by  140,000  Russians,  these  40,000  men  with  the  Em- 
peror managed  to  cross.  A  third  among  them  were  Poles. 
They  continued  their  journey.  At  Smorgoni,  Napoleon  quitted 
the  army  to  hasten  to  Paris,  leaving  the  command  to  Murat. 
It  stopped  at  Wilna,  where  some  months  previously  splendid 
fetes  had  received  the  restorer  of  Poland,  the  liberator  of  Lith- 
uania. The  starving  soldiers  rushed  eagerly  into  the  houses. 
Suddenly  the  cannon  sounded  on  three  sides  :  it  was  the  three 
Russian  armies  which  had  come  up.  Ney,  with  his  4000 
"  braves,"  protected  the  flight  of  this  tumultuous  crowd.  After 
his  departure,  there  happened  in  Wilna  a  scene  more  frightful, 
perhaps,  than  the  passage  of  the  Berezina.  Wilna  was  filled 
with  sick  and  wounded  French  ;  nearly  every  house  had  its 
guests.  The  Jews,  who  were  very  numerous  *n  this  town, 
through  fear  of  the  Russians  and  hatred  of  tin  ^endi  and 
Polish  conscriptions,  threw  these  unhappy  wretches  ovt  of  the 
windows.  The  Jewish  women  could  easily  kick  to  de?th  the 
men  who  had  taken  the  bridge  of  Frieclland  or  the  gre?^  re- 
doubt of  Borodino.  The  Cossacks,  first  to  enter  the  town,  fell 
furiously  upon  the  defenceless  camp-followers,  on  the  women 
and  the  sutlers.  Then  a  frightful  carnage  took  place.  Thirty 
thousand  corpses  were  burned  on  piles.  The  remains  of  the 
army,  always  protected  by  the  intrepid  Ney,  at  last  recross*"1 
the  Niemen.  They  left  behind  them  330,000  French  or  al 
dead  or  prisoners. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   GERMANY  AND   FRANCE  :   TREATIES  OF     PARIS  AND 

VIENNA. 

After  the  extinction  of  the  Grand  Army,  Koutouzof  and  the 
Chancellor  Roumantsof  were  agreed  not  to  tempt  fortune,  but 
simply  to  take  the  eastern  provinces  of  Prussia  and  Poland,  to 
make  the  Vistula  the  frontier  of  Russia,  and  to  conclude  a  peace 
with  Napoleon. 

"  But,"  says  M.  Bogdanovitch,  "  they  did  not  reflect  that 
Napoleon  could  easily  repair  his  losses,  thanks  to  the  strong 
concentration  of  France  in  a  confined  space,  to  the  rapidity 
with  which  French  conscripts  were  taught,  to  the  great  maga- 
zines, and  the  vast  financial  resources.  We,  on  the  contrary, 
had  to  assemble  our  recruits  over  immense  spaces,  and  our 
finances  were  in  great  disorder.  Consequences  proved  that 
even  with  the  help  of  Prussia,  then  exerting  all  her  strength,  \\e 
could  not  make  head  against  Napoleon  in  the  battles  of  Liitzen 
and  Bautzen.  What  then  would  have  happened  if  the  Prussians, 
irritated  at  our  pretensions,  had  allied  themselves  with  France  ? 
Obviously  Napoleon,  reinforced  by  Prussian  armies  and  the 
Polish  contingents,  would  have  reappeared  on  the  Dwina,  and; 
profiting  by  the  lesson  of  1812,  would  have  acted  with  more 
precaution  and  perhaps  with  more  success."  Alexander,  there- 
fore, resolved  to  find  in  the  nations  which  were  said  to  be 
oppressed  by  Napoleon  the  forces  necessary  to  vanquish  him, 
to  make  the  security  of  Russia  rest  on  the  "  liberation "  of 
the  whole  of  Europe  ;  and  following  the  example  of  Napo- 
leon, who  had  provoked  a  general  movement  from  West  to 
East  against  Russia,  to  raise  the  nations  from  East  to  West 
against  France.  The  burning  of  his  palace  and  his  capital 
rendered  him  inaccessible  to  all  proposals  of  peace  ;  Stein  and 
the  other  German  refugees  did  not  allow  him  to  forget  his 
vengeance. 

Whilst  the  Russian  troops  invaded  Poland,  and  gave  battle 
to  the  remnants  of  the  Grand  Army  at  Elbing  and  Kalisch  ; 
whilst  Czartoryski  entreated  the  Tzar  to  re-establish  Poland, 
under  the  sceptre  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael,  Alexander 
opened  negotiations  with  Prussia.  Frederick  William  nego- 
tiated at  once  both  with  him  and  Napoleon.  He  disavowed 
York  of  Wartenburg,  whose  defection  at  Tauroggen  had  given 
the  signal  for  the  Germanic  movement,  and  who  raised  Eastern 
Prussia.  He  sent,  however,  Knesebeck,  disguised  as  a  mer- 
chant, to  the  head-quarters  of  the  Tzar.  Alexander  in  his  turn 
sent  him  Stein  and  Anslett,  who  induced  him  to  sign  the  Treaty 


JflSTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  r gt 

of  Kalisch  (February  28,  1813),  by  which  the  two  princes  formed 
an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance,  "  for  the  re-establishment 
of  the  Prussian  monarch  within  limits  which  may  assure  the 
tranquility  of  the  two  States."  Russia  furnished  150,000  men, 
Prussia  80,000  ;  they  were  only  to  treat  with  Napoleon  in  con- 
cert, and  Russia  was  to  try  to  obtain  a  subsidy  from  England, 
for  Prussia.  It  was  only  on  the  i7th  of  March,  when  Wittgen- 
stein had  made  his  entry  into  Berlin,  that  the  King  of  Prussia 
declared  war  against  Napoleon,  and  put  forth  proclamations 
"  To  my  people  !  to  my  army  !  "  On  the  igth  of  March,  when 
Bliicher  entered  Saxony,  the  two  princes  concluded  the  conven- 
tion of  Breslau  :  they  decided  to  summon  all  the  princes  and  all 
the  people  of  Germany  to  hasten  to  set  free  their  common 
country ;  the  princes  who  refused  within  a  specified  time  were 
to  be  deprived  of  their  territories.  The  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine  was  broken  :  a  central  council  of  government  was  created 
to  administer  the  countries  which  were  to  be  reconquered,  from 
Saxony  to  Holland,  to  recollect  the  revenues  assigned  from  that 
time  to  the  allied  Powers,  and  everywhere  to  organize  levies. 

Napoleon  had  displayed  his  ordinary  activity ;  he  had  set  on 
foot  450,000  men  ;  his  good  cities  of  Paris,  Lyons,  Rome,  Am- 
sterdam, and  Hamburg  had  made  him  patriotic  presents  of  thou- 
sands of  horses.  The  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  with  the 
exception  of  Saxony,  which  was  at  that  time  being  invaded,  pre- 
pared contingents.  It  was  with  180,000  men  and  350  guns 
that  Napoleon  reappeared  on  the  line  of  the  Elbe,  and  he  might 
well  count  on  crossing  it,  for  in  his  strong  places  on  the  Vistula 
and  the  Oder — Dantzig,  Thorn,  Plo9k,  Modlin,  Kustrin,  Glogau, 
Settin,  and  Stralsund — he  had  left  garrisons  amounting  to  nearly 
an  equal  number.  The  weak  point  of  this  new  army  was  the 
great  number  of  conscripts,  the  youth  of  the  soldiers,  and  the 
feebleness  of  the  cavalry.  The  veterans,  the  innumerable 
squadrons  of  Murat,  were  buried  beneath  the  snows  of  Russia. 

On  the  2nd  of  May,  at  Lutzen,  and  on  the  2oth  of  May,  at 
Bautzen,  Napoleon  gained  two  brilliant  victories,  but  could  not 
pursue  the  vanquished  for  want  of  cavalry.  He  entered  Dres- 
den and  re-established  his  ally  the  King  of  Saxony;  even  Silesia 
was  entered.  In  the  north  Davoust  had  recaptured  Hamburg 
and  Ltibeck,  which  an  insurrection  had  lost  to  the  French ;  the 
guerillas  who  had  shown  themselves  in  Westphalia  and  Han- 
over had  been  driven  back. 

The  King  of  Prussia  was  singularly  discouraged.  Never 
able  to  put  aside  the  recollections  of  1806,  he  remarked  after 
Ltltzen,  "  It  is  just  as  it  was  at  Auerstadt."  "  The  loss  of  these 
two  battles,"  says  M.  Bogdanovitch,  "  had  loosened  the  bonds 


192 


HISTORY  OF  RUSStA. 


of  the  alliance.  The  Prussian  generals  complained  that  their 
country  was  ravaged  by  the  Russians  as  well  as  by  the  French. 
The  ideas  of  Barclay  de  Tolly  and  most  of  the  Russian  leaders 
did  not  agree  with  those  of  Blticher  and  his  officers.  In  proportion 
as  the  Russians  increased  the  distance  from  their  country,  did 
they  find  it  difficult  to  get  ammunition,  and  even  food.  In  all 
the  space  included  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Vistula  there  were 
as  yet  no  magazines.  The  soldiers  were  badly  clothed  and 
badly  shod.  The  habitual  discipline  of  the  troops  relaxed.  The 
condition  of  the  Prussian  army  was  no  better."  Alexander  and 
even  the  King  of  Prussia  might  say  to  themselves  that  their 
stakes  were  heavy. 

It  was  then  that  the  Emperor  Francis  interfered 'and  per- 
suaded his  son-in-law  to  sign  the  armistice  of  Pleswitz,  of  which 
Napoleon  said,  "  If  the  allies  do  not  really  wish  for  peace,  this 
truce  may  be  fatal  to  us."  During  this  time  the  Russian  army 
was  in  fact  re-organized ;  Prussia  created  its  Landwehr  ;  the 
Prince  of  Sweden  became  a  member  of  the  Coalition  for 
the  promise  of  Norway;  Moreau,  another  Frenchman,  brought 
his  talents  to  the  help  of  the  allies ;  Dantzig,  Stettin,  Kttstrin, 
and  Glogau  were  besieged.  A  piece  of  exciting  news  reached 
Germany.  Spain  was  lost  to  Napoleon,  and  the  English  threat- 
ened the  Bidassoa.  As  to  Austria,  her  tendency  to  defection 
showed  itself  more  and  more  ;  after  Lutzen,  she  had  sent  at  the 
same  time  Stadion  to  Alexander,  and  Bubna  to  Napoleon.  She 
prolonged  negotiations.  Discontented  with  her  attitude,  Napo- 
leon had  tried  in  vain  to  approach  Alexander  ;  Caulaincourt  was 
not  received. 

Austria  at  last  transmitted  to  Napoleon  the  conditions  of  the 
allies  :  i.  The  destruction  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  and 
the  partition  of  Poland  between  the  three  courts  of  the  North  ; 
2.  The  re-establishment  of  Prussia,  as  far  as  possible,  within  the 
limits  of  1805  ;  3.  Restitution  to  Austria  of  her  Illyrian  provinces ; 
4.  Restoration  of  the  Hanseatic  towns  ;  5.  Dissolution  of  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine.  Napoleon  manifested  the  most  lively 
irritation,  but  neverethless  consented  that  a  congress  should 
assemble  at  Prague  to  discuss  the  conditions.  H«  gave  his  in- 
structions to  Narbonne  and  Caulaincourt.  To  punish  Austria's 
disloyalty,  he  determined  that  "  not  one  single  village"  should  be 
ceded  to  her ;  with  Russia  he  wished  for  a  glorious  peace,  but 
on  the  principle  of  uti possidetis.  Pretensions  so  opposite  could 
not  be  reconciled,  and  the  allies  increased  their  claims  still 
further,  by  demanding  that  the  Italian  provinces  should  be  restor- 
ed Austria,  and  Holland  abandoned.  When  Napoleon  finally  con- 
sented to  sacrifice  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  and  the  Illyrian 


OF  RUSSIA. 


193 


provinces,  Austria  declared  that  it  was  too  late,  and  that  she  had 
entered  into  the  Coalition  (August  15). 

The  allies  had  now  three  armies  in  Germany :  that  of  the 
North,  under  Bernadotte,  encamped  on  the  Havel,  with  130,000 
men  (Russians,  Swedes,  and  Prussians)  ;  that  of  Silesia,  under 
Bliicher,  posted  on  the  Oder,  numbering  200,000  men  (Russians 
and  Prussians)  ;  that  of  Bohemia,  under  Schwartzenberg,  con- 
sisted of  130,000  Austrians  and  Russians,  and  had  taken  up 
its  position  in  the  neighborhood  of  Prague.  Thus  of  the  three 
commanders-in-chief  not  one  was  Russian.  The  Grand  Duke 
Constantine,  Barclay,  Ostermann  and  Ermolof  served  Schwartzen- 
berg, Sacken  under  Blticher,  and  Wintzingerode  under  Ber- 
nadotte. The  old  Koutouzof  had  died  at  Buntzlau  during  the 
summer  campaign. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  before  whom  the 
pale  sovereigns  of  Austria  and  Prussia  were  eclipsed,  seemed  to 
direct  the  armies  and  the  diplomacy  of  the  Coalition.  It  was 
he  who  to  the  end  was  to  be  the  firmest  against  Nopoleon,  the 
most  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  his  downfall,  and  who,  after 
having  transported  the  war  from  Russia  to  Germany,  would 
transport  it  from  Germany  to  France. 

To  all  these  forces  Napoleon  opposed  the  30,000  men  of 
Davoust  who  occupied  Hamburg,  70,000  under  Oudinot  at  Wit- 
tenberg, and  the  180,000  which  he  had  concentrated  under  his 
hand  from  Dresden  to  Liegnitz,  with  Vandamme,  St.  Cyr,  Ney, 
Macdonald,  Mortier,  and  Murat.  Pie  fought  a  great  battle  with 
the  army  of  Bohemia  in  the  very  faubourgs  of  Dresden  (26th  and 
zyth  of  August),  in  which  the  latter  was  forced  to  fall  back  in 
disorder  on  Bohemia,  with  the  loss  of  40,000  men  and  200  guns. 
The  allies  henceforth  resolved  to  avoid  all  encounters  with 
Napoleon,  and  only  to  fight  his  lieutenants. 

Napoleon  had  posted  Vandamme,  with  25,000  men,  in  the 
defiles  of  Peterswald,  to  bar  the  way  to  the  fugitives,  and  in  the 
events  which  followed  forgot  to  recall  him.  Vandamme  descend- 
ed as  far  as  Toplitz,  to  cut  off  the  allies,  but  he  came  up  with  the 
Russian  Guard,  which  made  a  desperate  resistance ;  even  the 
musicians,  the  drummers,  and  the  clerks  demanded  muskets. 
Ostermann  lost  one  arm.  Vandamme,  still  without  orders,  re- 
treated to  Ktilm.  He  there  found  himself  attacked  and  sur- 
rounded by  forces  four  times  as  numerous  as  his  own,  and  was 
taken  with  half  of  his  corps  (3Oth  of  August).  Ktllm  was  almost 
entirely  a  Russian  victory,  due  above  all  to  Barclay,  Ostermann, 
and  Ermolof.  It  cost  dear,  for  the  Russians  lost  6000  men, 
2800  of  whom  belonged  to  the  Guard.  In  his  joy  Alexander 
covered  the  Preobrajenski,  the  Ismaiilovski,  the  sailors,  and  the 


,94  H1STOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

chasseurs  of  the  Guard  with  decorations  and  caused  St.  George's 
cross  to  be  attached  to  their  standards.  At  last  the  Coalition 
had  gained  a  success.  Nearly  at  the  same  time  Macdonald  was 
defeated  by  Bltlcher  on  the  Katzbach  ;  Oudinot  at  Gross-Beeren, 
and  Ney  at  Dennewitz,  by  Bernadotte.  The  Cossacks  threw 
themselves  into  Westphalia,  and  Tchernichef  took  Cassel  and 
the  archives  of  King  Jerome. 

From  that  time  the  three  armies  pressed  closer  to  Napoleon. 
Bennigsen  had  just  brought  the  Russian  army  a  reinforcement 
of  60,000  men.  The  French  army,  reduced  to  160,000  men, 
found  itself  surrounded  by  300,000  allies  and  1200  guns;  these 
formed  a  half-circle  round  her,  and  only  left  free  the  way  to  the 
West.  Then  Napoleon,  whose  corps  (famine  were  stationed  at 
each  gate  of  Leipzig,  so  as  to  command  all  the  routes,  fought 
the  celebrated  "  battle  of  nations,"  which  lasted  four  days. 
Alexander  showed  great  personal  bravery,  remaining  almost 
under  the  fire  of  the  French  batteries,  and  hastening  the  arrival 
of  reinforcements  on  the  most  threatened  places.  On  the  i6th 
of  October  the  French  still  maintained  their  position,  on  the  iyth 
they  watched,  while  the  allies  reached  their  maximum  of  con- 
centration. On  the  i8th  the  battle  began  with  renewed  fury : 
the  cannonade  was  more  terrible  than  that  of  Borodino,  says 
Miloradovitch  ;  it  was  on  this  day  that  the  Saxons  deserted. 
On  the  igth  the  French  army  began  to  retreat  towards  the  west, 
Victor  and  Augereau  at  the  head  ;  Ney,  Marmont,  the  Guard, 
and  Napoleon  in  the  centre,  while  Lauriston,  Macdonald,  and 
Poniatovski  formed  the  rear-guard.  It  was  this  rear-guard  that 
was  destroyed  by  the  premature  explosion  of  the  bridges  over 
the  Elster.  Macdonald  saved  himself  by  swimming  ;  Lauriston 
was  captured  with  30,000  men  and  150  guns  ;  Poniatovski  was 
drowned.  With  him  perished  the  hope  of  the  regeneration  of 
Poland  by  the  hand  of  Napoleon  :  intrepid,  disinterested,  and 
patriotic,  Poniatovski  did  not  care  for  the  staff  of  a  marshal  of 
France  :  he  wished  only  to  remain  "  the  chief  of  the  Poles." 

The  Prussians,  who  detested  Saxony,  wished  to  take  the 
town  of  Leipzig  by  assault.  Alexander  had  to  interfere,  and 
managed  to  negotiate  a  capitulation  with  the  remains  of  the 
French  troops.  As  to  the  King  of  Saxony,  a  prisoner  in  his 
own  palace,  Alexander  received  him  coldly;  he  refused  to  treat 
with  him  under  the  pretext  that  he  had  rejected  the  appeal  made 
by  the  Coalition  to  the  German  princes,  and  had  persisted  in 
his  devotion  to  Napoleon.  Perhaps  he  also  wished  to  punish 
the  last  Saxon  prince  who  had  reigned  over  Poland.  We  shall 
see,  besides,  that  the  schemes  of  Alexander  with  regard  to  this 
part  of  Europe  did  not  allow  him  to  hold  out  any  hopes  to  the 
King  of  Saxony. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  I9j 

The  battle  of  Leipzig  was  the  overthrow  of  the  French  rule 
in  Germany  ;  there  only  remained,  as  evidence  of  what  they  had 
lost,  150,000  men,  garrisons  of  the  fortresses  of  the  Vistula,  the 
Oder,  and  the  Elbe.  Each  success  of  the  allies  had  been  marked 
by  the  desertion  of  one  of  the  peoples  that  had  furnished  its 
contingent  to  the  Grand  Army  of  1812  :  after  Prussia,  Austria; 
at  Leipzig  the  Saxons  :  the  French  had  not  been  able  to  regain 
the  Rhine  except  by  passing  over  the  bodies  of  the  Bavarians  at 
Hanau.  Baden,  Wurtemberg,  Hesse,  and  Darmstadt  declared 
their  defection  at  nearly  the  same  time  ;  the  sovereigns  were 
still  hesitating  whether  to  separate  themselves  from  Napoleon, 
when  their  people  and  regiments,  worked  upon  by  the  German 
patriots,  had  already  passed  into  the  allied  camp.  Jerome  Bona- 
parte had  again  quitted  Cassel ;  Denmark  found  itself  forced  to 
adhere  to  the  Coalition. 

Napoleon  had  retired  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  Would 
Alexander  cross  this  natural  frontier  of  revolutionary  France  ? 
"Convinced,"  says  M.  Bogdanovitch,  "by  the  experience  of 
many  years,  that  neither  losses  inflicted  on  Napoleon,  nor  trea- 
ties concluded  with  him,  could  check  his  insatiable  ambition, 
Alexander  would  not  stop  at  setting  free  the  involuntary  allies 
of  France,  and  resolved  to  pursue  the  war  till  he  had  over- 
thrown his  enemy."  The  allied  sovereigns  found  themselves 
reunited  at  Frankfort,  and  an  immediate  march  to  Paris  was 
discussed.  Alexander,  Stein,  Blucher,  Gneisenau,  and  all  the 
Prussians  were  on  the  side  of  decisive  action.  The  Emperor 
Francis  and  Metternich  only  desired  Napoleon  to  be  weakened, 
as  his  downfall  would  expose  Austria  to  another  danger,  the 
preponderance  of  Russia  on  the  Continent.  Bernadotte  insisted 
on  Napoleon's  dethronement,  with  the  ridiculous  design  of  ap~ 
propriating  the  crown  of  France,  traitor  as  he  was  to  her  cause. 
England  would  have  preferred  a  solid  and  immediate  peace  to 
a  war  which  would  exhaust  her  in  subsidies,  and  augment  her  al- 
ready enormous  debt.  These  divergencies,  these  hesitations, 
gave  Napoleon  time  to  strengthen  his  position.  After  Hanau, 
in  the  opinion  of  Ney,  "  the  allies  might  have  counted  theu 
stages  to  Paris." 

Napoleon  had  re-tpened  the  negotiations.  The  relinquish- 
ment  of  Italy  (when  Murat  on  his  side  negotiated  for  the  preser- 
vation of  his  kingdom  of  Naples),  of  Holland,  of  Germany,  and 
of  Spain,  and  the  confinement  of  France  between  her  natural 
boundaries  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Alps  ;  such  were  the  "  Condi- 
tions of  Frankfort."  Napoleon  sent  an  answer  to  Metternich, 
"  that  he  consented  to  the  opening  of  a  congress  at  Mannheim  ; 
that  the  conclusion  of  a  peace  which  would  insure  the  indepen- 


! 96  1IISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

dence  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  had  always  been  the  aim  ot 
his  policy."  This  reply  seems  evasive,  but  could  the  proposals 
of  the  allies  have  been  serious  ?  Encouraged  by  disloyal 
Frenchmen,  they  published  the  declaration  of  Frankfort,  by 
which  they  affirmed  ';  that  they  did  not  make  war  with  France, 
but  against  the  preponderance  which  Napoleon  had  long  exer- 
cised beyond  the  limits  of  his  empire."  Deceitful  assurance, 
too  obvious  snare,  which  could  only  take  in  a  nation  weary  of 
war,  enervated  by  twenty-two  years  of  sterile  victories,  and  at 
the  end  of  its  resources  !  During  this  time  Alexander,  with  the 
deputies  of  the  Helvetian  Diet  summoned  at  Frankfort,  dis- 
cussed the  basis  of  a  new  Swiss  Confederation.  Holland  was 
already  raised  by  the  partisans  of  the  house  of  Orange,  and 
entered  by  the  Prussians.  The  campaign  of  France  began. 

Alexander  issued  at  Freiburg  a  proclamation  to  his  troops : 
"  Your  heriosm  has  led  you  from  the  banks  of  the  Oka  to  those 
of  the  Rhine  ;  it  will  conduct  you  still  further ;  we  will  cross  the 
Rhine,  we  will  penetrate  to  the  territory  of  the  people  against 
whom  we  have  sustained  such  a  fierce  and  bloody  struggle. 
Already  we  have  saved  and  glorified  our  country  ;  we  have 
given  back  to  Europe  her  liberty  and  her  independence.  Oh 
that  peace  and  tranquillity  may  reign  over  the  whole  earth ! 
that  each  State  may  prosper  under  its  own  government  and  its 
own  laws  !  By  invading  our  empire,  the  enemy  has  done  us 
much  harm,  and  has  therefore  been  subjected  to  a  terrible 
chastisement.  The  anger  of  God  has  overthrown  him.  Do  not 
let  us  imitate  him.  The  merciful  God  does  not  love  cruel  and 
inhuman  men.  Let  us  forget  the  evil  he  has  wrought ;  let  us 
carry  to  our  foes,  not  vengeance  and  hate,  but  friend  hip,  and  a 
hand  extended  in  peace.  The  glory  of  Russia  is  to  hurl  her 
armed  foe  to  the  earth,  but  to  load  with  benefits  her  disarmed 
enemy  and  the  peaceful  populations."  He  refused  to  receive 
Caulaincourt  at  Freiburg,  declaring  that  he  would  only  treat  in 
France.  "Let  us  spare  the  French  negotiator  the  trouble  of  the 
i  >urney,"  he  said  to  Metternich.  "  It  does  not  seem  to  me  a 
matter  of  indifference  to  the  allied  sovereigns,  whether  the  peace 
with  France  is  signed  on  this  side  of  the  Rhine,  or  on  the  other, 
in  the  very  heart  of  France.  Such  an  historical  event  is  well 
worth  a  change  of  quarters." 

Without  counting  the  armies  of  Italy  and  the  Pyrenees, 
Napoleon  had  now  a  mere  handful  of  troops,  80,000  men,  spread 
from  Nimeguen  to  Bale,  to  resist  500,000  allies.  The  army  of 
the  Norih  (Wintzingerode)  invaded  Holland,  Belgium,  and  the 
Rhenish  provinces ;  the  army  of  Silesia  (Blucher)  crossed  the 
Rhine  bet^sen  Mannheim  and  Coblentz,  and  entered  Nancy ; 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


197 


the  army  of  Bohemia  (Schwartzenberg)  passed  through  Switzer- 
land, and  advanced  on  Troyes,  where  the  Royalists  demanded 
the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons.  Napoleon  was  still  able  to 
bar  for  some  time  the  way  to  his  capital.  He  first  attacked  the 
army  of  Silesia ;  he  defeated  the  vanguard,  the  Russians  of 
Sacken,  at  St.  Didier,  and  Blucher  at  Brienne  ;  but  at  La 
Rothiere  he  encountered  the  formidable  masses  of  the  Silesian 
and  Bohemian  armies,  and  after  a  fierce  battle  (ist  February, 
1814)  had  to  fall  back  on  Troyes.  After  this  victory  had  se- 
cured their  junction,  the  two  armies  separated  again,  the  one  to 
50  down  the  Marne,  the  other  the  Seine,  with  the  intention  of 
reuniting  at  Paris.  Napoleon  profited  by  this  mistake.  He 
threw  himself  on  the  left  flank  of  the  army  of  Silesia,  near 
Champeaubert,  where  he  dispersed  the  troops  of  Olsoufief  and 
Poltaratski,  inflicted  on  them  a  loss  of  2500  men,  and  took  the 
generals  prisoners.  At  Montmirail,  in  spite  of  the  heroism  of 
Zigrote  and  Lapoukhine,  he  defeated  Sacken ;  the  Russians 
alone  lost  2800  men  and  five  guns  (nth  February).  At  Chateau 
Thierry,  he  defeated  Sacken  and  York  reunited,  and  again  the 
Russians  lost  1500  men  and  five  guns.  At  Vauchamp  it  was 
the  turn  of  Blucher,  who  lost  2000  Russians,  4000  Prussians, 
and  fifteen  guns.  The  army  of  Silesia  was  in  terrible  disorder. 
"  The  peasants,  exasperated  by  the  disorder  inseparable  from  a 
retreat,  and  excited  by  exaggerated  rumors  of  French  successes, 
took  up  arms,  and  refused  supplies.  The  soldiers  suffered  both 
from  cold  and  hunger,  Champagne  affording  no  wood  for 
bivouac  fires.  When  the  weather  became  milder,  their  shoes 
wore  out,  and  the  men,  obliged  to  make  forced  marches  with 
bare  feet,  were  carried  by  hundreds  into  the  hospitals  of  the 
country  "  (Bogdanovitch). 

Whilst  the  army  of  Silesia  retreated  in  disorder  on  the  army 
of  the  North,  Napoleon,  with  50,000  soldiers  full  of  enthusiasm, 
turned  on  that  of  Bohemia,  crushed  the  Bavarians  and  Russians 
at  Mormans,  the  Wurtembergers  at  Montereau,  the  Prussians  at 
Mery  :  these  Prussians  made  part  of  the  army  of  Blucher,  who 
had  detached  a  corps  to  hang  on  the  rear  of  Napoleon.  This 
campaign  made  a  profound  impression  on  the  allies.  Castle- 
reagh  expressed,  in  Alexander's  presence,  the  opinion  that 
peace  should  be  made  before  they  were  driven  across  the  Rhine. 
The  military  chiefs  began  to  feel  uneasy.  Sesslavine  sent  news 
from  Joigny  that  Napoleon  had  180,000  men  at  Troyes.  A 
general  insurrection  of  the  eastern  provinces  was  expected  in 
the  rear  of  the  allies. 

It  was  the  firmness  of  Alexander  which  maintained  the  Coal- 
ition, it  was  the  military  energy  of  Blucher  which  saved  it. 


, 98  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

Soon  after  his  disasters  he  received  reinforcements  from  th« 
army  of  the  North,  and  took  the  offensive  against  the  marshals  ; 
then,  hearing  of  the  arrival  of  Napoleon  at  La  Ferte'  Gaucher, 
he  retreated  in  great  haste,  finding  an  unexpected  refuge  at 
Soissons,  which  had  just  been  taken  by  the  army  of  the  North. 
At  Craonne  (March  7)  and  at  Laon  (loth  to  i2th  March),  with 
100,000  men  against  30,000,  and  with  strong  positions,  he  man- 
aged to  repulse  all  the  attacks  of  Napoleon.  At  Craonne,  how- 
ever, the  Russian  loss  amounted  to  5000  men,  the  third  of  their 
effective  force.  The  battle  of  Laon  cost  them  4000  men.  Mean- 
while, De  Saint  Priest,  a  general  in  Alexander's  service,  had 
taken  Rheims  by  assault,  but  was  dislodged  by  Napoleon 
after  a  fierce  struggle,  where  the  Jmigrt  commander  was  badly 
wounded,  and  4000  of  his  men  were  killed  (i3th  March). 

The  Congress  of  Chatillon-sur-Seine  was  opened  on  the  28th 
of  February.  Russia  was  represented  by  Razoumovski  and 
Nesselrode,  Napoleon  by  Caulaincourt,  Austria  by  Stadion  and 
Metternich.  The  conditions  proposed  to  Napoleon  were  the 
reduction  of  France  to  its  frontiers  of  1792,  and  the  right  of  the 
allies  to  dispose,  without  reference  to  him,  of  the  reconquered 
countries.  Germany  was  to  be  a  confederation  of  independent 
States,  Italy  to  be  divided  into  free  States,  Spain  to  be  restored 
to  Ferdinand,  and  Holland  to  the  house  of  Orange.  "  Leav^ 
France  smaller  than  I  found  her?  Never!"  said  Napoleon. 
Alexander  and  the  Prussians  would  not  hear  of  a  peace  which 
left  Napoleon  on  the  throne.  Still,  however,  they  negotiated. 
Austria  and  England  were  both  agreed  not  to  push  him  to  ex 
tremities,  and  many  times  proposed  to  treat.  After  Napoleon'* 
great  success  against  Blucher,  Castlereagh  declared  for  peace 
"  It  would  not  be  a  peace,"  cried  the  Emperor  of  Russia ;  "  it 
would  be  a  truce  which  would  not  allow  us  to  disarm  one  mo- 
ment. I  cannot  come  400  leagues  every  day  to  your  assistance. 
No  peace,  as  long  as  Napoleon  is  on  the  throne."  Napoleon, 
in  his  turn,  intoxicated  by  his  success,  enjoined  Caulaincourt 
only  to  treat  on  the  bases  of  Frankfort — natural  frontiers.  After 
Montereau  he  forbade  him  to  treat  at  all  without  authority.  It 
was  then  that  he  addressed  a  letter  to  his  father-in-law,  the 
Emperor  of  Austria,  trying  to  make  him  ashamed  of  his  alliance 
with  the  "  Tatars  of  the  desert,  who  scarcely  deserve  the  name 
of  men,"  and  tempting  him  by  the  offer  of  a  separate  and  ad- 
vantageous peace.  He  afterwards  again  permitted  Caulaincourt 
to  treat,  but  only  on  the  bases  of  Frankfort.  Caulaincourt  like- 
wise demanded  that  Eugene  should  be  maintained  in  Italy, 
Elisa  Borghese  at  Lucca,  the  sons  of  Louis  Napoleon  at  Berg, 
»nd  the  King  of  Saxony  at  Warsaw.  These  conditions  proved 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


199 


unacceptable  ;  and,  as  fortune  returned  to  the  allies,  the  con. 
gress  was  dissolved  (igth  of  March).  The  Bourbon  princes 
were  already  in  France;  Louis  XVIII. was  on  the  point  of  be- 
ing proclaimed. 

Alexander,  tired  of  seeing  the  armies  of  Bohemia  and  Silesia 
fly  in  turn  before  thirty  or  forty  thousand  French,  caused  the 
allies  to  adopt  the  fatal  plan  of  a  march  on  Paris,  which  was  ex- 
ecuted in  eight  days.  Blticher  and  Schwartzenberg  united,  with 
200,000  men,  were  to  bear  down  all  opposition  on  their  passage. 
The  first  act  in  the  drama  was  the  battle  of  Arcis-sur-Aube, 
where  the  Russians  took  six  guns  from  Napoleon.  The  latter 
conceived  a  bold  scheme,  which  perhaps  might  have  saved  him 
if  Paris  could  have  resisted,  but  which  was  his  ruin.  He  threw 
himself  on  the  rear  of  the  allied  army,  abandoning  to  them  the 
route  to  Paris,  but  reckoning  on  raising  Eastern  France,  and 
cutting  off  their  retreat  to  the  Rhine.  The  allies,  uneasy  for 
one  moment,  were  reassured  by  an  intercepted  letter  of  Na- 
poleon's, and  by  the  letters  of  the  Parisian  royalists,  which  re- 
vealed to  them  the  weakness  of  the  capital.  "  Dare  all  !  " 
writes  Talleyrand  to  them.  They,  in  their  turn,  deceived  Na- 
poleon, by  causing  him  to  be  followed  by  a  troop  of  cavalry, 
continued  their  march,  defeated  Marmont  and  Mortier,  crushed 
the  National  Guards  of  Pacthod  (battle  of  La  Fere-Cham- 
penoise),  and  arrived  in  sight  of  Paris. 

Barclay  de  Tolly,  forming  the  centre,  first  attacked  the 
plateau  of  Romainville,  defended  by  Marmont  ;  on  his  left,  the 
Prince  of  Wurtemberg  threatened  Vincennes  ;  and  on  his  right, 
Bliicher  deployed  before  Montmartre,  which  was  defended  by 
Mortier.  The  heights  of  Chaumont  and  those  of  Montmartre 
were  taken  ;  Marmont  and  Mortier  with  Money  were  thrown 
back  on  the  ramparts.  Marmont  obtained  an  armistice  from 
Colonel  Orlof,  to  treat  for  the  capitulation  of  Paris.  King 
Joseph,  the  Empress  Marie- Louise,  and  all  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment had  already  fled  to  the  Loire.  Paris  was  recommended 
"  to  the  generosity  of  the  allied  monarchs  "  ;  the  army  could 
retire  on  the  road  to  Orleans.  Such  was  the  battle  of  Paris  ;  it 
had  cost,  according  to  M.  Bogdanovitch,  8400  men  to  the  allies, 
and  4000  to  the  French  (3oth  March). 

In  the  morning  of  the  3ist,  Alexander  received  the  deputies 
of  Paris.  He  promised  that  the  allied  armies  should  behave 
with  the  utmost  propriety  in  Paris,  that  the  security  of  the  capital 
should  be  confided  to  the  National  Guards,  and  that  the  inhabit- 
ants should  be  asked  for  provisions  only.  He  made  his  entry 
between  the  King  of  Prussia  and  Schwartzenberg  (the  Emperor 
of  Austria  being  absent) ;  but  the  Parisians  had  only  eyes  for 


?oo  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

him,  the  only  question  being,  "  Which  is  the  Emperor  Alex 
ander  ?  "  The  allied  troops  maintained  a  strict  discipline,  and 
were  not  quartered  on  the  inhabitants.  Alexander  had  not 
come  as  a  friend  of  the  Bourbons — the  fiercest  enemy  of  Napo- 
leon was  least  bitter  against  the  French ;  he  intended  leaving 
them  the  choice  of  their  government.  He  had  not  favored  any 
of  the  intrigues  of  the  /migrfs,  and  had  scornfully  remarked  to 
Jomini,  "  What  are  the  Bourbons  to  me  ?  "  He  reproved  by  a 
witty  speech  the  baseness  of  a  Royalist  :  "  We  have  waited  for 
your  Majesty  a  long  while."  "  I  should  have  come  earlier  if  I 
had  not  been  prevented  by  the  bravery  of  your  soldiers,"  said 
Alexander.  He  sent  a  detachment  of  the  Semenovski  to  pro- 
tect the  column  of  the  Grand  Army  against  the  attempts  of  the 
tmigrt  Maubreuil.  He  repeated  in  the  senate  that  he  did  not 
make  war  on  France,  that  he  was  the  friend  of  the  French,  and 
that  he  would  protect  the  freedom  of  discussion,  which  tended 
to  the  establishment  of  liberal  and  lasting  institutions,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  progress  of  the  century.  He  yielded  when 
Talleyrand  assured  him  that  "  the  republic  was  an  impossibility, 
the  regency  and  Bernadotte  an  intrigue,  the  Bourbons  alone  a 
principle."  On  the  2nd  of  April  the  senate  proclaimed  the 
dethronement  of  Napoleon;  on  the  nth  he  abdicated  at  Fon- 
tainebleau.  Alexander  had  promised  Caulaincourt  to  defend  the 
interests  of  his  ally  at  Tilsit ;  he  chiefly  contributed  to  secure 
him  the  sovereignty  of  the  Isle  of  Elba.  Count  Schouvalof  was 
ordered  to  accompany  the  fallen  Emperor  to  this  place  of  exile. 
"  I  confide  to  you,"  said  Alexander,  "  a  great  mission  ;  you  will 
answer  to  me  with  your  head  for  a  single  hair  which  falls  from 
that  of  Napoleon."  He  confessed  to  Caulaincourt  that  the  im- 
becile conduct  of  the  Royalists  did  not  seem  to  him  less  dan- 
gerous for  the  peace  of  Europe  than  the  unreasonable  wars  of 
the  Empire. 

Everyone  knows  what  the  French  lost  by  the  first  Treaty  of 
Paris.  On  the  3rd  of  May,  Louis  XVIII.  made  his  entry  into  the 
Louvre.  He  affected,  even  with  Alexander,  the  lofty  ceremonial 
of  the  ancient  court ;  only  gave  him  a  chair,  while  he  seated 
himself  on  a  throne  ;  preceded  his  guests,  the  King  of  Prussia 
and  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  to  the  dining-hall,  and,  seated  in 
the  place  of  honor,  caused  himself  to  be  helped  before  them. 
Alexander  paid  no  attention  to  these  points.  Like  his  ancestor, 
Peter  the  Great,  he  inspected  with  interest  the  monuments 
and  great  institutions  of  the  capital.  It  was  at  Vienna  that  the 
destinies  of  Europe  were  to  be  regulated. 

At  the  Congress  of  Vienna  Alexander  was  represented  by 
Razoumovski,  Nesselrode,  Capo  d'lstria,  and  Stackelberg  ;  he 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  aoi 

had  confided  the  discussion  of  Polish  affairs  to  Czartoryski  and 
Anslett.  On  one  point  he  and  his  ally,  the  King  of -Prussia, 
were  agreed  ;  the  latter  only  asked  to  get  rid  of  his  Polish  prov- 
inces, and  Alexander  desired  to  unite  the  whole  of  Poland  under 
his  own  sceptre,  and  to  fulfil  the  promise  he  had  made  to  Czar- 
toryski and  to  the  gallant  remnant  of  the  legions  of  the  Vistula. 
In  exchange,  Prussia  demanded  Saxony,  whose  king  was  to 
receive  an  indemnity  elsewhere.  We  cannot  see  what  interest 
the  Restoration  could  have  secured  by  sacrificing  Poland  to  the 
King  of  Saxony,  and  by  opposing  a  combination  which,  by  estab- 
lishing this  prince  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  would  have 
given  France  a  neighbor  infinitely  less  dangerous  than  Prussia. 
Talleyrand,  however,  only  used  the  influence  that  he  had  ac- 
quired in  the  congress  to  combat  the  views  of  Russia  and  Prussia, 
and  to  support  the  resistance  of  England  and  Austria.  On  the 
zist  of  October  Alexander  took  a  decisive  step:  he  ordered 
Princo  Rcpnine,  Governor  of  Saxony,  to  hand  over  that  country 
to  the  Prussian  government,  and  to  announce  its  incorporation 
with  the  territories  of  Frederick  William  III.  By  his  orders  the 
Tzarevitch  Constantine  entered  Poland,  assembled  an  army  of 
79,000  men,  and  summoned  Poland  to  the  defence  of  the  national 
integrity.  Then  Talleyrand,  with  the  consent  of  Castlereagh, 
concocted  a  scheme  of  alliance  between  France,  Austria,  and 
England.  This  convention  was  signed  January  3,  1815,  but 
remained  secret.  Discord  reigned  in  the  Congress  of  Vienna  ; 
Europe  was  on  the  eve  of  a  general  war.  In  one  way  or  another 
France  would  regain  her  place  in  Europe  ;  but  was  it  on  the 
side  of  England  and  Austria  that  her  interests  were  to  be  found, 
Razoumovski  having  formally  proposed  to  establish  the  King  of 
Saxony  in  her  Rhenish  provinces  ? 

At  last  the  storm  rolled  away  :  Alexander  declared  that  he 
would  content  himself  with  only  a  part  of  Poland,  and  Prussia 
that  she  would  be  satisfied  with  only  a  third  of  Saxony,  with 
700,000  inhabitants.  The  other  decisions  of  the  Congress  of 
Vienna — the  organization  of  the  Germanic  Confederation,  of 
Italy,  and  the  kingdoms  of  the  Low  Countries — belong  to  general 
history.  Nevertheless,  the  formation  of  Germany  into  a  con- 
federation in  which  the  clients  of  Russia,  the  allies  of  the  im- 
perial house,  enjoyed  an  independent  existence,  and  a  consider- 
able influence  on  the  diet,  was  far  more  advantageous  to  Russian 
power  and  security  than  the  state  of  things  resulting  from  the 
war  of  1870.  Poland  was  again  divided  between  Russia,  Prus- 
sia, and  Austria  :  this  was  the  fourth  partition.  The  treaties 
of  Vienna,  however,  provided  that  "  the  Poles,  the  subjects  of 
Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  respectively,  should  be  given  a 


t02  HISTORY  OF  KUSSU. 

representation  and  national  institutions ;  whose  political  existence 
was  to  be  regulated  in  the  way  that  the  government  to  which 
each  belonged  should  judge  the  most  suitable."  Cracow  was 
pronounced  free  and  independent.  In  all  these  treaties  Russia 
only  gained  3,000,000  of  souls  (kingdom  of  Poland),  whilst 
Prussia  obtained  5,392,000  (Western  Poland,  Saxony,  Swedish 
Pomerania,  Westphalia,  and  the  Rhenish  provinces),  and  Austria 
10,000,000  (Gallicia,  Germany,  and  Italy).  The  Power  which 
had  struck  hardest  for  the  "  freedom  of  Europe  "  was  the  most 
poorly  recompensed. 

The  event  which  had  suddenly  smoothed  the  difficulties  of 
the  Saxo-Polish  conflict,  and  hastened  the  signing  of  the  treaties, 
was  the  news  of  the  return  of  Napoleon  to  Paris.  The  bad  gov- 
ernment of  the  Bourbons  had  realized  the  unfavorable  predic- 
tions of  Alexander.  The  sovereigns  and  plenipotentiaries  at 
Vienna  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment ;  Alexander  was  resolved 
to  pursue  the  common  enemy  to  his  fall,  "  down  to  his  last  man 
and  his  last  rouble."  Bonaparte's  couriers,  the  bearers  of  pa- 
cific assurances,  were  arrested  on  the  French  frontier,  and  were 
prevented  from  reaching  the  sovereigns.  In  vain  did  Napoleon 
try  to  sow  mistrust  between  the  allies,  and  to  win  over  Alexander 
by  sending  him  a  copy  of  the  convention  signed  between  Talley- 
rand, England,  and  Austria  on  the  subject  of  the  Saxo-Polish 
affair.  "  The  only  result  of  this  movement  was  to  irritate  Alex- 
ander a  little  more  against  the  Bourbons  and  Talleyrand.  Na- 
poleon did  not  profit  by  it,  and  France  suffered."  *  Out  of  the 
800,000  men  that  the  Coalition  had  prepared  to  march  against 
France,  the  Russian  contingent  amounted  to  167,000  :  Barclay 
de  Tolly,  field-marshal  since  the  battle  of  Paris,  was  commandei- 
in-chief ;  under  him  were  Doktourof,  Raievski,  Sacken,  Lange- 
ron,  Sabane'ef,  Ermolof,  Wintzingerode,  and  Pahlcn.  In  spite 
of  the  news  of  Waterloo  and  the  abdication  of  Napoleon,  the 
Russians  still  invaded  France.  When  Alexander  reached  Paris, 
he  found  Bliicher  already  established  there,  treating  it  as  a  con- 
quered city,  exacting  a  tribute  of  a  hundred  millions,  and  pre- 
paring to  blow  up  the  bridge  of  Jena.  Alexander  was  hailed  as 
a  deliverer  by  the  inhabitants,  who  were  terrified  by  the  Prussian 
violence.  He  protested  against  the  outrageous  demands  of  the 
Germans,  and  found  support  in  the  wise  policy  of  Wellington. 
Both  felt  that  to  restore  the  Bourbons  to  a  greatly  weakened 
France  would  be  to  render  this  unlucky  dynasty  still  more  pow- 
erless. They  could  not  this  time  prevent  the  pillage  of  the  mu- 
seums, but  the  exactions  of  Russia  and  England  were  relatively 

*  Albert  Sorel,  '  La  Traittf  de  Paris,' 


frrS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSTA.  4  03 

the  most  aioderate.  There  was  a  reason  for  this  :  these  two 
sovereigns  understood  that  in  the  regulation  of  European  affairs, 
and  especially  of  the  affairs  of  the  East,  France  would  be  an 
ally  in  the  future,  an  obstacle  to  the  exaggerated  pretensions  of 
either  side,  at  once  "  a  menace  and  a  protection  ;  "  she  was  es- 
sential to  the  equilibrium  of  Europe.  On  the  other  hand,  Alex- 
ander did  not  care  to  obtain  for  Germany  the  "  territorial  guar- 
antees "  which  she  demanded.  "  He  wished,"  says  Sybel,  "  to 
allow  some  danger  to  exist  on  this  side,  so  that  Germany,  having 
need  of  Russia,  -might  thus  remain  dependent."  "  A  Russian 
diplomat,"  says  Pertz,  "  avowed  ingenously  that  it  was  not  the 
policy  of  Russia  to  give  Germany  secure  frontiers  against 
France."  Capo  d'Istria  said  openly  to  Stein  that  it  was  Russia's 
interest  to  strengthen  France,  so  that  the  other  Powers  should 
not  employ  all  their  forces  against  Russia.  If  Stein  used  all  his 
influence  with  Alexander  to  cause  the  claims  of  the  Russian 
patriots  to  prevail,  other  influences  were  at  work  to  oppose  him. 
First  there  was  the  Due  de  Richelieu,  who  had  been  the  gov- 
ernor of  New  Russia,  the  founder  of  Odessa,  and  whom  Alex- 
ander desired  to  see  replace  the  wily  Talleyrand  with  Louis 
XVIII.  Then  came  Capo  d'Istria,  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  and  his 
Greek  advisers,  who,  seeing  the  Eastern  question  appearing  on 
the  horizon,  wished  to  secure  for  the  Hellenic  interest  an  alli- 
ance with  Russia  against  the  narrow  policy  of  Austria  and  Eng- 
land. Last  came  the  mystic  Madame  de  Krtldener,  who  placed 
before  Alexander  the  ideas  of  absolute  justice,  of  greatness  of 
soul,  of  forgiveness  for  offences,  of  universal  brotherhood,  and 
who  in  her  drawing-room,  one  of  the  most  brilliant  in  Paris,  sur- 
rounded the  Emperor  with  every  one  France  could  boast  who 
was  brilliant  and  seductive — Chateaubriand,  Benjamin  Constant, 
Madame  Recamier,  and  the  Duchesses  de  Duras  and  d'Escar. 

It  is  an  incontestable  fact,  that  of  all  the  allies  Russia 
showed  herself  the  least  grasping.  Here  is  the  table  of  propo- 
sitions made  officially  by  each  member  of  the  Coalition  :  Russia 
— temporary  occupation  of  France,  war  indemnity  ;  England — 
the  same  conditions,  and  the  return  of  the  frontiers  to  those  of 
1790  ;  Austria — the  same,  plus  the  dismantling  of  the  fortresses 
of  Flanders,  Lorraine,  and  Alsace  ;  Prussia — occupation,  indem- 
nity, return  to  the  frontier  of  1790,  cession  of  the  fortresses  of 
Flanders,  Lorraine,  and  Alsace.  The  secondary  States  of  Ger- 
many and  the  Low  Countries  demanded  the  cession  of  Flanders, 
Lorraine,  Alsace,  and  Savoy.  "  Such,"  says  M.  Sorel,  "  were 
the  official  propositions  ;  the  oral  demands  were  quite  another 
thing."  "Look  here,  my  dear  Duke,"  said  Alexander  to  Rich- 
elieu in  1818,  "  this  is  France  as  my  allies  wished  to  make  her  j 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

they  only  wanted  my  signature,  and  that  I  promise  you  they  shall 
want  always."  The  map  that  he  showed  the  Duke  presented  a 
line  of  frontiers  which  would  deprive  France  of  Flanders,  Metz, 
Alsace,  and  the  east  of  Franche-Comte'.  We  do  not  mention 
Carlovitz  (who  proposed  to  Stein  that  France  should  be  divided 
into  Langue  d'Oc  and  Langue  d'Oi'l,  after  being  robbed  of  her 
Flemish-  and  German-speaking  provinces),  nor  the  demoniacs 
who  clamored  for  Burgundy  and  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Aries. 

Richelieu  had  just  succeeded  Talleyrand  as  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs.  He  found  himself  in  the  presence  of  a  collective 
ultimatum  of  the  Powers,  demanding  the  cession  of  Savoy,  Condd, 
Philippeville,  Marienburg,  Givet,  Charlemont,  Landau,  Fort- 
Joux,  Fort-FEcluse,  the  demolition  of  Huningue,  the  payment  of 
eight  hundred  million  francs,  and  the  occupation  of  the  north 
and  east  for  seven  years.  He  discussed  this  ultimatum  point 
by  point.  "  The  Russians,"  writes  Gagern,  "  without  openly 
opposing  them,  labor  secretly  for  the  modification  of  the  arti- 
cles." Richelieu  ended  by  saving  Cond^,  Givet,  Charlemont, 
the  forts  of  Joux  and  1'Ecluse,  and  obtained  the  reduction  of  the 
indemnity  to  seven  hundred  millions,  of  the  occupation  to  five 
years,  with  the  addition  of  this  clause,  that  "  at  the  end  of  three 
years  the  sovereigns  reserved  to  themselves  to  cut  short  the 
term  of  occupation,  if  the  state  of  France  permitted  it "  (Novem- 
ber 20,  1815).  Alexander  left  Paris.  In  the  army  of  occupa- 
tion Champagne  and  Lorraine  were  entrusted  to  Russia  ;  Voron- 
zof  commanded  27,000  men  and  84  guns;  Alopeus  had  charge 
of  the  political  affairs,  and  both  lived  at  Nancy.  Nicholas 
Tourgudnief,  a  member  of  the  official  staff,  has  given  us  some 
curious  details  about  the  Russians  in  Lorraine. 


KINGDOM   OF   POLAND:    CONGRESSES   AT  AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, 
CARLSBAD,    LAYBACH,    AND   VERONA. 

With  regard  to  Poland,  Alexander  accomplished  more  loy- 
ally and  more  completely  than  the  two  other  co-partitioners,  the 
somewhat  vague  obligations  imposed  on  them  by  the  Treaty  of 
Vienna.  After  the  farewells  of  Fontainebleau,  Dombrovski,  com- 
mamler-in-chief  of  the  legions  of  the  Vistula,  placed  his  troops 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  from  whom  the  Poles 
hoped  for  the  restoration  of  their  country.  The  Tzar  assigned 
Posen  as  their  place  of  assembly,  and  gave  them  his  brother 
Constantine  as  head.  On  the  nth  of  December,  1814,  the 
TzareVitch  addressed  them  a  proclamation  in  French:  "Gather 
around  your  banners ;  arm  yourselves  to  defend  your  country 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA  «oS 

and  to  maintain  yf  ur  political  existence.  Whilst  this  august 
monarch  prepares  the  happy  future  of  your  country,  show  your- 
selves ready  to  second  his  noble  efforts,  even  at  the  price  of 
your  blood.  The  same  chiefs  who  for  twenty  years  have  led 
you  on  the  path  of  glory,  will  know  how  to  bring  you  back  to  it. 
The  Emperor  appreciates  your  courage.  In  the  midst  of  the 
disasters  of  a  fatal  war,  he  has  watched  your  honor  survive 
events  for  which  you  were  not  responsible.  Great  feats  of  arms 
have  distinguished  you  in  a  struggle  whose  cause  was  often  not 
your  own.  Now  that  your  efforts  are  consecrated  to  your  coun- 
try, you  will  be  invincible.  .  .  .  Thus  you  will  reach  that  happy 
position  which  others  may  promise,  but  the  Emperor  alone  can 
secure  to  you."  This  proclamation,  by  which  Russia  adopted 
all  the  glories  of  the  ancient  army  of  Warsaw,  was  the  most 
magnificent  of  amnesties.  In  a  letter  of  Alexander  to  Oginski, 
President  of  the  Polish  Senate,  dated  the  3oth  of  April,  1815,  he 
takes  the  title  of  King  of  Poland,  and  speaks  of  the  efforts  he 
had  made  to  "  soften  the  rigors  of  separation,  and  even  to  ob- 
tain for  the  Poles  all  possible  enjoyment  of  their  national  insti- 
tutions." 

On  the  aist  of  June,  1815,  the  cannon  at  Warsaw  announced 
the  restoration  of  Poland.  As  a  delicate  attention  to  Polish 
loyalty,  the  act  of  the  King  of  Saxony's  abdication  was  pub- 
lished, as  well  as  the  manifesto  of  the  new  King  of  Poland. 
The  army,  assembled  in  the  plain  of  Vola,  took  the  oath  of  al- 
legiance. The  warlike  blazon  of  the  kingdom  was  wedded  to 
the  arms  of  Russia.  The  new  constitution  was  almost  the  re- 
production of  that  of  the  Napoleonic  grand  duchy.  It  contained 
a  senate  and  a  chamber  of  deputies  :  the  senate  was  composed 
of  bishops,  voievodes,  castellans,  nominated  as  life  members  by 
the  king;  the  chamber,  of  seventy-seven  noble  deputies,  and 
fifty-one  deputies  of  towns.  The  necessary  qualification  was 
property  rated  at  fifteen  roubles  for  the  deputies,  and  300  for  a 
senator ;  the  former  must  have  reached  the  age  of  thirty,  the 
latter  that  of  thirty-five.  The  electors  of  the  deputies  were  pro- 
prietors above  the  age  of  twenty-one,  priests,  professors,  learned 
men,  and  artists.  The  diet  was  to  meet  every  two  years,  and  to 
sit  thirty  days.  Laws  had  to  be  passed  by  both  chambers,  and 
sanctioned  by  the  king.  The  constitution  declared  the  liberty 
of  the  press,  with  the  exception  of  one  law  wliich  restrained  its 
abuses.  Amongst  the  responsible  ministers,  we  find  some  men 
of  the  former  regime.  Sobolevski  was  Minister  of  Finance, 
Matuszevicz  of  the  Interior,  Stanislas  Por.oc.ki  of  Education, 
Vavrjevski  of  Justice,  Vie'le'horski  of  War.  The  namicstnik,  or 
viceroy,  was  Zai'ontchek,  a  veteran  of  the  Napoleonic  wars. 


2  06  HfS  TORY  OF  K I  'SSI A . 

Constantine,  the  Emperor's  brother,  was  commander-in-chief  of 
the  Polish  army;  Novossiltsof,  imperial  commissioner.  They 
had  thus  taken  the  places  of  Poniatovski,  leader  of  the  Poles, 
and  of  Bignon,  the  envoy  of  Napoleon.  The  ministers  formed 
the  council  of  government,  and,  united  to  the  principal  digni- 
taries, they  formed  the  general  council  of  the  kingdom.  Czar- 
toryski  could  not  console  himself  for  not  having  been  chosen 
namicstnik. 

Alexander's  mystic  notions  soon,  however,  began  to  obscure 
his  liberal  ideas.  The  act  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  which,  inoffen- 
sive though  it  was,  made  such  a  noise  in  Europe,  is  a  singular 
monument  and  a  curious  proof  of  his  temper  at  this  period. 
The  King  of  Prussia  signed  it  willingly,  the  Emperor  of  Austria 
without  knowing  why,  Louis  XVIII.  surely  with  a  smile  ;  Cas- 
tlereagh  refused  his  signature  "  to  a  simple  declaration  of  bibli- 
cal principles,  which  would  have  carried  England  back  to  the 
epoch  of  the  Saints,  of  Cromwell,  and  the  Roundheads."  Not' 
withstanding,  Russia  had  then  in  Europe  a  preponderating  in- 
fluence, out  of  proportion  with  her  real  strength  and  the  number 
of  her  army.  But  it  was  she  who  had  given  the  signal  for  the 
struggle  against  Napoleon,  and  had  shown  the  most  persever- 
ance in  pursuit  of  the  common  end.  Alone,  she  could  never 
have  crushed  the  man  of  destiny,  but  without  her  example  the 
States  of  Europe  would  never  have  dreamed  of  arming  against 
him.  Her  skilful  leniency  towards  France  finished  the  work 
begun  by  the  war.  Alexander  was  incontestably  the  head  of 
the  European  areopagus.  Nicholas  had  to  commit  many  faults 
before  Russia  lost  this  place,  which  prestige  and  public  opinion 
had  given  her. 

Alexander's  influence  showed  itself  in  the  congresses  in 
which  the  European  States  tried  to  arrange  together  the  affairs 
of  the  Continent.  The  first  in  date  after  the  Congress  of  Vienna 
is  that  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  (1818),  which  regulated  the  relations 
of  Europe  with  France  ;  this  country  appeared  sufficiently  quiet 
for  the  occupation  to  cease.  This  was  not  the  fault  of  the 
Court  of  Artois  and  of  the  "  pavilion  cle  Marsan  ;  "  but  their 
famous  secret  note  only  made  Alexander  indignant.  In  a  visit 
which  he  paid  to  Louis  XVIII.,  he  said,  "If  any  of  my  subjects 
had  committed  a  similar  crime,  I  should  have  put  him  to  death." 
Richelieu  had  gained  his  object,  the  entrance  of  France  into  the 
European  assembly. 

The  second  congress  was  that  of  Carlsbad  (1819),  where  the 
tone  of  mind  prevalent  in  Germany  was  discussed.  The  dis- 
loyalty of  the  German  princes,  who  had  forgotten  the  promises 
of  liberty  made  in  1813  ;  that  of  Frederick  William  III.,  who 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSTA. 


207 


had  caused  himself  to  be  absolved  from  his  engagements  by  the 
Prussian  bishop  Eylert ;  and  the  reactionary  influence  of  Metter- 
nich  on  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon,had  provoked  a  general  stir  in  German 
public  opinion.  The  young  men  and  University  professors,  the 
liberal  writers,  and  the  former  members  of  the  Tugenbund,  de- 
manded the  promised  constitutions.  The  ecstatic  demonstrations 
of  the  German  students,  and  the  murder  of  Kotzebue  by  Maurice 
Sand,  shook  all  the  cabinets.  It  is  from  this  moment  that  Alex- 
ander's character  seems  to  change  :  the  liberator  of  Europe,  the 
champion  of  liberal  ideas,  submits  in  his  turn  to  the  influence  of 
Metternich  ;  he  subscribes  to  measures  which  have  for  their  aim 
to  deprive  Germany  of  the  liberties  which  he  himself  had  prom- 
ised in  1813.  The  press  is  subjected  to  a  rigorous  censure;  the 
Universities  are  closely  watched  and  the  liberal  professors 
expelled ;  and  the  patriots  of  the  war  of  independence,  and 
Alexander's  companions  in  arms,  are  obliged  to  seek  refuge  in 
the  France  they  had  despoiled. 

Soon  the  stir  in  men's  minds  spread  through  Europe.  Spain 
rose  and  imposed  a  constitution  on  her  king :  this  constitution 
became  an  object  of  envy  to  the  neighboring  peoples ;  then 
broke  out  the  revolutions  of  Portugal,  Naples,  and  Piedmont. 
As  champion  of  divine  right  Alexander  now  defended  the  detest- 
able kinglets  of  the  South,  Ferdinand  VII.  of  Spain  and  Ferdi- 
nand IV.  of  Naples,  who  had  perjured  themselves  to  their  people. 
He  who  wished  to  give  Poland  a  constitution,  and  to  guarantee 
that  of  France,  opposed  to  the  utmost  the  constitutional  meas- 
ures of  Spain  and  Italy.  By  an  aberration  similar  to  that  of  Paul 
I.  he  thought  himself  obliged  to  interfere  in  these  remote 
regions,  about  questions  foreign  to  the  interests  of  Russia.  He 
convoked  a  congress  at  Troppeau  (1820),  then  transferred  it  to 
Laybach,  so  that  the  King  of  Naples  might  more  easily  be 
present  at  it,  be  absolved  from  his  constitutional  oath,  and  pro- 
voke vengeance  against  his  too  credulous  subjects.  Alexander 
was  on  the  point  of  sending  an  army  to  Naples  under  the  com- 
mand of  Ermolof,  the  hero  of  Borodino  and  of  Kiilm ;  but 
Austria,  always  uneasy  at  Russian  interference  in  Italy,  hastily 
despatched  Frimont,  who  put  an  end  to  the  Neapolitan  and 
Piedmontese  constitutions.  The  Russian  flag  thus  escaped 
the  doubtful  honor  of  protecting,  as  in  1799,  the  bloody  Neapol- 
itan reaction,  and  of  sanctioning  the  vengeance  of  Austria  against 
Pellico,  Pallavicini,  and  Maroncelli.  Ermolof  rejoiced  at  it. 
"  There  is  no  example,"  he  writes,  "  of  a  general  appointed  to 
command  an  expedition  being  so  delighted  as  I  am  that  there 
is  no  war.  It  is  by  no  means  advantageous  to  one's  reputation 
to  appear  in  Italy  after  Souvorof  and  Bonaparte,  who  will  be  the 
admiration  of  future  centuries." 


20«  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

In  1822  the  Congress  of  Verona  took  place.  Russia  sent, 
like  the  other  Powers,  a  threatening  note  to  the  constitutional 
cabinet  of  Madrid.  The  latter  returned  a  proud  answer  ;  it  was 
the  French  army  which  was  entrusted  to  carry  out  the  wl~b*s  of 
Europe  beyond  the  Pyrenees. 

Still  graver  events  were  at  hand  in  the  East.  The  Balkan 
peninsula,  almost  entirely  peopled  by  the  co-religionists  of  the 
Russians,  began  to  move.  The  Ottoman  yoke  bore  heavily  on 
all.  The  Wallachians  and  Moldavians  complained  of  the  viola- 
tions of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest.  The  Servians,  whose  indepen- 
dence Alexander  had  guaranteed,  and  who  had  been  crushed 
by  the  Porte  while  the  eyes  of  Europe  were  turned  another  way, 
had  taken  up  arms  under  Miloch  Obrenvitch.  The  hctairia 
propagated  itself  in  all  the  provinces,  in  all  the  isles  of  Greece  ; 
it  counted  already  one  martyr,  Rigas,  delivered  up  by  the  Aus- 
trians  and  executed  by  the  Turks.  What  was  Alexander  to  do 
in  the  presence  of  this  awakening  universe  ?  Would  he  burn 
with  something  of  that  crusading  ardor  which  hurried  Peter  the 
Great  to  the  banks  of  the  Pruth  ?  Would  he  act  here  "  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  and  after  the  heart  of  Catherine,"  as  he 
said  in  his  manifesto  at  his  accession  ?  Would  Servia  find  in 
him  the  liberator  of  1813,  or  the  president  of  the  Congress  of 
Carlsbad,  the  man  of  legitimacy  at  all  costs,  the  champion  of 
absolute  monarchical  rights,  the  theorist  of  the  passive  obedience 
of  subjects  ?  This  seemed  so  impossible  to  the  nations,  that 
the  Greeks  refused  to  believe  Capo  d'Istria  when  he  asserted 
that  they  would  not  be  supported.  Ypsilanti  could  not  imagine 
that  the  Emperor  would  seriously  disavow  him  ;  he  crossed  the 
Pruth,  raised  the  Roumanian  populations,  and  succumbed  at 
Rymnik,  which  had  witnessed  the  triumph  of  Souvorof.  Alex- 
ander might  multiply  his  disavowals,  but  the  Peloponnesus  rose 
under  Kolokotroni,  and  the  Mainotes  under  Mavromichalis.  The 
war  of  extermination  had  already  begun  by  the  Mussulman  riot 
at  Constantinople.  At  the  feast  of  Easter  the  Greek  population 
were  assaulted,  and,  as  if  the  better  to  insult  the  orthodox  re- 
ligion, the  Patriarch  was  seized  at  the  altar,  and  hung  at  the 
doors  of  the  church  in  his  sacerdotal  robes.  The  Grand  Vizier 
amused  himself  for  an  hour  by  seeing  his  corpse  illtreated  by 
the  Turkish  populace,  and  dragged  through  the  mud  by  the 
Jews.  Three  metropolitans  and  eight  bishops  were  slain  (1821). 
Russia  trembled  with  indignation.  Die'bitch  drew  up  an  admir- 
able plan  of  campaign,  which  still  deserves  to  be  studied,  and 
which  he  executed  in  the  following  reign.  Alexander  exchanged 
diplomatic  notes  with  the  Porte,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  lulled 
to  sleep  by  England  and  Austria,  which  did  not  desire  inter- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


209 


vention.  The  massacres  continued.  Alexander  occupied  him- 
self about  them  at  Verona,  at  the  same  time  as  the  affairs  of 
Spain.  The  Russian  people  were  astounded,  and  attributed  to 
the  wrath  of  God,  irritated  at  the  impunity  accorded  to  the 
assassins  of  the  Greek  patriarch,  first  the  terrible  inundation  of 
St.  Petersburg,  and  soon  the  premature  and  mysterious  death  of 
Alexander. 

To  sum  up,  the  grandson  of  Catherine  had  added  to  the 
empire,  Finland,  Poland,  Bessarabia,  and  part  of  the  Caucasus 
(Daghestan,  Chirvan,  Mingrelia,  and  Imeritia). 


tlo  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ALEXANDER   I.  :   INTERNAL   AFFAIRS. 

Early  years:  the  triumvirate;  liberal  measures;  the  ministers;  public  in- 
struction— Speranski:  Council  of  the  Empire;  projected  civil  code;  ideas 
of  social  reform — Araktcheef :  political  and  university  reaction;  military 
colonies — Secret  societies:  Poland — Literary  and  scientific  movement. 


EARLY     YEARS  :     THE     TRIUMVIRATE  ;      LIBERAL     MEASURES  ;     THE 
MINISTERS  ;    PUBLIC    INSTRUCTION. 

IN  the  home  affairs  of  the  empire,  the  early  years  of  Alex- 
ander's reign,  succeeding  to  the  hard  rule  of  Paul  I.,  had  been 
a  period  of  emancipation,  of  generous  ideas,  and  liberal  reforms. 
The  Emperor  had  announced  in  his  manifesto  on  his  accession 
that  he  would  govern  "  according  to  the  principles  and  after  the 
heart  of  Catherine  II."  When  he  managed  to  free  himself  from 
the  guardianship  of  the  conspirators  of  the  24th  of  March,  1801, 
he  surrounded  himself  either  with  the  ministers  of  his  grand- 
mother, or  with  new  men,  young  like  himself,  who  shared  his 
great  hopes  and  his  sche'nes  of  regeneration.  Like  him,  they 
brought  to  the  regulation  of  affairs  much  inexperience,  but  im- 
mense good-will.  Those  who  at  that  time  most  influenced 
Alexander  were  Prince  Adam  Czartoryski,  Novossiltsof,  Stro- 
gonof,  and  Kotchoubey.  The  first  three  were  closely  united, 
and  were  known  by  the  name  of  the  triumvirate.  They  knew 
Western  Europe  better  than  Russia  ;  the  English  constitution 
was  their  ideal.  Czartoryski,  a  great  Polish  lord,  whose  family 
had  given  kings  to  Poland,  cherished  a  dream  of  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  his  native  country,  under  the  sceptre  of  the  Kmpcror  of 
Russia.  Guardian  or  popetchitel  of  the  scholarly  circle  of  Wilna, 
he  profited  by  this  situation  to  favor  the  teaching  of  the  Polish 
language  in  White  Russia.  As  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  or 
intimate  adviser  of  Alexander,  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  interests 
of  his  nation,  at  whose  head  he  may  have  hoped  one  day  to  place 
himself,  in  the  capacity  of  viceroy  or  namiestnik  of  the  Emperor. 

The  tyrannical  measures  of  the  preceding  reign  were  re- 


fflSTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2 1 1 

rersed ;  the  Russians  were  again  permitted  to  travel  abroad 
freely,  and  foreigners  were  allowed  to  penetrate  into  Russia. 
European  books  and  papers  entered  the  country  freely,-  the 
censure  was  mitigated,  and  new  instructions  ordered  the  doubtful 
passages  of  a  book  to  be  interpreted  in  the  sense  most  favor- 
able to  the  innocence  of  the  author.  The  "secret  expeditior," 
another  form  of  the  secret  court  of  police,  or  of  the  State  in- 
quisition, was  abolished,  and  its  functions  handed  over  to  the 
senate.  Priests  and  deacons,  gentlemen  and  citizens  of  guilds, 
were  declared  exempt  from  corporal  punishments. 

Grander  designs  were  brought  forward  in  the  council  of  the 
young  sovereign.  As  an  introduction  to  the  code  of  the  empire, 
a  sort  of  constitutional  scheme  was  discussed,  in  which  the 
privileges  of  the  supreme  power  were  defined,  its  obligations 
spoken  of,  and  where  the  rights  of  subjects,  and  of  the  four 
orders  of  the  State,  were  in  question.  A  sort  of  civil  list  was 
established,  under  the  name  of  "his  Majesty's  cabinet."  The 
emancipation  of  the  serfs,  as  in  the  brightest  period  of  the  reign 
of  Catherine  II.,  was  the  topic  of  the  day.  The  situation  of  the 
Crown  peasants,  who  were  much  more  free  and  happy  than  those 
belonging  to  individuals,  was  assured  by  the  resolution  taken  by 
the  Emperor  to  make  no  more  donations  of  "  souls."  A  million  of 
roubles  were  even  devoted  yearly  to  the  acquisition  of  land  with 
serfs  for  the  Crown.  While  waiting  for  a  more  general  measure, 
Alexander  put  forth  the  edict  of  February  1803,  which  legalized 
contracts  of  freedom  voluntarily  entered  into  between  the 
owners  and  their  slaves  ;  the  individuals  or  the  communes  who 
thus  acquired  liberty  while  they  kept  their  land  formed  in  Russia 
a  new  class,  the  "  free  cultivators,"  who,  with  the  ancient  odnod- 
vorfsi,  became  the  nucleus  of  a  rural  third  estate.  The  German 
nobility  of  Esthonia  in  1816,  that  of  Courland  in  1817,  and  that 
of  Livonia  in  1819,  resolved  to  anticipate  the  needs  of  the  new 
century,  so  as  not  to  be  obliged  to  submit  to  them  entirely  ;  they 
took  the  initiative  in  the  emancipation  of  Lett  or  Tchoud  serfs, 
in  order  that  they  might  consult  their  own  interests  in  the  opera- 
tion. "  All  the  serfs  of  these  provinces,"  says  M.  Bogdanovitch, 
"  were  gradually  to  pass  in  an  interval  of  fourteen  years  to  the 
condition  of  free  persons.  It  was  forbidden  to  sell  them  with  or 
without  land,  individually  or  by  families,  to  give  them  away,  to 
hire  them  out,  or  to  make  them  slaves  by  any  means  whatever. 
Their  right  to  acquire  land,  houses,  and  other  property  was 
recognized.  In  civil  cases  they  were  in  the  first  two  instances 
amenable  to  judges  elected  by  themselves  and  partly  drawn 
from  among  them.  Thus  they  had  now  only  civil  relations  with 
their  former  masters  ;  but  as  the  latter  had  distributed  no  lands 


2 !  2  H1STOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

among  them,  the  serfs  were  kept  in  a  burdensome  state  ol 
dependence  upon  them."  Formerly  they  were  slaves  body  and 
soul,  but  possessed  lands ;  now  they  were  free,  but  forced  for 
their  livelihoods  to  continue  to  cultivate  for  others,  as  farmers 
or  day-laborers,  the  soil  which  had  belonged  to  their  warlike  an- 
cestors. 

The  prohibitions  of  the  former  reigns  against  the  sale  of 
slaves  at  auctions,  and  the  separation  of  the  members  of  one 
family,  were  renewed.  The  abuse,  however,  still  continued,  and 
Nicholas  Tourgudnief  assures  us  that  there  was  a  public  slave- 
market  almost  under  the  windows  of  the  imperial  palace. 

Alexander  also  gave  evidence  of  his  good  intentions  towards 
the  raskolniks.  "  Reason  anu  experience,"  says  the  edict, "  have 
for  a  long  while  proved  that  the  spiritual  errors  of  the  people, 
which  official  sermons  only  cause  to  take  deeper  root,  cannot  be 
cured  and  dispelled  except  by  forgiveness,  good  examples,  and 
tolerance.  Does  it  become  a  government  to  employ  violence 
and  cruelty  to  bring  back  these  wandering  sheep  to  the  fold  of 
the  church  ?  "  These  inoffensive  sects  were,  on  the  other  hand, 
protected  ;  Alexander  visited  their  settlements  more  than  once 
in  the  course  of  his  travels.  A  sect  of  dancing  raskolniks  were 
allowed  to  celebrate  their  rites  in  the  Mikhail  Palace,  and  Prince 
Galitsyne,  Minister  of  Worship,  was  seen  honoring  with  his 
presence  the  absurdities  of  the  priestess  Tatarinof,  and  the 
sacred  dances  of  her  adherents. 

In  political  institutions,  two  great  innovations  took  place  in 
1802.  The  collegiate  organization  of  the  branches  of  the  ad- 
ministration was  set  aside  ;  the  colleges  of  Peter  the  Great,  which 
had  succeeded  the  prikazes  of  the  ancient  Tzars,  were  now  re- 
placed by  ministers,  after  the  European  custom.  Here  is  a  list 
of  the  first  ministry  of  Alexander  I. :  War,  General  Vismiati- 
nof ;  Marine,  Admiral  Mordvinof,  a  bold  patriot  and  distinguished 
administrator ;  Foreign  Affairs,  the  Chancellor  Alexander 
Voronzof,  nephew  of  Elizabeth's  great  Chancellor  ;  Home  Office, 
Count  Kotchoubey  ;  Justice,  Derjavine,  the  poet  ;  Finance 
Count  Vassilief ;  Commerce,  Count  Roumantsof  celebrated  for 
his  patronage  of  arts  and  sciences  ;  Public  Education,  Count 
Zavadovski.  The  number  and  functions  of  the  ministers  were 
more  than  once  modified.  Ministers  of  domains,  of  the  Crown, 
of  general  control,  of  roads  and  bridges,  and  of  the  Emperor's 
household,  were  afterwards  created. 

The  second  innovation  bore  upon  another  great  institution 
of  Peter  I.,  the  Senate,  whose  importance  had  been  lessened  by 
the  formation  of  an  imperial  council,  presided  over  by  the  Em- 
peror or  by  an  appointed  minister.  Ministers  and  the  general 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2  jj 

council  lacked,  however,  one  essential  thing, — responsibility. 
Autocracy  abdicated  none  of  its  rights.  "  Sire,"  remarked,  on 
one  occasion,  one  of  the  councillors  of  Alexander,  "  if  a  minister 
refuse  to  sign  an  edict  of  your  Majesty,  would  the  edict  be  bind- 
ing without  this  formality  ?  "  "  Certainly,"  replied  Alexander  ; 
"  an  edict  must  be  executed  under  all  circumstances." 

Alexander  and  his  young  fellow-laborers  undertook  a  vast 
re-organization  of  public  education.  The  empire  was  divided 
into  six  scholastic  circles.  That  of  St.  Petersburg  included 
eight  governments ;  that  of  Moscow,  eleven  ;  that  of  Dorpat, 
three  (the  three  German  provinces)  ;  that  of  Kharkof,  sixteen 
(with  the  Caucasus  and  Bessarabia)  ;  that  of  Kazan,  twelve 
(with  Siberia)  ;  that  of  Wilna,  six  (White  Russia).  At  the  head 
of  each  circle  was  placed  a popetchitel,  or  guardian,  ordinarily  a 
considerable  personage,  like  Novossiltsof,  Poto9ki,  or  Adam 
Czartoryski,  charged  with  the  protection  of  the  schools  and  their 
general  direction. 

For  the  instruction  of  the  clergy,  ecclesiastical  schools  were 
founded,  whose  revenues  were  obtained  from  the  exclusive  sale 
of  tapers  in  the  churches.  Above  these  schools  were  seminaries ; 
next  the  ecclesiastical  Academies  of  Moscow,  St.  Petersburg, 
Kazan,  and  Kief.  For  the  laity  were  established  parish  and 
district 'schools,  and  gymnasia  (secondary  instruction);  to  furnish 
masters,  the  pedagogic  institutes  of  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg. 
The  Universities  of  Moscow,  Wilna,  and  Dorpat  were  re-organ- 
ized ;  those  of  Kazan  and  Kharkof,  and,  later,  that  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, founded.  There  was  a  plan  of  establishing  two  at  Tobolsk 
and  Oustiougue.  Fifteen  government  schools,  or  corps  of  cadets, 
were  also  founded,  where  the  young  nobles  could  receive  a  mili- 
tary education.  The  Lycee  Alexander  at  Tzarskoe'-Selo,  after- 
wards transferred  to  Kamennyi-Ostrof,  was  built  for  the  same 
purpose.  From  this  epoch  also  dates  the  lyce*e  of  commerce,  or 
Gymnasium  Richelieu,  at  Odessa,  and  the  Lazaref  Institute,  or 
school  for  Oriental  languages. 


SPERANSKI  :   COUNCIL  OF  THE  EMPIRE  ;   SCHEME  OF  THE  CIVIL 
CODE  ;    IDEAS  OF  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

From  1806  to  1812,  the  preponderating  influence  over  Alex- 
ander was  that  of  Speranski.  The  son  of  a  village  priest,  edu- 
cated at  a  seminary,  then  mathematical  and  philosophical  pro- 
fessor at  the  school  of  Alexander  Nevski,  preceptor  to  the  chil 
dren  of  Alexis  Kourakine,  thanks  to  whom  he  quitted  the  ecclesi- 
astical career  for  the  civil  service,  he  became  secretary  to  Tro» 


214 


HISTORY  OF  KUSSJA. 


chtchinski,  at  that  time  chancellor  of  the  imperial  council. 
Later,  when  director  of  the  department  of  the  Interior  under 
Prince  Kotchoubey,  Speranski  succeeded  to  the  post  of  Secre- 
tary of  State,  and  began  to  enjoy  the  absolute  confidence  of  the 
Emperor.  The  favorites  of  the  preceding  period  were  all  imbued 
with  English  ideas ;  Speranski,  on  the  contrary,  loved  France, 
had  imbibed  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  and  entertained  a 
deep  admiration  for  Napoleon.  These  French  sympathies,  then 
shared  by  Alexander  I.,  formed  a  fresh  bond  between  the  prince 
and  the  minister — a  bond  which  was  severed  by  the  rupture  be- 
tween the  Emperor  and  Napoleon.  "  Besides,"  says  M.  Bogdano- 
vitch, "  we  know  the  inclinations  of  Alexander  for  representative 
forms  and  constitutional  governments,  which  could  not  fail  to  se- 
duce the  former  disciple  of  Laharpe  ;  but  this  taste  resembled  that 
of  a  dilettante  who  goes  into  ecstasies  over  a  beautiful  picture. 
Alexander  had  promptly  convinced  himself  that  neither  the  vast 
extent  of  'Russia,  nor  the  constitution  of  civil  society,  allowed 
this  dream  to  be  realized.  He  therefore  deferred  the  execution 
of  his  Utopia  from  day  to  day,  but  delighted  to  hold  conversations 
with  his  friends  about  his  projected  constitution  and  the  disad- 
vantages of  absolutism.  Speranski,  to  please  the  Emperor, 
show«d  himself  the  ardent  defender  of  the  principles  of  liberty, 
and  thereby  was  exposed  to  accusations  of  entertaining  anarchical 
ideas,  and  scheming  against  the  institutions  consecrated  by  time 
and  manners."  Hard-working,  well-educated,  both  patriotic  and 
humane,  he  would  have  been  the  man  to  realize  all  that  was 
practicable  in  the  Utopias  of  Alexander. 

Speranski  presented  a  systematic  plan  of  reforms  to  his  sov- 
ereign. The  Council  of  the  Empire  received  still  more  exten- 
sive privileges.  Composed  of  the  chief  dignitaries  of  the  State, 
it  became  in  some  measure  the  legislative  power ;  it  had  to 
examine  all  the  new  laws,  the  extraordinary  measures,  the  rela- 
tions of  the  ministers.  It  was  a  kind  of  sketch  of  a  representa- 
tive government.  The  Council  of  the  Empire  was  divided  into 
four  departments :  war,  law,  political  economy,  civil  and  ecclesi- 
astical affairs.  Alexander  solemnly  opened  this  parliament  of 
officials  on  the  ist-i3th  of  January,  1810.  Speranski  was  nomi- 
nated secretary  of  the  Council  of  the  Empire.  All  affairs  passed 
through  his  hands  :  he  became  in  a  manner  the  Prime  Minister. 
To  his  mind,  the  Council  of  the  Empire  being  at  the  head  of  the 
legislation,  and  the  ministers  at  the  head  of  the  administration, 
the  Senate  ought  to  occupy  the  same  rank  in  the  judicial  order. 
As  the  legislative  power  had  been  re-organized  by  the  reform  of 
the  council,  and  the  administrative  power  by  the  reform  of  the 
ministry,  so  the  judicial  power,  in  its  turn,  ought  to  undergo  a 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  2  T  5 

complete  change.  The  tribunals,  in  his  opinion,  ought  to  be 
partly  composed  of  judges  nominated  by  the  monarch,  partly  of 
judges  elected  by  the  nobles.  It  was  plain  that  Speranski  had 
studied  the  laws  of  the  French  assemblies,  the  system  of  Sidyes 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  year  VIII.  The  judicial  was  to  be 
followed  by  a  financial  reform.  Already,  by  the  edict  of  the 
2nd-i4th  of  February,  1810,  the  assignats  had  been  recognized 
as  part  of  the  national  debt,  and  were  to  be  guaranteed  by  the 
imposition  and  new  taxes  ;  the  budget  was  to  be  published,  and 
a  fund  for  the  redemption  of  the  bonds  to  be  created.  Sper- 
anski, in  short,  had  in  his  mind  something  like  the  French 
Grand  Livre  and  the  budget  of  the  Western  States.  As  a  minor 
task  he  had  undertaken  to  codify  the  laws.  To  him  the  Code 
Napoleon — that  legacy  of  the  French  Revolution,  which  had  at 
that  time  been  adopted  by  Holland,  Italy,  the  Bund,  and  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw — seemed  the  very  model  of  all  pro- 
gressive legislation.  After  the  interview  at  Erfurt,  where  Napo- 
leon showed  him  particular  attention,  Speranski  had  been  ex- 
changing letters  with  the  French  legal  writers — Locre*,  Legras, 
Dupont  de  Nemours,  and  had  made  them  correspondents  of  the 
legislative  commission  of  the  Council  of  the  Empire.  The  Code 
Napole'on  could  only  suit  a  homogeneous  nation,  free  from  per- 
sonal and  feudal  servitude,  where  every  one  enjoyed  a  certain 
equality  before  the  law.  Thus  Speranski  looked  on  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  serfs  as  the  corner-stone  of  his  building  ;  he 
dreamed  of  forming  a  middle  class,  of  limiting  the  numbers  of 
the  privileged  classes,  and  of  forming  an  aristocracy  of  great 
families  like  the  Elnglish  peerage.  As  early  as  1809  he  had 
decided  that  persons  holding  University  degrees  should  enjoy 
certain  advantages  over  others,  when  aspiring  to  the  degrees 
of  the  Tchin.  Thus  a  doctor  would  be  on  a  level  with  the 
eighth  rank,  a  master  of  arts  with  the  ninth,  a  man  of  master's 
standing  who  had  not  taken  his  degree  with  the  tenth,  a  bachelor 
of  arts  with  the  twelfth. 

Speranski,  like  Turgot,  the  minister  of  Louis  XVIII.,  and 
like  Stein,  the  Prussian  reformer,  had  set  everyone  in  arms  against 
him.  The  nobles  of  the  court  and  of  the  antechamber — the 
"  sweepers  of  the  parquets,"  as  Alexander  called  them — and 
the  young  officials  who  wished  to  owe  their  promotion  solely  to 
favor,  were  exasperated  by  the  edict  of  1809.  The  proprietors 
were  alarmed  at  Speranski's  schemes  for  the  emancipation  of 
the  serfs  ;  the  senators  were  irritated  by  his  plan  of  re-organiza- 
tion, which  reduced  the  first  order  of  the  empire  to  the  position 
of  a  supreme  court  of  justice  ;  the  high  aristocracy  were  indig- 
nant at  the  boldness  of  a  man  of  low  extraction,  the  son  of  a 


2  r  6  HISTOR  Y  OF  K USSTA. 

village  priest.  The  people  themselves  murmured  at  the  increase 
of  the  taxes.  All  these  injured  interests  leagued  themselves 
against  him.  The  minister  was  accused  of  despising  the  institu« 
tions  of  Muscovy,  of  daring  to  present  to  the  Russians  the  Code 
Napole'on  as  a  model ;  the  country  being  at  that  time  on  the  eve 
of  a  war  with  France.  The  ministers  Balachef,  Armfelt,  Gou« 
rief,  Count  Rostopchine,  and  the  Grand  Duchess  Catherine  Pav- 
lovna,  the  Emperor's  sister,  influenced  Alexander  against  him. 
The  historian  Karamsin  addressed  to  his  sovereign  his  enthu- 
siastic essay  on  New  and  Ancient  Russia,  in  which  he  made 
himself  the  champion  of  serfage,  of  the  old  laws,  and  of  autoc- 
racy. They  went  the  length  of  denouncing  Speranski  as  a 
traitor  and  accomplice  of  France.  In  March  1812  he  suddenly 
vanished  from  the  capital  and  went  as  governor  to  Nijni-Nov- 
gorod,  but  was  shortly  afterwards  deprived  of  his  post  and  sub- 
jected to  a  close  surveillance.  In  1819,  when  passions  had 
calmed  down,  he  was  nominated  Governor  of  Siberia,  where  he 
was  able  to  render  important  services.  In  1821  he  returned  to 
St.  Petersburg,  but  without  recovering  his  former  position. 


ARAKTCHEEF :     POLITICAL    AND     UNIVERSITY       REACTION  ;      MILI- 
TARY  COLONIES. 

Another  period,  another  season,  had  begun.  The  enemies 
of  Speranski — Armfelt,  Schichkof,  and  Rostopchine — were  in 
places  of  the  highest  trust :  but  the  favorite,  the  vr£mumthtMk 
exofficio,  was  Araktchdef,  the  rough  "  corporal  of  Gatchina,"  the 
instrument  of  Paul's  tyranny,  the  born  enemy  of  all  new  ideas 
and  all  thoughts  of  reform,  the  apostle  of  absolute  power  and 
passive  obedience.  He  first  gained  the  confidence  of  Alex- 
ander by  his  devotion  to  the  memory  of  Paul ;  next  by  his 
punctuality,  his  prompt  obedience,  his  disinterestedness  and 
habits  of  work,  and  by  the  naive  admiration  which  he  showed 
for  the  "  Genius  of  the  Emperor."  He  was  the  safest  of  ser- 
vants, the  most  imperious  of  superiors,  and  the  instrument  best 
fitted  for  a  reaction.  His  influence  was  not  at  first  exclusive. 
After  having  conquered  Napoleon,  Alexander  liked  to  think 
himself  the  liberator  of  nations.  He  had  freed  Germany ;  he 
spared  France,  and  obtained  for  her  a  charter;  he  granted  a 
constitution  to  Poland,  and  meant  to  extent!  its  benefit  to  Russia 
If  the  censorship  of  the  press  had  become  more  severe,  and 
forbade  the  '  Messager  des  Lettres  '  (  Vicstnik  slovesnosti)  to  criti- 
cise "  his  Majesty's  servants,"  Alexander  had  not  yet  renounced 
all  his  Utopias.  To  the  French  influence  succeeded  the  Protes- 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  2  j  7 

(ant  and  English  influence.  The  French  theatres  were  shut 
and  Bible  Societies  opened.  The  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  established  itself  in  the  capital,  received  subscriptions 
amounting  to  300,000  roubles,  and  published  500,000  volumes  in 
fifty  different  languages.  The  Russian  Bible  Society,  with  its 
offshoot,  the  Cossack  Bible  Society  at  Tcherkask,  published 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  of  the  holy  books,  At  this 
time  the  influence  of  Madame  de  Krtidener,  and  a  revival  of  the 
terrible  memories  of  March  1801,  had  made  Alexander  a  dreamy 
mystic.  He  received  a  deputation  of  Quakers,  prayed  and  wept 
with  them,  and  kissed  the  hand  of  old  Allen.  Notwithstanding, 
the  first  epoch  of  the  ministry  of  Araktchdef  was  an  epoch  of 
sterility.  If  at  present  there  were  no  reaction,  everything  had 
at  least  come  to  a  standstill.  The  war  of  1812  had  interrupted 
the  reforms  which  had  been  begun,  and  they  were  not  resumed. 
There  was  an  end  of  the  Code  of  Speranski,  and  the  efforts  to 
compile  another  more  suitable  to  the  Russian  traditions  came 
to  nothing. 

The  character  of  Alexander  soon  sadly  changed.  He  grew 
gloomy  and  suspicious.  His  last  illusions  had  flown,  his  last 
liberal  ideas  were  dissipated.  After  the  congresses  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  and  Troppau  he  was  no  longer  the  same  man.  It  was 
at  Troppau  that  Metternich  announced  to  him,  with  calculated 
exaggeration,  the  mutiny  of  the  Semenovski,  his  favorite  regi- 
ment of  the  Guards.  From  that  time  he  considered  himself  the 
dupe  of  his  generous  ideas,  and  the  victim  of  universal  ingrati- 
tude. He  had  wished  to  liberate  Germany,  and  German  opinion 
had  turned  against  him  ;  his  pensioner,  Kotzebue,  had  been  as- 
sassinated by  Maurice  Sand.  He  had  sought  the  sympathy  of 
vanquished  France,  and  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  a  French  plot  had 
been  discovered  against  him.  He  had  longed  to  restore  Poland, 
and  Poland  only  desired  to  free  herself  completely,  while  Russia 
demanded  an  explanation  from  Alexander  of  the  new  danger  he 
had  created  on  his  frontier,  by  the  reconstruction  of  the  Lechite 
kingdom.  It  was  at  this  moment  that  the  Holy  Alliance  of  the 
sovereigns  became  an  alliance  against  nations  ;  at  Carlsbad,  at 
Laybach,  and  at  Verona  Alexander  was  already  the  leader  of 
the  European  reaction.  In  the  East  he  disavowed  Ypsilanti ; 
in  Russia  he  owned  the  influence  of  Araktche'ef  and  the  Ob- 
scuranti.  The  Araktche'evtchina  had  begun. 

Remonstrated  with  by  Archbishop  Serafim,  Alexander  broke 
with  the  Bible  Societies,  and  forced  his  old  friend,  Prince 
Galitsyne,  the  liberal  and  tolerant  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
to  resign.  Galitsyne  was  replaced  by  Schichkof.  The  censor- 
ship  became  daily  more  strict.  The  Jesuits,  who  had  been  ex' 


2  j  g  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

/ 

pelled  from  St.  Petersburg,  were  banished  from  the  whole 
empire,  as  a  punishment  for  their  proselytism  ;  and  they  :eally 
were  unnecessary  in  Russia,  for  the  orthodox  guardians  *  f  the 
Russian  universities  could  rival  them  in  the  art  of  stifling 
independent  thought.  The  popetchitd  of  Kazan  University  was 
Magnitski,  who  proposed  to  organize  the  teaching  in  accordance 
with  the  "  act  of  the  Holy  Alliance."  He  dismissed  eleven  of 
the  professors  ;  struck  out  of  the  list  of  honorary  members 
Abbd  Gre'goire,  a  Frenchman  and  "  a  regicide  "  :  and  excluded 
all  suspicious  books  from  the  library,  notably  the  work  of  Grotius 
on  International  Law.  He  forbade  the  geological  theories  of 
Buffon  and  the  systems  of  Copernicus  and  Newton  to  be  taught, 
as  contrary  to  the  text  of  Scripture.  The  professor  of  history 
must  saturate  himself  with  the  ideas  of  Bossuet  in  his  '  Histoire 
Universelle.'  The  science  of  medicine  must  be  a  Christian 
science ;  dissection  was  almost  entirely  forbidden,  as  incom- 
patible with  the  respect  due  to  the  dead.  The  professor  of 
political  economy  was  enjoined  to  insist  principally  on  the 
virtues  that  turned  material  goods  into  spiritual  possessions, 
"  thus  uniting  the  lower  and  contingent  economy  with  the  true 
and  superior  economy,  and  by  this  means  forming  the  real 
science,  in  a  politico-moral  sense."  Nikolski,  professor  of  geome- 
try, already  demonstrated  in  the  triangle  the  symbol  of  the 
Trinity;  and  in  the  unity,  that  is  to  say,  the  number  one,  the 
divine  Unity.  At  Kharkof,  the  Professors  Schad  and  Ossipovski, 
and  at  St.  Petersburg  the  Professors  Galitch  (philosophy),  Her- 
mann and  Arsenius  (statistics),  and  Raupach  (history),  were 
expelled  from  the  universities.  They  were  summoned  by  the 
popetchitel  Rounitch  before  a  university  commission.  The  first 
was  accused  of  impiety,  because  he  had  taught  the  philosophy 
of  Schelling,  the  others  of  Maratism  and  of  Robespierrism,  for 
having  expounded  the  theories  of  Schlretzer,  the  protege  of 
Catherine  II.,  or  criticised  agricultural  serfage,  and  the  extent 
to  which  the  issue  of  paper  money  had  been  carried.  It  was 
forbidden  in  future  either  to  employ  professors  who  had  studied 
in  the  West,  or  to  send  thither  Russian  students. 

The  most  salient  feature  of  Araktche'ef's  administration,  of 
which  the  initiative  proceeded  from  the  gentle  Alexander,  was 
the  creation  of  military  colonies.  This  system  consisted  oi 
the  settlement  of  soldiers  among  the  peasants,  in  a  certain 
number  of  districts.  If  these  soldiers  were  married,  theii 
wives  were  also  brought  to  the  village  ;  if  they  were  not, 
they  were  married  to  the  daughters  of  the  peasants.  A  village 
was  therefore  composed  :  i.  Of  the  military  settlers,  the  soldiers; 
2.  Of  colonized  peasants,  the  natives.  The  soldiers  assisted 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


219 


the  peasant  in  his  field  work  ;  the  children  of  both  were  destined 
for  military  service.  The  colonized  districts  were  removed  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  authorities,  and  subjected  to  military 
administration  and  government.  The  total  in  these  military 
districts  in  the  governments  of  Novgorod,  Kharkof,  Mohilef, 
Ekaterinoslaf,  and  Cherson  amounted  to  138  battalions  and  240 
squadrons.  This  system  appeared  to  have  certain  advantages, 
which  gained  over  Speranski  himself.  It  secured,  people  said, 
regular  recruits,  lightened  the  burden  on  the  rest  of  the  popula- 
tion, raised  the  morals  of  the  soldier  by  keeping  him  with  his 
family,  guaranteed  him  an  asylum  in  his  old  age,  restored  to 
agriculture  the  labor  of  which  the  army  had  formerly  deprived 
it,  diminished  for  the  Government  the  expenses  of  the  army  and 
for  the  people  the  cost  of  lodging  the  troops  and  paying  requisi- 
tions, and  finally  created  a  military  nation  on  the  frontier  of  the 
empire.  If  the  colonization  was  a  heavy  weight  upon  the 
natives,  they  were  compensated  by  various  advantages.  The 
Government  augmented  their  lots  of  land,  secured  them  personal 
liberty  like  that  of  the  Crown  peasant,  repaired  their  houses,  and 
dowered  their  daughters. 

The  country  people  did  not  understand  it  thus.  Subjected 
at  their  hearths  to  an  interference  more  annoying  than  that  of 
their  former  masters  and  their  stewards,  forced  into  a  twofold 
servitude  as  laborers  and  as  soldiers,  their  habits  and  traditions 
all  invaded,  they  cursed  Araktche'ef's  ingenious  idea,  which  offi- 
cial circles  extolled.  Revolts  broke  out,  and  Araktche'ef,  blam- 
ing the  gross  ignorance  and  ingratitude  of  the  mougik,  repressed 
them  with  implacable  severity. 


SECRET  SOCIETIES  :   POLAND. 

Other  elements  of  trouble  fermented  in  Russia.  We  are  no 
longer  in  the  time  of  Catherine  II.,  when  the  gravest  social  ques- 
tions could  be  discussed  with  impunity,  before  an  inattentive  or 
indifferent  nation.  The  noble  efforts  of  Alexander's  early  years 
now  found  a  decided  support  in  public  opinion.  Unfortunately 
the  sovereign  and  his  people  were  at  variance.  Whilst  a  party 
among  the  nation  had  become  enthusiastic  for  liberal  ideas, 
Alexander  had  grown  cold  about  them  :  formerly  his  courageous 
initiative  was  hardly  appreciated  ;  at  present  it  was  the  back- 
sliding spirit  of  the  Government  which  irritated  the  country.  A 
transformation  had  taken  place  ;  it  was  not  in  vain  that  the  Rus- 
sian officers  had  seen  Paris,  had  dwelt  on  French  soil.  Those 
revolutionary  principles  of  which  under  Catherine  II.  men  had 


320  H IS  TOR  Y  OF  R ISSSM. 

only  a  glimpse  across  the  prism  of  their  prejudices,  they  had 
found  realized  in  the  States  of  the  West,  and  had  been  forced 
to  remark  the  coincidence  of  their  triumph  with  the  rapid  devel- 
opment of  a  new  prosperity.  "  From  the  time  that  the  Russian 
armies  returned  to  their  country,"  writes  Nicholas  Tourgue'nief, 
"  liberal  ideas,  as  they  were  then  called,  began  to  propagate 
themselves  in  Russia.  Independently  of  the  regular  troops, 
great  masses  of  militiamen  (ppoltchtnU)  had  also  seen  foreign 
places.  These  militiamen  of  various  ranks  recrossed  the  frontier, 
went  back  to  their  homes,  and  related  all  that  they  had  seen  in 
Europe.  Facts  had  spoken  louder  than  any  human  voice.  This 
was  the  true  propaganda."  Pestel,  one  of  the  conspirators  of 
1825,  acknowledged  that  "  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  had 
made  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  my  ideas  and  political  convic- 
tions. I  then  saw  that  though  the  greater  number  of  the  insti- 
tutions necessary  to  the  well-being  of  a  State  were  brought  in  by 
the  Revolution,  they  were  continued  after  the  re-establishment 
of  the  monarchy  as  conducive  to  the  public  welfare,  whilst 
formerly  we  all,  myself  among  the  earliest,  rose  against  this 
Revolution.  From  this  I  concluded  that  apparently  it  was  not 
so  bad  as  we  represented  to  ourselves,  and  even  contained  much 
good.  I  was  confirmed  in  my  idea  by  observing  that  the  States 
in  which  no  revolution  had  taken  place  continued  to  be  de- 
prived of  many  rights  and  privileges." 

People  not  only  read  Montesquieu,  Raynal,  Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau,  as  under  Catherine  II.,  but  Bignon,  Lacretelle,  De 
Tracy,  and  Benjamin  Constant ;  and  the  eloquent  voices  of  the 
French  tribune  found  an  echo  in  the  young  Russian  nobility  and 
part  of  the  middle  class.  Politeness,  the  spirit  of  justice,  and 
respect  for  the  human  person  had  made  great  progress.  Euro- 
pean culture  no  longer  lay  only  on  the  surface,  but  it  penetrated 
deeply  into  hearts  and  consciences.  Many  declared  like  Wil- 
helm  Kflchelbecker :  "  At  the  thought  of  all  the  brilliant  quali- 
ties with  which  God  has  endowed  the  Russian  people, — that 
people  whose  language,  so  sonorous,  so  rich  and  strong,  is  with- 
out a  rival  in  Europe,  whose  national  character  is  a  mixture  of 
bonhomie,  of  tenderness,  of  lively  intelligence,  and  a  generous 
disposition  to  pardon  offences  ;  at  the  thought  that  all  this  was 
stifled,  and  would  wither  and  perhaps  perish  before  having 
produced  any  fruit  in  the  moral  world,  my  heart  nearly  broke." 
To  these  noble  souls  it  was  absolute  suffering  to  see  despotism 
hold  its  sway  through  all  the  grades  of  Russian  society,  in  all 
the  relations  of  the  autocrat  with  the  nation,  of  the  officials  with 
those  they  governed,  of  the  officials  with  their  soldiers,  and  of  the 
proprietors  with  the  peasants.  They  were  indignant  at  beholding 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  K  USSIA.  *2 1 

the  Russian  people  alone  in  Europe  dishonored  by  the  serfage  of 
the  soil,  and  by  domestic  servitude,  that  shameful  legacy  of  ancient 
Slav  barbarism  and  the  Tatar  yoke,  that  Asiatic  ignominy  which 
continued  to  defile  a  Christian  people  ;  at  the  sight  of  the  Russian 
soldier,  the  conqueror  of  Napoleon,  the  liberator  of  Europe,  sub- 
mitting to  the  degradation  of  corporal  punishment.  They  did 
not  believe  that  the  inconstant  will  of  the  most  well-meaning 
autocrat,  that  the  good  intentions  of  an  Alexander — that 
"  happy  accident  among  his  family,"  as  he  said  himself  to 
Madame  de  Stael — could  make  up  for  the  want  of  laws  and 
liberal  institutions. 

In  spite  of  the  watchfulness  of  suspicious  police,  freemasonry, 
forbidden  since  the  time  of  Catherine  II.  and  Paul,  organized 
itself,  and  spread  over  Russia,  the  kingdom  of  Poland,  and  the 
Baltic  provinces.  Societies  of  a  more  warlike  character,  and 
with  a  definite  object,  whose  existence  fora  long  while  remained 
a  secret,  were  also  constituted  at  certain  points.  It  was  in  1818 
that  the  Society  of  Virtue,  an  imitation  of  the  Germanic  Tugen- 
bund,  was  formed  at  Moscow,  and  reckoned  among  its  members 
Prince  Troubetskoi,  Alexander  and  Nikita  Mouravief,  Matvei 
and  Sergius  Mouravief-Apostol,  Nicholas  Tourgue'nief,  Feodor 
Glinka,  Michael  Orlof,  the  two  brothers  Fon-Vizine,  lakouch- 
kine,  Lounine,  the  princes  Feodor  Schakovskoi  and  Obolenski, 
and  many  others.  The  members  of  this  association  were  not 
agreed  as  to  the  form  of  government  they  wished  to  give  to 
Russia,  some  clinging  to  the  idea  of  a  constitutional  monarchy, 
others  to  that  of  a  republic,  which  Novikof  had  been  one  of  the 
first  to  suggest.  This  society  was  dissolved  in  1822,  and  gave 
birth  to  two  others — the  Society  of  the  North,  or  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, which  had  constitutional  aims,  and  the  Society  of  the 
South,  which  recruited  its  associates  chiefly  among  the  officers 
of  the  garrisons  of  the  Ukraine  or  of  Little  Russia,  where 
Colonel  Pestel  preached  republicanism.  A  third  and  less  im- 
portant society,  that  of  the  United  Slavs,  dreamed  of  a  con- 
federacy of  the  Slav  races,  and  tried  to  form  ramifications  in 
Bohemia,  Servia,  and  Bulgaria.  About  1823,  the  Russian  socie- 
ties entered  into  relations  with  the  Patriotic  Society  of  Poland, 
then  preparing  for  an  insurrection,  and,  in  order  to  secure  the 
help  of  the  Poles,  engaged  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  favor  the 
restoration  of  the  country.  The  most  ardent  members  of  thfc 
Russian  associations  were  at  that  time  Colonel  Pestel  and  Ryleef, 
the  one  a  son  of  a  former  director  of  posts,  the  other  of  the  head 
of  police  under  Catherine  II.  By  the  warmth  of  their  republi- 
can convictions,  they  seemed  to  wish  to  expiate  the  servility  of 
their  fathers.  At  the  period  of  the  meetings  at  Kief  in  1823, 


2  2  2  KISTOR  Y  OF  K USSIA. 

Pestel  had  read  a  scheme  of  a  republican  constitution  and  of  an 
equalizing  code.  As  the  chief  obstacle  to  th?  realization  of  his 
projects  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  existence  of  the  Romanof 
dynasty,  it  was  decided  not  to  shrink  from  the  murder  of  the 
Emperor,  and  the  extermination  of  the  imperial  family.  In  the 
bosom  of  the  Society  of  the  South,  a  still  closer  and  more  secret 
association  had  been  formed,  with  the  end  of  regicide  in  view. 
They  were  to  profit  by  the  first  opportunity  that  presented  it- 
self, which  happened  to  be  a  review  where  Alexander  was  to  in- 
spect, in  1824,  the  troops  of  the  Ukraine.  An  active  propa- 
ganda was  set  on  foot  among  the  soldiers  of  the  garrisons,  and 
common  soldiers  were  gained  over  by  promising  them  the 
liberty  of  the  peasants,  and  the  mitigation  of  the  military 
rtgim*. 


LITERARY  AND    SCIENTIFIC   MOVEMENT. 

The  awakening  of  the  Russian  mind  did  not  show  itself  in 
political  schemes  alone.  In  science,  in  letters,  and  in  arts,  the 
reign  of  Alexander  was  an  epoch  of  magnificent  blossom.  The 
intellectual,  like  the  liberal,  movement  had  not  the  exotic  and 
superficial  character  of  the  reign  of  Catherine.  It  penetrated 
deeply  into  the  heart  of  the  nation,  gained  in  power  and  in  ex- 
tent, carried  away  the  middle  classes,  and  propagated  itself  in 
the  most  distant  provinces.  The  impulse  given  in  1801  had  not 
stopped,  although  the  Government  at  once  tried  to  quell  the 
spirit  it  had  excited,  and  Alexander,  embittered  andd4tiffutionaSt 
had  become  mistrustful  of  all  manifestations  of  private  thought. 
While  the  rigor  of  the  censorship  had  been  increased,  the 
number  of  secret  societies  was  not  at  all  diminished,  and  reviews 
and  literary  journals  continued  to  multiply. 

The  Btsieda  was  now  formed,  the  literary  club  at  which 
Krylof  read  his  fables  and  Derjavine  his  odes,  and  which  repre- 
sented classical  tendencies ;  whilst  the  Arzamas  was  founded 
by  the  romantic  school — Joukovski,  Dachkof,  Ouvarof,  Pouch 
kine,  Bloudof,  and  Prince  Viazemski.  At  St.  Petersburg  the 
Society  of  the  Friends  of  Science,  Literature,  and  Arts;  that  of 
the  Friends  of  Russian  Literature  at  Moscow,  which  published 
an  important  collection  of  its  "  transactions  ;  "  that  of  the  His« 
tory  of  Russian  Antiquities,  and  the  Society  of  Patriotic  Litera- 
ture, at  Kazan  ;  that  of  the  Friends  of  Science  at  Kharkof, 
and  many  others  of  less  importance,  devoted  themselves  to 
letters,  archaeology,  and  the  mathematical,  natural,  and  physical 
sciences.  At  St.  Petersburg  appeared  the  Northern  Post,  the 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  ^3 

St.  Petersburg  Messenger,  the  Northern  Mercury,  the  Messenger 
of  Sion,  organ  of  the  mystic  party,  The  Beehive,  and  The  Demo- 
crat, in  which  Kropotof  declaimed  against  the  influence  of 
French  ideas  and  manners,  and  in  the  '  Funeral  Oration  of 
Balabas,  my  dog,'  congratulated  this  worthy  animal  on  having 
studied  at  no  university,  on  never  having  occupied  himself  with 
politics,  on  never  having  read  Voltaire,  &c.  Literary  activity  was, 
as  ever,  still  greater  at  Moscow.  Karamsin  there  edited  a  re- 
view entitled  the  European  Messenger,  Makarof  the  Moscow  Mer- 
cury, Sergius  Glinka  the  Russian  Messenger,  in  which  he  tried  to 
excite  a  national  feeling,  now  putting  the  people  on  their  guard 
against  any  foreign  influence,  moral  or  intellectual,  now  arming 
them  against  Napoleon,  "  teaching  the  people  to  sacrifice  them- 
selves to  their  country,"  and  letting  loose  the  furies  of  the 
"  patriotic  war."  "  With  the  victory  of  Russia  over  the  invader 
his  task  ended,  aud  the  Russian  Messenger  disappeared,  but  his 
work  was  taken  up  by  Gretch  in  his  Son  of  the  Soil,  who  continued 
beyond  the  frontier  the  war  with  Napoleon,  whom  he  taunted 
as  a  "  murderer "  and  an  "infamous  tyrant,"  and  against  his 
companions  in  arms;  whom  he  called  "  brigands."  "  Taste  be- 
forehand," he  cries  to  the  conqueror,  "  the  immortality  which 
you  deserve.  Know  from  this  time  how  posterity  will  curse 
your  name  1  You  are  seated  on  your  throne  amidst  thunder  and 
flames,  like  Satan  in  the  midst  of  hell,  encircled  with  death, 
with  devastation,  fury,  and  fire."  The  Inralide  Russe  was 
founded  in  1813,  for  the  benefit  of  wounded  or  infirm  soldiers. 
Even  when  the  warlike  fever  calmed  down,  and  men's  minds 
were  occupied  with  other  things  less  hostile  to  French  influence, 
this  great  literary  movement  still  continued. 

Almost  all  the  writers  of  this  period  took  their  part  in  the 
crusade  against  the  Gallomania  and  the  influence  of  Napoleon. 
Some  had  fought  in  person  in  the  war  with  France.  Joukovski 
was  present  at  Borodino  ;  Batiouchkof  had  marched  in  the  cam- 
paigns of  1807  and  1813,  and  had  been  wounded  at  Heilsberg ; 
Petine  was  killed  at  Leipzig  ;  the  Princes  Viazemski  and  Schak- 
ovskoii  had  served  among  the  Cossacks  ;  Glinka  in  the  opoltche'nie 
in  which  Karamsin,  in  spite  of  his  age,  had  wished  to  enrol  him- 
self. Their  writings  bear  the  stamp  of  their  patriotic  passions. 
Krylof  has  written  other  things  besides  his  fables,  which  place 
him  not  far  from  La  Fontaine,  and  in  his  comedies  '  The  School 
for  Young  Ladies  '  and  the  '  Milliner's  Shop  '  he  turned  the  exag- 
gerated taste  for  everything  French  into  ridicule.  Amongst 
several  classical  tragedies  ('  CEdipus  at  Athens,'  '  Fingal,'  '  Poly- 
xena  ')  Oze'rof  wrote  that  of  '  Dmitri  Donskoi,'  which  recalled 
the  struggles  of  Russia  against  the  Tatars,  and  seemed  to  pre- 


324 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSfA 


diet  the  approaching  contest  with  another  invader.  The  tragedy 
of  '  Pojarski,'  the  hero  of  1612,  by  Krioukovski,  contains  allusions 
of  the  same  sort.  In  1806  the  poet  Joukovski  had  sung  the  exploit* 
of  the  Russians  against  Napoleon,  in  the  '  Song  of  the  Bard  on 
the  Graves  of  the  Victorious  Slavs,'  and  in  1812  in  the  '  Bard  in 
the  Camp  of  the  Russian  Warriors.'  Rostopchine,  the  enemy 
of  the  French,  did  not  even  await  the  grand  crisis  to  empty  the 
vials  of  his  wrath  against  them. 

In  general  the  literature  of  the  time  of  Alexander  marks  the 
passage  from  the  imitation  of  the  ancients,  or  of  classic  French 
writers,  to  the  imitation  of  the  German  or  English  master- 
pieces. The  Besieda  and  the  Arzamas  formed,  as  it  were,  the 
head-quarters  of  the  two  rival  armies,  which  fought  in  Russia  the 
same  battle  as  the  French  romantic  and  classic  schools  at  Paris. 
Schiller,  Gothe,  Burger,  Byron,  and  Shakespeare  were  as  fash- 
ionable  as  in  France,  because  they  were  strange,  and  because 
they  created  a  kind  of  literary  scandal.  If  Ozarof,  Batiouchkof, 
and  Derjavine  kept  up  the  traditions  of  the  old  school  Jou- 
kovski translated  Schiller's  '  Joan  of  Arc  '  and  Byron's  '  Prisoner 
of  the  Chillon,'  Pouchkine  contributed  '  Rousslan  and  Loudmila,' 
the  '  Prisoner  of  the  Caucasus,' the 'Fountain  of  Bakhtchi-Sera'i,  ' 
and  the  '  Tsiganes  '  (i.e.  Gipsies),  and  began  his  romance  in  verse 
of  '  Eugene  Onieghine'  and  the  drama  of  '  Boris  Godounof ' 
(1829). 

As  in  France  t'  e  romantic  movement  had  been  accompanied 
by  a  brilliant  rcna:  sa..ce  of  historical  studies,  so  in  Russia  the 
dramatists  and  novelists  were  inspired  with  a  taste  for  national 
subjects  by  Karamsin's  '  History  of  Russia  ' — a  work  uncritical 
in  its  method,  and  indiscriminating  in  its  appreciation  of  his- 
torical events,  but  remarkable  for  the  brilliance  and  eloquence 
of  its  style,  as  well  as  the  chaim  of  its  narrative.  Schlcetzer 
had  just  edited  Nestor,  the  old  Kievian  annalist,  the  father  of 
Russian  history. 

Science  enjoyed  a  certain  amount  of  protection  in  this  reign. 
In  1803  the  Captains  Krusenstern  and  Lisianski,  accompanied 
by  the  savants  Tilesius  of  Leipzig  and  Horner  of  Hamburg,  ac- 
complished the  first  Russian  voyage  round  the  world,  in  the 
Hope  (Naddjda)  and  the  Neva,  and  opened  relations  with  the 
United  States  and  with  Japan.  In  1815  Captain  Kotzebue  had 
explored  the  Southern  Ocean,  and  next  the  icy  ocean  to  the 
North,  and  sought  by  Behring's  Straits  a  communication  with 
the  Atlantic,  that  is,  the  North-west  passage  ;  others  surveyed 
the  coasts  of  Siberia,  and  it  was  ascertained  that  Asia  was  not 
joined  to  America,  as  the  Englishman  Burney  had  asserted. 

In  1814  the  imperial  library  of  St.  Petersburg  was  solemnly 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


225 


thrown  open  to  the  public.  It  then  contained  242,000  volumes 
and  10,000  manuscripts.  The  nucleus  had  been  formed  by  the 
victories  of  Souvorof,  who  had  sent  to  Russia  the  library  of  the 
kings  of  Poland. 

In  spite  of  the  expenses  of  the  war,  the  Russian  cities  had 
received  some  embellishments.  At  St.  Petersburg  the  better- 
paved  streets  and  the  granite  quays  gave  evidence  of  the  care  of 
the  Government.  Thomont  built  the  palace  of  the  Bourse, 
Rosser  the  new  Mikhail  Palace,  and  Montferrand  began  the 
vast  and  splendid  cathedral  of  St.  Isaac.  St.  Peter's  at  Rome 
served  as  a  model  for  our  Lady  of  Kazan,  before  which  the  bronze 
statues  of  Barclay  de  Tolly  and  Koutouzof  were  afterwards 
erected.  In  1801  a  statue  was  erected  to  Souvorof.  Pultowa 
had  its  monument  of  Peter  the  Great's  victory ;  Kief  that  of  Vla- 
dimir the  Baptist ;  Moscow  those  of  Minine  and  Pojarski  (1818): 
but  the  plan  of  raising  on  the  Hill  of  Sparrows  at  Moscow  a 
colossal  church  dedicated  to  the  Saviour,  in  memory  of  the  deliv- 
erance, failed  through  the  inexperience  of  the  architect.  It  was 
only  carried  out  in  another  place,  during  the  present  reign. 

In  1825  Alexander  quitted  his  capital  to  visit  the  southern 
provinces,  and  intended  to  spend  some  time  at  Taganrog,  for 
the  benefit  of  his  health.  At  the  moment  of  his  departure  he 
appears  to  have  been  shaken  by  gloomy  presentiments,  and 
insisted  on  a  requiem  mass  being  said  at  the  monastery  of  St. 
Alexander  Nevski.  In  broad  daylight,  lighted  tapers  were  left 
in  his  room.  A  frightful  flood  that  had  happened  at  St.  Peters- 
burg some  time  before  was  looked  on  by  the  people  as  a  chas- 
tisement from  Heaven  for  Russia's  culpable  indifference  towards 
the  Christians  of  the  East.  At  Taganrog  Alexander  received 
circumstantial  accounts  as  to  the  conspiracy  of  the  Society  of 
the  South  and  its  schemes  of  regicide.  Cruel  recollections  of 
1801  may  have  mingled  with  his  melancholy.  He  thought  sadly 
of  the  terrible  embarrassments  which  he  would  bequeath  to  his 
.successor ;  of  his  lost  illusions  ;  of  his  liberal  sympathies  of 
former  days,  which  in  Poland,  as  in  Russia,  had  ended  in  a  re- 
action ;  of  his  broken  purposes  and  changed  life.  In  the  Crimea 
he  was  heard  to  repeat,  "  They  may  say  what  they  like  of  me, 
but  I  have  lived  and  will  die  republican."  But  what  a  singular 
republic  is  the  system  preserved  in  the  memory  of  the  people 
under  the  name  of  "  Araktche'evtchina  "  !  On  the  igth  of  Nov- 
ember (ist  December)  the  Emperor  expired  in  the  arms  of  the 
Empress  Elizabeth.  How  would  Russia  celebrate  what  the 
Empress-mother  Maria  Feodorovna  already  called  the  "  obse- 
quies of  Alexander  ? " 


226  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

NICHOLAS    I.   (1825-1855). 

The  December  insurrection — Administration  and  reforms — Public  education 
and  literature — War  with  Persia  (1826-1828) — First  Turkish  war:  libera- 
tion of  Greece  (1826-1829) — The  Russians  and  English  in  Asia — Polish  in- 
surrection (1831) — Hostility  against  France:  the  Eastern  question  :  Revo- 
lution of  1848;  intervention  in  Hungary — Second  Turkish  war:  the  allies 
in  the  Crimea — Awakening  of  Russian  opinion. 


THE   DECEMBER    INSURRECTION — ADMINISTRATION    AND   REFORMS 
— PUBLIC    EDUCATION   AND    LITERATURE. 

BY  the  law  of  primogeniture,  Alexander's  successor  should 
have  been  Constantine,  the  eldest  of  his  brothers,  but  in  order 
to  marry  the  Countess  Groudsinska,  afterwards  created  Prin- 
cess Lovicz,  Constantine  had,  in  1822,  declared  to  Alexander 
his  intention  of  renouncing  the  crown.  The  Emperor  had  ac- 
cepted, and  the  Empress-mother  had  approved,  his  renunciation  ; 
and  in  1823  Alexander  had  drawn  up  a  manifesto  which  sanc- 
tioned the  resolution  taken  by  Constantine,  and  summoned 
Nicholas,  Paul's  third  son,  to  the  throne.  This  act  was  depos- 
ited at  the  Ouspicnski  Sobor  at  Moscow,  but  was  kept  secret 
even  from  Nicholas  himself.  When,  two  years  after,  Alexander 
died  at  Taganrog,  Constantine  at  Warsaw  hastened  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  Nicholas,  but  Nicholas  at  St.  Petersburg 
thought  it  his  duty  to  swear  fealty  himself  to  Constantine,  and 
to  make  others  do  so.  It  was  only  on  the  i2th — 24th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1825,  that  he  received  a  letterfrom  Constantine  in  which  he 
repeatedly  and  formally  declared  his  intention  to  renounce  the 
throne.  Then  Nicholas  published  a  manifesto  announcing  his 
own  accession,  and  received  the  oaths  of  his  subjects. 

This  contest  of  generosity  between  the  two  brothers,  which 
so  strongly  contrasted  with  the  ambitious  habits  and  political 
revolutions  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  to  cost  the  empire 
dear.  During  these  few  clays  of  interregnum,  people's  minds 
were  troubled;  they  did  not  know  whom  to  obey.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  secret  societies  profited  cleverly  by  this  perplexity  of 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


227 


opinion,  and  turned  the  attachment  of  the  masses  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  seniority  to  the  advantage  of  the  revolution.  The  con- 
spirators of  the  Society  of  the  North  had  resolved  to  act.  On 
the  i4th-26th  of  December  they  raised  some  of  the  troops,  the 
regiments  of  Moscow,  the  grenadiers  of  the  navy,  and  the  sea- 
men of  the  Guard,  by  persuading  them  that  the  news  of  Con- 
stantine's  resignation  was  false,  that  the  Tzarevitch  was  prisoner 
in  Moscow,  and  that  the  oath  exacted  from  them  was  a  sacri- 
lege. The  insurgent  forces  threw  themselves  on  the  Place  du 
Senat,  shouting  "  Long  live  Constantine ! "  Some  of  the  con- 
spirators raised  the  cry  of  "  Long  live  the  Constitution  ! "  but 
this  idea  was  strange  to  the  masses,  and,  according  to  the  mon- 
archical historians,  the  ignorant  soldiers  believed  that  Constitu- 
tion was  the  name  of  Constantine's  wife.  Then  the  plotters  dis- 
tributed cartridges  among  them,  and  gave  the  signal  of  revolt 
by  massacring  or  wounding  the  officers  who  attempted  to  oppose 
the  movement.  Nicholas  had  harangued  the  crowd  who  had 
taken  up  their  position  before  the  Winter  Palace,  read  them  the 
manifesto  of  Alexander,  and  had  managed  to  disperse  them. 
The  military  insurgents  thus  found  themselves  deprived  of  the 
assistance  of  the  popular  element.  The  other  regiments  of  the 
Guard  and  nearly  all  the  garrison  remained  faithful.  The  rebels, 
however,  grouped  on  the  Place  du  Se'nat,  refused  to  listen  to 
reason.  Miloradovitch,  governor  of  the  capital,  tried  to  ha- 
rangue them  ;  but  this  hero  of  fifty-two  battles  was  killed  by  a 
pistol-shot.  The  metropolitan,  in  his  sacerdotal  robes,  was  also 
shot  at,  and  received  four  balls  in  his  mitre.  The  Emperor  had 
placed  himself  opposite  the  insurgents  ;  after  having  exhausted 
all  m£ans  of  conciliation,  he  ordered  the  soldiers  to  fire  on  the 
barricades  which  had  been  hastily  raised.  A  few  rounds  sufficed 
to  scatter  the  crowd.  Five  hundred  were  taken  prisoners,  and 
in  the  night  many  surrendered  at  discretion.  At  seven  in  the 
morning  Nicholas  returned  victorious  to  his  palace. 

The  same  night  thirteen  conspirators  of  the  Society  of  the 
South  were  arrested.  This  did  not  check  the  operations  of  the 
society,  nor  of  that  of  the  United  Slavs.  The  two  Mouraviefs 
and  Bestoujef-Rioumine  had  collected  some  companies,  occupied 
Vassilkof,  and  marched  on  Kief ;  but  at  the  village  of  Ousti- 
movka  they  encountered  General  Geismar,  who  received  them 
with  a  discharge  of  grape-shot :  a  cavalry  charge  finally  put 
them  to  flight ;  700  men  laid  down  their  arms,  and  nearly  all  the 
leaders  were  made  prisoners. 

Nicholas  had  accorded  a  disdainful  pardon  to  Prince  Trou- 
betskoi,  whom  the  conspirators  of  the  capital  had  chosen  to  be 
head  of  the  Government,  and  who  had  ruined  everything  by  his 


128  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

fickle  policy.  He  showed  a  certain  clemency  to  the  mass  of  the 
insurgents,  but  a  hundred  and  twenty-one  were  brought  before  a 
commission.  A  minute  inquiry,  and  many  confessions,  enabled 
him  to  find  the  threads  of  the  plot,  and  the  traitors  were  pun- 
ished more  or  less  severely.  Five  of  them — Pestel,  Ryleef, 
Sergius  Mouravief-Apostol,  Bestoujef-Rioumine,  and  Kakovski, 
the  assassin  of  Miloradovitch — were  condemned  to  be  hanged. 
They  did  honor  to  their  cause  by  their  courage  in  facing  a  pen- 
alty made  cruel  by  the  awkwardness  of  the  executioners.  Ryleef, 
the  head  of  the  Society  of  the  North,  said  after  his  condemna- 
tion, "  The  zeal  of  my  patriotism  and  my  love  of  my  country 
may  have  deceived  me  ;  but  as  my  actions  hav  been  guided  by 
no  personal  interest,  I  die  without  fear.  Pestel,  the  energetic 
dictator  of  the  South,  had  devoted  all  his  thoughts  to  the  safety 
of  his  Russian  Code  :  "  I  am  certain,"  said  he,  "  that  one  day 
Russia  will  find  in  this  book  a  refuge  against  violent  commo- 
tions. My  greatest  error  is,  that  I  have  wished  to  gather  the 
harvest  before  sowing  the  seed."  Many  of  ;heir  ideas  were  in- 
deed premature,  but  some  were  to  survive  their  originators,  and 
be  carried  into  execution  by  the  very  power  which  they  defied. 
They  had  desired  the  independence  of  the  peasants,  a  greater 
equality  of  rights,  and  more  stability  in  the  law.  In  spite  of 
their  faults,  which  they  paid  for  with  their  lives,  they  had  shown 
that  there  existed  in  Russia  men  capable  of  dying  for  liberty. 
They  gave  an  impetus  to  the  country  that  the  thirty  years'  reign 
of  Nicholas  could  not  destroy.  This  abortive  conspiracy  was  in 
certain  respects  the  beginning  of  the  regeneration.  Many  of 
the  old  dtcembristes  were,  in  letters,  arts,  and  political  economy, 
the  glory  of  their  country,  and  were  able  to  advance,  as  far  as 
it  was  practicable,  by  other  means,  the  work  they  had  already 
undertaken.  Nicholas,  who  had  inaugurated  his  reign  by  con- 
quering one  revolution,  was  to  be  all  his  life  the  enemy  of  revo- 
lution. In  Europe  as  in  Russia  he  was  the  champion  of  Con- 
servative principles.  If  he  carried  on  the  work  of  his  brother 
Alexander,  it  was  the  Alexander  of  later  years,  without  the  in- 
novating views  of  1801,  without  his  liberal  sympathies,  and  with- 
out his  humane  scruples.  Nicholas  I.,  with  his  colossal  stature, 
his  imposing  exterior,  his  mystic  pride,  his  infatuation  for  the 
rdle  of  a  pontiff-king,  his  iron  will,  his  power  of  work,  his  taste 
for  the  details  of  government,  his  passion  for  everything  military, 
always  buckled  tight  in  his  uniform  and  playing  his  part  before 
the  people,  was  a  formidable  incarnation  of  autocracy.  His 
reign  was  a  constant  protest  against  the  movement  of  the  world. 
He  kept  up  a  perpetual  struggle  against  the  living  forces  of  hu- 
manity, against  the  imperceptible  and  invincible  advance  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


229 


mind.  Nicholas  was  a  drag  upon  rather  than  an  obstacle  to 
progress.  When  his  power  broke,  under  its  ruins  was  seen  a 
ewn  world  which  had  already  arrived  at  maturity. 

One  of  the  first  cares  of  Nicholas  I.  was  to  take  up  the  work 
of  codification  of  the  Russian  laws,  so  often  sketched  out  by  his 
predecessors  :  by  Peter  the  Great,  with  the  help  of  the  Germanic 
laws  ;  by  Catherine  II.,  with  her  great  legislative  commission  ; 
by  Alexander,  with  the  almost  Napoleonic  project  of  Speranski. 
Nicholas  himself  could  only  collect  the  materials.  The  Russian 
laws  could  not  be  definitely  codified  till  society,  regenerated  by 
the  emancipation,  should  have  found  its  final  constitution.  In 
1830  appeared  the  '  Complete  Collection  of  the  Laws  of  the 
Russian  Empire,'  which  Alexis  Mikhai'lovitch  had  begun  in  his 
oulojc'nie ;  in  1838,1116  'Collection  of  the  Existing  Laws/  com- 
piled after  a  systematic  scheme,  which  was  provisionally  to  make 
legislation  more  consistent,  and  the  tribunals  more  active.  It 
was  time,  for  2,850,000  causes  were  declared  to  be  pending,  and 
127,000  persons  committed  for  trial  still  awaited  judgment.  In 
1849  was  published  the  code  of  penal  and  corrective  justice. 
Tribunals  of  commerce  were  created,  for  the  more  prompt  dis- 
patch of  commercial  affairs. 

Peter  the  Great  had  established  a  law  of  entail.  Anne 
Ivanovna  had  suppressed  it,  as  being  opposed  to  Russian  man- 
ners. Nicholas  partially  re-established  it,  by  granting  the  father 
of  the  family  power  to  make  use  of  it  if  he  pleased.  The  custom 
of  pravege  still  existed  among  the  Don  Cossacks  :  it  was  now 
abolished.  Merchants  desirous  of  becoming  "  noble  "  thronged 
the  ranks  of  the  public  service  ;  Nicholas,  to  turn  their  ambition 
into  another  channel,  while  securing  them  the  same  advantages, 
created  a  new  subdivision  in  the  class  inhabiting  the  towns — that 
of  the  chief  citizens  (bourgeois  notables),  who  enjoyed  the  following 
prerogatives  : — Exemption  from  the  poll-tax,  conscription,  and 
corporal  punishments;  right  to  take  part  in  assessment  of  the 
landed  property  of  the  town,  and  the  right  of  being  elected  to 
the  communal  functions  of  the  same  rank  as  those  open  to 
the  merchants  of  the  first  guilds.  All  might  be  admitted  among 
the  chief  citizens  (bourgeoisie  notable)  who  had  a  certificate  of 
secondary  studies,  a  student's  diploma,  or  that  of  a  university 
student  eligible  for  the  degree  of  master  of  arts,  or  were  free- 
born  artists  and  had  a  certificate  from  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. 
Nicholas  I.  here  took  up  one  of  the  traditions  of  Catherine  II., 
who  had  attempted  to  constitute  a  middle  class  at  the  same  time 
as  a  nobility.  He  tried  to  regulate  the  mode  of  procedure  among 
the  assemblies  of  peasants  in  the  rural  communes,  and  to  intro- 
duce the  ballot  by  black  and  white  balls.  The  autocratic  Tzar 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

was  one  of  the  first  to  introduce  universal  suffrage  into  Russia. 
As  to  the  vital  question  of  emancipation,  it  slumbered  during 
this  reign.  Nicholas  contented  himself  with  approval  of  the 
great  nobles  who  set  free  their  serfs.  The  Princess  Orlof- 
Tchesmenski  liberated  5518.  The  class  of  free  cultivators 
increased  very  slowly ;  in  1838  it  only  counted  72,844  husband- 
men. The  edict  of  1842,  which  had  attempted  to  fix  the  con- 
ditions of  these  contracts  of  emancipation,  had  disquieted  the 
nobles.  The  Government  hastened  to  reassure  them  by  affirm- 
ing that  there  was  no  question  of  the  liberation  of  the  peasants, 
and  by  ordering  the  propagators  of  false  news  to  be  arrested, 
and  the  recall,  by  force  if  necessary,  of  refractory  serfs  to  their 
obedience.  Nicholas  established  his  aide-de-camp,  Protassof,  in 
the  court  of  the  Holy  Synod  ;  he  governed  the  national  church  in 
a  military  fashion  for  twenty  years,  and  had  no  scruples  about 
"  dragooning  "  the  dissenters  of  White  Russia. 

Nicholas  undertook  to  join  the  Don  and  the  Volga  by  means 
of  a  canal,  and  to  improve  the  navigation  of  the  Dnieper.  Under 
this  champion  of  immobility  the  first  railways  were  created.  He 
traced  in  a  straight  line  with  a  ruler  the  railway  between  Mos- 
cow and  St.  Petersburg  (130  leagues  long),  without  permitting 
it  to  go  out  of  its  way,  so  as  to  pass  through  any  towns  of 
importance.  A  small  branch  joined  Tzarskoe'-Selo  to  the  capital. 
Russia  still  only  followed  at  a  great  distance  the  new  European 
enterprises ;  no  iron  road  united  her  to  the  West.  The  annoy- 
ances of  the  police,  the  censorship,  and  the  custom-house  dues  all 
contributed  to  isolate  her  in  Europe.  Her  autocrat  kept  the  rest 
of  Europe  in  a  kind  of  political  quarantine.  While  speaking  of 
public  works,  we  must  mention  the  reconstruction  in  fifteen 
months  of  the  Winter  Palace,  which  was  destroyed  by  the  fire  of 

1837- 

Nicholas  created  a  "  professorial  institute  " — a  sort  of  normal 
school  for  the  higher  education — to  recruit  the  ranks  of  public 
schoolmasters,  and  a  "  principal  pedagogic  institute  "  for  the 
secondary  course  of  instruction.  His  object  was  to  remove 
the  Russian  youth  from  the  influence  of  foreign  masters.  There 
were  restrictions  as  to  the  employment  of  tutors  and  gover- 
nesses in  private  houses.  Their  capacity  and  their  morality  (in 
which  were  included  their  political  opinions)  were  to  be  certified 
by  one  of  the  universities  of  the  empire,  under  the  penalty  of  a 
fine  of  250  roubles  and  of  banishment.  It  was  forbidden  to 
send  young  men  to  study  in  Western  universities,  save  in  some 
exceptional  cases,  for  which  a  special  permission  was  required. 
In  the  Government  schools,  to  the  prejudice  of  foreign  Ian* 
guages  and  literature,  a  greater  development  was  given  to  the 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA.  3  3 1 

Russian  language,  literature,  statistics,  and  history,  which  were 
considered  less  dangerous.  Other  obstacles  were  imposed  on 
freedom  of  foreign  travel  and  residence ;  the  term  of  absence 
attested  by  legal  passports  was  fixed  at  five  years  for  the  nobles, 
and  three  for  other  Russians  subjects.  The  University  of  St. 
Vladimir  was  founded  at  Kief,  to  replace  that  of  Wilna,  which 
was  suppressed  after  the  Polish  insurrection.  The  scholastic 
reaction,  the  mistrust  of  German  philosophy,  went  so  far,  that 
philosophy  was  finally  forbidden  to  be  taught  in  the  universities, 
and  entrusted  to  the  care  of  ecclesiastics. 

Nicholas  bestowed  his  chief  attention  on  the  establishments 
for  military  education,  the  corps  of  cadets,  and  the  Military 
Academy.  He  created,  however,  a  school  of  law  and  a  techno- 
logical institute. 

The  scientific  publications  of  the  Government,  and  those  of 
the  Archasographical  Commission,  furnished,  with  the  'complete 
Collection  of  Russian  Laws,'  new  materials  for  the  study  of 
national  history.  The  imperial  library  at  St.  Petersburg  was 
enriched  by  Pogodine's  cabinet  of  antiquities ;  to  the  liberality 
of  Count  Roumantsof  Moscow  owes  the  museum  and  library 
which  bears  his  name.  M.  Solovief  began  his  '  History  of 
Russia,'  and  Nicholas  Polevoi  wrote  his  '  History  of  the  Russian 
People.' 

The  censorship  weighed  heavily  on  the  development  of  the 
national  press.  Gretch  and  Boulgarine  founded,  however,  in 
1825,  the  Northern  Bee ;  Bielinski,  the  prince  of  critics,  wrote 
successively  for  the  Observer,  started  by  Schevyref,  for  Kra'ievski's 
'Annals  of  my  Country,'  and  for  the  Contemporary,  founded  by 
Panai'ef  and  Nekrassof,  which  reckoned  Pouchkine  among  its 
contributors.  Nicholas  Polevoi  in  the  Telegraph,  and  Naddjdine 
in  the  Telescope,  continued  the  struggle — the  one  in  the  name  of 
the  romantic,  the  other  in  that  of  the  classic  school.  The 
Slavophils  discussed  in  the  Muscovite  questions  relative  to  the 
unity  of  the  Slav  races  and  the  nationality  of  the  Russian 
people. 

This  period  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  as  fertile  in  Russian 
as  in  French  literature.  To  the  names  of  Lamartine,  Victor  Hugo, 
and  Alfred  de  Musset  correspond  those  of  Pouchkine  (the  first 
of  Russian  poets,  and  one  of  the  first  in  Europe)  ;  Lermontof, 
who  was  inspired  in  the  '  Demon  '  and  others  of  his  master- 
pieces by  the  wild  and  sublime  beauty  of  the  Caucasus ;  Koltsof, 
who  discovered  a  new  source  of  poetry  in  the  popular  songs  \ 
Griboiedof,  whose  comedy  '  Gore*  ot  ouma '  (Too  Clever  by 
Half)  has  remained  one  of  the  stock  pieces  ;  and  Gogol,  who  in 
his  play  of  '  Revisor  '  and  his  romance  of  the  '  Dead  Souls  '  has 


232 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


boldly  revealed  the  plague-spots  in  Russian  administration  and 
society.  Soukovski  translated  the  Odyssey  and  some  fragments 
of  Indian  and  Persian  poems  ;  PoleVoi,  in  his  '  Oath  at  the 
Tomb  of  the  Saviour,'  'The  Deserted  One,'  'Dream  and  Life,' 
and  '  Hamlet,'  continued  the  romantic  movement  by  imitating 
Schiller,  Hoffmann,  Walter  Scott,  and  Shakespeare.  It  was  no 
barren  epoch  that  witnessed  the  appearance  of  Herzen  under 
the  name  of  *  Iskander ' ;  of  Ivan  Tourgudnief,  who  in  his 
'  Memoirs  of  a  Huntsman  '  struck  the  prelude  to  a  European 
reputation ;  of  the  novelists  Gontcharof  ('  A  Common  Story  '), 
Gregorovitch  ( '  The  Emigrants  '),  Pisemski  ( '  The  Lie'chi,1 
'The  Petersburgher'),  Dostoevski  ('The  Poor')';  and  in  which 
the  Russian  public  could  applaud  the  comedies  of  Ostrovski, 
and  the  operas  of  the  great  composer  Glinka  ( '  Life  for  the 
Tzar,'  and  '  Rousslan  and  Loudmila').  The  Russian  intellect, 
spite  of  all  obstacles,  spread  its  wings  and  tried  unknown  paths, 
created  new  openings  for  itself,  and  nobly  gave  the  lie  to  the 
theories  of  immobility.  Russia,  isolated  though  she  was  from 
Europe,  still  took  her  place  among  the  great  European  nations. 


PERSIAN    WAR    (1826-1828) — FIRST     TURKISH     WAR:     LIBERATION 
OF   GREECE   (1826-1829) — ENGLISH    AND    RUSSIANS    IN   ASIA. 

After  the  Treaty  of  Gulistan,  the  Russian  and  Persian  gov- 
ernments were  perpetually  quarrelling  on  the  subject  of  the 
frontiers  and  the  vassal  tribes.  The  Shah  continued  to  receive 
tribute  from  the  khans  of  Karabagh  and  Gandja,  but  in  his  turn 
complained  of  the  encroachments  of  Russia,  and  of  the  arro- 
gance of  Ermolof,  Governor-General  of  the  Caucasus.  Soon  the 
Russians  learnt  that  the  Mollahs  were  preaching  on  all  sides  a 
holy  war,  that  English  officers  had  entered  the  service  of  the 
Shah,  and  that  Abbas-Mirza,  Prince  Royal  of  Persia,  was  ready 
to  cross  the  Araxes  at  the  head  of  35,000  men,  and  to  raise  the 
tributary  khanates.  Nicholas  at  once  despatched  General 
PaskieVitch  to  join  Ermolof.  The  Prince  Royal  was  in  full 
march  on  Tiflis,  when  he  received  a  check  by  the  heroic  resist- 
ance, which  lasted  for  six  weeks,  of  the  fortress  of  Choucha. 
The  Russians  had  thus  time  to  concentrate  their  forces.  Near 
Elizabethpol  they  defeated  the  Persian  vanguard,  18,000  strong; 
on  the  Dje'ham,  Paskievitch,  with  less  than  10,000  men,  dis- 
persed the  whole  royal  army,  44,000  strong,  and  obliged  the 
remnant  to  retreat  beyond  the  Araxes  (1826).  By  the  Treaty 
of  Teheran,  England  promised  Persia,  in  a  case  of  invasion, 
a  body  of  troops,  and  a  subsidy  of  five  millions.  Persia  was 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  333 

none  the  less  invaded.  Paskievitch,  appointed  general-in-chief, 
forced  in  1827  the  defiles  and  the  passage  of  the  Araxes; 
captured  10,000  of  the  Prince  Royal's  men;  took  Erivan,  the 
bulwark  of  Persia,  by  assault ;  entered  Tauris,  the  second 
city  of  the  kingdom,  in  triumph,  and  began  his  march  to  Teheran. 
The  king,  Fet-Aly-Shah,  in  alarm,  signed  the  Peace  of  Tourk- 
mantchai  (ioth-22nd  February,  1828)  ;  he  ceded  to  Russia  the 
provinces  of  Erivan,  and  Nakhitchevan,  paid  an  indemnity  of 
20,000,000  roubles,  and  promised  important  commercial  advant- 
ages to  Russian  subjects.  The  Araxes  became  the  frontier  of 
the  two  empires,  and  PaskieVitch  received  the  title  of  Erivanski. 
The  peace  was  all  but  broken  in  1829  by  the  massacre  of  the 
Russian  legation  at  Teheran,  in  which  the  poet  Griboiiedof,  the 
Russian  minister,  perished.  Asia  was  always  fatal  to  the  Rus- 
sian poets.  Lermontof  was  to  die  a  tragic  death,  killed  in  a 
duel  in  the  Caucasus.  The  Court  of  Teheran  disavowed  the 
crime  of  the  people,  and,  although  Russia  was  then  occupied  in 
a  war  with  Turkey,  the  Prince  Royal  came  to  St.  Petersburg,  to 
offer  the  most  complete  satisfaction.  Persia  became  day  by  day 
more  subject  to  Russian  influence,  to  the  great  disgust  of 
England. 

With  regard  to  Turkey,  Nicholas  had  taken  up  a  more 
decided  attitude  than  Alexander.  The  enemy  of  revolutions 
sympathized  with  the  regeneration  of  Greece.  He  made  two 
demands  of  the  Sultan  :  in  concert  with  the  other  Powers,  he 
insisted  that  an  end  should  be  put  to  the  extermination  of  the 
Greeks,  and  in  his  own  name  he  asked  for  satisfaction  for  the 
bloody  outrages  inflicted  on  the  orthodox  Christians  since  the 
massacre  of  Constantinople,  and  for  the  insults  offered  to  his 
ambassador.  On  one  side  he,  like  the  rest  of  Europe,  invoked 
the  rights  of  humanity  ;  on  the  other,  he  vindicated  his  privileges 
as  protector  of  the  members  of  the  orthodox  Church,  guaranteed 
by  the  treaties  of  Kairnadji  and  Bucharest.  Sometimes  he 
acted  in  unison  with  Europe,  sometimes  he  stood  apart  from 
her,  in  order  to  act  separately  and  more  energetically. 

In  March  1826,  Nicholas  had  presented  his  ultimatum  to 
the  Divan.  His  conditions  were — i.  The  evacuation  of  the 
Danubian  principalities  (occupied  by  the  Turks,  under  the  pre- 
text of  the  insurrection  of  1821)  and  the  re-establishment  of 
affairs  on  the  basis  of  treaties.  2.  The  execution  of  the  clauses 
of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest,  relative  to  the  autonomy  of  Servia, 
and  the  liberation  of  the  Servian  deputies  who  were  detained  in 
Constantinople.  3.  Satisfaction  on  the  debated  points,  and 
the  despatch  of  an  Ottoman  plenipotentiary.  The  Porte  tried 
to  resist,  but  the  European  Powers  persuaded  her  to  yield.  On 


234 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


the  26th  of  September  (8th  of  October)  the  Convention  of  Akkef- 
man  was  concluded  on  the  following  conditions: — i.  The  con- 
firmation of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest.  2.  The  autonomy  of 
Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  under  a  hospodar  elected  for  seven 
years  in  an  assembly  of  nobles,  and  who  could  only  be  deposed 
with  the  consent  of  Russia.  3.  The  final  cession  to  Russia  of 
the  disputed  territories  on  the  Asiatic  frontier.  4.  Seven  years' 
delay  to  enable  the  Porte  to  organize  Servia  in  accordance  with 
the  Treaty  of  Bucharest.  5.  Fair  satisfaction  to  the  Russian 
subjects  who  were  creditors  of  the  Turkish  Government.  6. 
Free  passage  for  Russian  vessels  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the 
Mediterranean. 

The  Greek  question  still  remained.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
and  Count  Nesselrode  had  come  to  an  agreement  in  the  St. 
Petersburg  conferences.  The  Anglo-Russian  protocol  of  the 
26th  of  March,  1826,  energetically  supported  by  the  French 
ambassador,  was  presented  to  the  Porte  by  the  representatives 
of  the  three  Powers.  Greece  was  to  be  an  autonomous  depen- 
dency of  Turkey,  was  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  to  the  Sultan,  to 
be  governed  by  authorities  elected  by  herself,  but  over  the  nom- 
ination of  whom  the  Porte  was  to  exercise  a  certain  influence. 
The  Turks  settled  in  Greece  were  to  emigrate,  and  to  receive 
an  equivalent  for  their  fixtures.  The  Divan  rejected  these  pro- 
positions as  "  violating  the  passive  obedience  owed  by  subjects 
to  their  legitimate  sovereign."  France,  England,  and  Russia 
then  signed  the  Treaty  of  London  (June  1827),  in  virtue  of 
which  they  imposed  their  mediation  on  the  belligerents,  Turkey 
and  Greece.  The  Porte,  when  informed  of  this,  replied  by  dis- 
embarking a  Turco-Egyptian  army  in  the  Morea,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Ibrahim.  The  three  Western  squadrons,  commanded 
by  Admirals  de  Rigny,  Heiden,  and  Codrington,  received  orders 
to  hinder,  even  by  force  the  prolongation  of  hostilities  in  the 
Peninsula.  The  Turkish  fleet  was  then  annihilated  in  the  battle 
of  Navarino  (2oth  of  October,  1827).  Nicholas  addressed  flat- 
tering letters  to  the  French  and  English  admirals,  with  the  Order 
of  St.  Alexander  Nevski  for  M.  de  Rigny,  and  that  of  St.  George 
for  Codrington. 

The  disaster  of  Navarino  only  exasperated  Sultan  Mahmoud. 
He  sent  the  three  Powers  a  note  in  which  he  demanded  that 
prior  to  any  negotiation  he  should  receive  a  formal  declaration 
that  they  would  renounce  all  interference  in  the  affairs  of  Turkey 
and  Greece,  make  public  and  solemn  reparation  for  the  insult 
offered  to  the  Ottoman  flag,  and  pay  an  indemnity  to  the  Porte 
for  the  injuries  which  it  had  suffered.  In  the  mosques  a  holy 
war  was  proclaimed,  and  a  general  levy.  At  Constantinople, 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  235 

such  a  phantom  of  a  national  representation  as  we  have  again 
seen  recently,  was  convoked. 

England  already  regretted  the  destruction  of  the  Turkish 
fleet,  but  France,  in  order  to  give  the  force  of  law  to  the  de- 
cisions of  the  Powers,  disembarked  a  body  of  troops  in  the 
Morea  under  General  Maison,  who  expelled  the  Turco- Egyptians 
from  the  Peninsula.  Nicholas,  joining  his  private  grievances  to 
the  claims  of  Europe,  declared  war  on  Turkey,  and  ordered 
Field-Marshal  Wittgenstein  to  cross  the  Pruth,  while  Paskievitch 
entered  Asia  Minor.  In  Europe  the  Russians  occupied  Wal- 
lachia  and  Moldavia,  passed  the  Danube  under  the  eyes  of  their 
Emperor,  and  took  Braiilof  and  Varna.  In  Asia  they  carried  by 
assault  the  ancient  fortress  of  Kars,  defeated  the  Turks  under 
Akhaltsykh,  and  captured  the  town  after  a  bloody  action. 

England  began  to  be  uneasy,  and  Austria  made  advances  to 
her.  Charles  X.  openly  said,  "If  the  Emperor  Nicholas  attacks 
Austria,  I  will  hold  myself  in  reserve,  and  regulate  my  conduct 
according  to  circumstances ;  but  if  Austria  attacks,  I  will  in- 
stantly march  against  her."  The  Restoration  hoped  to  find  in 
the  struggle  in  the  East  a  revenge  for  the  treaties  of  1815.  The 
"  reunion  "  to  France  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  or  of 
Belgium  was  discussed  in  the  king's  council  in  September  1829  ; 
and  the  co-operation  of  Russia  was  counted  on,  in  exchange  for 
the  aid  France  was  giving  her  on  the  Danube.  In  a  word, 
according  to  the  expression  of  M.  Nettement,  the  two  Powers 
were  then  closely  united,  "  France  against  the  European  statu 
quo,  Russia  against  the  Oriental  statu  quo" 

Nicholas  was  therefore  free  for  the  campaign  of  1829.  In 
Asia,  PaskieVitch  defeated  two  Turkish  armies  and  captured 
Erzeroum  ;  in  Europe,  Diebitch,  successor  to  Wittgenstein, 
defeated  the  Grand  Vizier  at  Koulevtcha,  near  Pravady,  and 
threw  him  back  in  disorder  on  the  fortified  camp  of  Shumla, 
after  having  killed  5000  men  and  taken  forty-three  guns.  After 
the  capitulation  of  Silistria,  he  blockaded  Shumla,  boldly  crossed 
the  Balkans,  and  entered  Adrianople,  the  second  city  of  the 
Ottoman  empire.  At  sea  the  frigate  Mercury  fought  two  Turkish 
ships  ;  her  crew  had  sworn  either  to  conquer  or  to  blow  them- 
selves up. 

At  last  the  Porte  yielded.  Mahmoud  had  destroyed  the 
Janissaries,  and  had  not  yet  constituted  a  regular  army.  Persia 
refused  to  undertake  a  new  war  against  Russia.  At  Adrianople 
the  Porte  concluded  two  treaties — one  with  the  European  Powers, 
and  the  other  with  Russia.  In  the  first,  she  agreed  to  adhere 
to  the  treaty  of  1817,  and  recognized  the  independence  of  Greece. 
By  the  second  she  surrendered  to  Russia  the  isles  of  the  Danu« 


236  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

bian  delta  in  Europe,  and  the  fortresses  and  districts  of  Anapa, 
Poti,  Akhaltsykh,  and  Akhalkalaki,  in  Asia;  she  paid  an  in- 
demnity of  119  million  francs,*  and  another  of  1,500,000  ducats 
to  the  Russian  merchants.  The  immunities  formerly  granted  to 
Moldavia,  Wallachia,  and  Servia  were  guaranteed,  and  the  Bos- 
phorus  and  Dardanelles  declared  free  and  opened  to  all  the 
Powers  at  peace  with  the  Porte.  Russian  commerce  had  access 
to  the  Black  Sea.  Thus  this  first  alliance  with  France  had 
secured  the  independence  of  Greece,  and  prepared  for  that  of 
the  Roumanians  and  Servians. 

From  1840  to  1841  England  was  occupied  with  the  famous 
opium  war  in  China.  The  Russians  had  previously  obtained, 
with  less  trouble,  a  much  more  advantageous  footing  in  the 
Celestial  Empire.  By  the  treaty  of  1827  they  had  acquired  the 
right  to  establish  at  Pekin  a  place  of  education,  where  young 
men  might  study  the  language  and  customs  of  China.  Nicholas 
had  carefully  avoided  clashing  with  the  Court  of  Pekin  on  the 
subject  of  opium  ;  and  when  he  heard  of  the  prohibition,  he  for- 
bade his  subjects  to  introduce  this  commodity  across  the  Russian 
frontier.  In  1852  a  new  commercial  treaty  was  made,  which 
opened  a  market  on  the  Irtych.  This  Western  market,  so  called 
in  opposition  to  the  Eastern  market  of  Kiakhta,  afforded  the 
Russian  agents  an  opportunity  of  more  closely  surveying  Bok- 
hara. In  spite  of  these  cordial  relations,  the  Russian  outposts 
daily  and  noiselessly  encroached  on  the  Chinese  territory  ;  and 
in  1854  European  was  astonished  to  find  them  established  on  the 
Amour.  Thus,  from  one  end  of  Asia  to  the  other,  Russia  and 
England  found  themselves  face  to  face.  In  their  attempts  to 
push  back  their  frontiers  and  to  extend  their  influence,  both 
hastened  the  inevitable  moment  when  they  would  be  in  direct 
conflict. 

By  the  acquisition  of  Mingrelia,  Imeritia,  and  Georgia,  the 
Chirvan,  and  the  Persian  and  Turkish  provinces,  Russia  had 
possession  of  the  whole  southern  slope  of  the  Caucasus  :  by  the 
acquisition  of  Daghestan  she  had  set  her  foot  on  the  northern 
side,  and  thus  completely  surrounded  the  vast  mountainous 
regions  which  constitute  Circassia  and  Abkhasia.  Numerous 
forts  occupied  the  openings  of  the  valleys.  The  warlike  Tcher- 
kesses  and  Abkhasians,  however,  bravely  defended  their  inde- 
pendence. The  road  from  Anapa  to  Poti  was  very  unsafe, 
notwithstanding  the  number  of  fortified  posts.  Nicholas  was 
sensible  of  the  necessity  of  securing  communications  with  Southern 
Asia  by  both  extremities  of  the  Caucasus  and*  by  intermediate 

*  ^4,760,000. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


23? 


passes,  and  of  making  this  enormous  chain  the  impregnable 
citadel  from  the  height  of  which  he  was  to  rule  the  East.  This 
war  with  the  mountain  tribes,  fertile  in  surprises  and  ambuscades, 
was  a  mingled  success  and  failure.  It  took  a  more  formidable 
development  when  Moslem  fanaticism,  awakened  by  the  sectarian 
professors  of  Mirditism,  embodied  itself  in  Schamyl,  the  soldier 
priest,  who  gave  to  these  rival  races  religious  unity,  and  who  for 
twenty-five  years  held  the  best  Russian  generals  in  check.  In 
1844,  200,000  men  were  posted  in  the  Caucasus  under  the  brave 
and  able  Voronzof.  The  English  furtively  favored  the  insurrec- 
tion, and  the  seizure,  in  1837,  of  the  British  schooner  Vixen,  as 
she  was  unloading  arms  on  the  coast  of  Abkhasia,  made  some 
noise.  Bell,  an  Englishman,  was  found  at  the  head  of  the 
Georgians  in  their  short  revolt. 

Persia,  where  Fet-Aly-Shah,  the  ally  of  Napoleon  i.,  ftad 
been  succeeded  by  his  grandson  Mohammed,  was  completely 
under  Russian  influence.  In  1837  and  1838  Mohammed  laid 
seige  to  Herat,  which  commanded  one  of  the  routes  to  India. 
The  English  obliged  him  to  raise  the  siege  by  creating  a  diver- 
sion in  the  Persian  Gulf.  They  followed  up  this  by  another  in 
1856,  and  secured  the  Isle  of  Karrack  and  the  Port  of  Bushire. 
Three  years  after  the  siege  of  Herat  the  English  themselves 
failed  to  capture  Cabul. 

Nicholas,  in  search  of  an  opening  in  another  direction,  de- 
clared war  against  the  Khan  of  Khiva,  under  the  pretext  of  put- 
ting an  end  to  the  exactions  and  robberies  practised  against  the 
caravans.  In  1841  an  army  led  by  General  Perovski  crossed 
the  steppes  of  Turkestan  during  a  severe  winter,  but,  after  gain- 
ing some  advantages  over  the  nomad  tribes,  was  forced  to  fall 
back  on  the  Emba.  The  Russian  army  was  almost  entirely  de- 
stroyed by  fatigue  and  the  severity  of  the  climate.  The  in- 
timidated Khan,  however,  offered  satisfaction.  He  decreed  the 
penalty  of  death  against  any  Khivan  who  should  dare  to  attempt 
the  life  or  liberty  of  a  Russian  subject,  and  gave  back  415 
captives.  It  was  clear  that  a  serious  attempt  against  Khiva 
would  not  be  practicable  till  the  enormous  distance  of  200  leagues, 
which  separated  this  oasis  from  the  Russian  frontiers,  should 
be  diminished  by  the  establishment  of  a  line  of  posts,  by  the 
more  complete  subjection  of  the  Turkish  hordes,  and  by  the 
construction  of  a  fleet  on  the  Sea  of  Aral.  The  expedition  of 
1854  was  a  great  success  ;  the  Khan  then  became  a  kind  of 
vassal  of  the  Tzar,  closely  watched  by  the  Russian  resident. 


2;3S  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA, 

THE  POLISH  INSURRECTION  (1831). 

Towards  1830  Russia  found  herself  in  a  singular  state  of  ul« 
easiness.  The  cholera  had  just  made  its  appearance  ;  fierce 
revolts  had  broken  out  at  Sebastopol,  Novgorod,  and  Stara'ia- 
Roussa.  The  Emperor  seemed  agitated  by  gloomy  presenti- 
ments. He  had  been  shocked  by  the  news  of  the  July  revolu- 
tion, which  had  expelled  his  ally,  Charles  X. ;  the  Belgian  and 
the  Italian  revolutions  followed  close  on  each  other.  The  tri- 
colored  flag,  the  flag  of  1799  and  1812,  floating  over  the  French 
Consulate  at  Warsaw,  hastened  the  explosion  of  the  Polish 
Revolution. 

The  time  was  already  far  behind  when  Alexander,  while 
opening  the  Diet  of  1818,  boasted  of  "  those  liberal  institutions 
which  had  never  ceased  to  be  the  object  of  his  solicitude,"  and 
which  allowed  him  to  show  to  Russia  herself  "  what  he  had  for 
so  long  prepared  for  her."  The  time  was  far  away  when  he  con- 
gratulated the  Polish  deputies  on  having  rejected  the  proposed 
law  of  divorce,  and  proclaimed  "  that,  freely  elected,  they  must 
freely  vote." 

No  doubt  the  prosperity  of  the  kingdom  was  increasing. 
Commerce  and  industry  had  developed,  the  finances  were  in  a 
satisfactory  state,  and  from  the  remnant  of  the  Napoleonic  legions 
the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  had  formed  an  excellent  army  of 
60,000  men.  Unhappily  it  was  very  difficult  for  Alexander,  who 
had  become  more  and  more  autocratic  in  Russia,  to  accommodate 
himself  in  Poland  to  the  liberty  of  a  representative  government. 
The  Diet  of  1820  had  irritated  him  profoundly  by  its  attack  on 
the  ministers,  and  its  rejection  of  certain  projects  of  law.  He 
looked  on  these  ordinary  incidents  of  parliamentary  life  as  an 
attempt  to  undermine  his  authority.  He  lent  an  ear  to  the 
counsels  of  Karamsin  and  Araktchdef.  He  put  forth  an  "  ad- 
ditional act  of  the  constitution  "  which  suppressed  the  public 
sittings  of  the  Diet.  After  the  session  of  1822,  the  convocation 
of  the  Estates  was  adjourned  indefinitely.  The  liberty  of  the 
press  was  restrained,  and  the  police  became  more  vexatious. 
The  soldiers  complained  of  the  severity,  and  sometimes  of  the 
brutality,  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine,  who  was  full  of  good 
intentions,  who  loved  Poland,  and  had  given  proof  of  it  by  sac- 
rificing the  crown  of  Russia  for  a  Polish  lady,  but  who  could 
never  control  his  impetuous  and  eccentric  character.  The  officers 
who  had  served  under  Dombrovski,  Poniatovski,  and  Napoleon 
could  scarcely  reconcile  themselves  to  the  Muscovite  discipline. 
Ancient  jealousies  and  national  hate,  revived  by  the  events  of 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


239 


1812,  were  on  the  point  of  breaking  out  between  the  two  peoples. 
Besides  the  Polish  malcontents  who  grumbled  at  the  violations 
of  the  Constitution  of  1815,  and  were  enraged  at  the  Emperor 
for  not  having  restored  to  the  kingdom  the  palatinates  of  White 
Russia,  there  was  the  party  which  dreamed  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  3rd  of  May,  1791,  or  of  a  republic,  and  which  desired  to 
re-establish  Poland  in  her  ancient  independence,  and  within  her 
ancient  limits.  The  secret  associations  of  the  Templars  and 
the  Patriotic  Society  were  formed.  The  trial  of  the  Russian 
d&embristcs  had  revealed  an  understanding  between  the  con- 
spirators of  the  two  nations. 

Constantine  had  made  another  mistake,  that  of  persuading 
the  Emperor  Nicholas  that  the  Polish  army  should  not  be  em- 
ployed against  the  Turks.  He  loved  this  army  after  his  own 
fashion,  and  his  saying  has  been  quoted,  "  I  detest  war  ;  it 
spoils  an  army."  Victories  gained  in  common  over  the  ancient 
enemy  of  the  two  peoples  might  have  created  a  bond  of  military 
fraternity  between  the  Russian  and  Polish  armies,  given  an  open- 
ing to  the  warlike  ardor  of  the  Polish  youth,  and  crowned  with 
glory  the  union  of  fhe  two  crowns.  Constantine's  unpopularity 
increased  in  consequence  of  this  error.  Nothing,  however,  was 
as  yet  imperilled.  When  the  Emperor  Nicholas  came  to  open 
the  Diet  of  May  1830  in  person,  his  presence  in  Warsaw  excited 
some  hopes.  In  spite  of  the  reserve  which  the  deputies  had 
imposed  on  themselves,  they  could  not  refrain  from  rejecting 
the  unhappy  scheme  of  the  law  of  divorce,  from  lodging  com- 
plaints against  the  ministers,  and  uttering  a  wish  for  the  reunion 
with  the  Lithuanian  provinces.  This  wish  could  not,  of  course, 
be  granted  by  Nicholas,  without  deeply  wounding  the  patriotism 
and  the  rights  of  Russia.  The  "  King  of  Poland  "  and  his  sub- 
jects separated  with  discontent  on  both  sides  ;  the  secret  socie- 
ties were  more  active  in  their  conspiracies,  and  the  news  from 
Paris  found  all  the  elements  of  a  revolution  already  prepared. 

On  the  evening  of  the  i7th-29th  of  November  the  youths 
belonging  to  the  School  of  the  Standard-bearers  revolted  at  the 
command  of  the  Sub-Lieutenant  Wysocki.  They  demanded 
cartridges  :  "  Cartridges,"  cried  Wysocki,  "  you  will  find  them 
in  the  boxes  of  the  Russians  !  Forward  !  "  Whilst  130  of  them 
surprised  the  barracks  of  the  Russian  cavalry,  a  handful  rushed 
to  the  palace  of  the  Belvedere,  where  the  Tzardvitch  resided. 
Constantine  had  just  time  to  escape  ;  the  director  of  police  and 
other  officials  fell  beneath  the  blows  of  the  conspirators.  In  a 
few  moments  all  the  Polish  troops,  the  infantry,  a  battalion  of 
sappers,  the  horse  artillery,  and  a  regiment  of  grenadiers,  hast- 
'~jed  to  the  arsenal,  seized  40,000  muskets,  and  distributed 


240 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


arms  among  the  insurgent  people.  Five  Polish  generals,  accused 
of  treason  to  the  national  cause,  were  put  to  death.  The  brave 
General  Novigki,  victim  of  a  mistaken  identity,  suffered  the 
same  fate.  The  Grand  Duke,  seeing  the  insurrection  spread, 
decided  to  evacuate  the  town  and  retire  to  the  village  of  Wirzba  ; 
he  even  sent  back  to  Warsaw  the  Polish  regiment  of  mounted 
sharp-shooters  who  had  alone  remained  loyal. 

Prince  Lube£k  hastened  to  convoke  the  council  of  administra- 
tion, to  which  was  added  a  certain  number  of  influential  citizens. 
The  majority  of  this  council  considered  the  struggle  with  Russia 
an  act  of  madness,  and  entreated  the  people  to  "  end  all  their 
agitations  with  the  night,  which  had  covered  them  with  her 
mantle."  This  advice  was  not  listened  to  :  the  crowd  summoned 
other  men  to  the  head  of  affairs, — the  Princes  Czartoryski  and 
Ostrovski,  Malakhovski,  and  the  celebrated  professor  and  histo- 
rian Ldldvel.  The  students  were  organized  into  a  crack  re- 
giment ;  Leldvel  opened  a  patriotic  club,  and  published  a  daily 
paper;  the  patriot  Chlopi£ki,  a  brave  officer  who  had  served 
with  distinction  under  Napoleon,  was  appointed  generalissimo, 
but  Chlopiski  saw  no  hope  for  Poland  save  in  a  prompt  recon- 
ciliation with  the  Emperor.  He  despatched  envoys  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, to  the  Grand  Duke's  head-quarters,  and  even  to  London 
and  Paris,  to  obtain  the  mediation  of  the  Western  Powers.  Two 
parties  were  concerned  in  this  movement — the  moderate  party, 
who  wished  to  mend  the  link  that  they  had  broken  with  the  legal 
government  by  soliciting,  at  the  most,  a  reform  of  the  constitu- 
tion and  the  annexation  of  the  Lithuanian  palatinates  ;  and  the 
party  of  the  democrats,  who  insisted  on  the  abdication  of  the 
Romanofs,  the  restoration  to  the  country  of  its  independence, 
and  the  recovery  by  arms  of  the  lost  provinces.  Nicholas  re- 
pelled all  efforts  to  treat  which  were  not  preceded  by  an  im- 
mediate and  unconditional  submission.  His  proclamation 
deprived  the  insurgents  of  all  hopes  "  of  obtaining  concessions 
as  the  price  of  their  crimes."  From  that  time  the  war  party  at 
Warsaw  triumphed  over  the  peace  party.  Chlopic.ki,  disgusted 
with  the  conduct  of  the  more  advanced  spirits,  had  resigned  the 
post  of  generalissimo.  He  finally  accepted  the  dictatorship, 
and  gave  himself  up,  without  any  hope  of  success,  to  organizing 
the  defence,  while  continuing  the  negotiations.  He  and  Ldldvel 
were  particularly  uncongenial  :  the  latter  was  of  opinion  that  the 
Poles  ought  to  take  the  offensive,  throw  themselves  into  Lith- 
uania and  Volhynia,  arm  the  peasants,  and  raise  a  levy  en  masse ; 
declaring  that  when  an  insurrection  did  not  spread  it  was  certain 
to  fail.  "  Well,  then,"  exclaimed  Chlopigki  impatiently,  "  make 
war  with  your  reapers  yourself,"  and  he  resigned  his  command  a 
second  time  for  a  subordinate  post. 


HIS  TOR  y  OF  RUSSIA.  2  4X 

The  Diet  now  assembled  and  appointed  Prince  Radzivill,  a 
weak  man,  without  military  talents,  generalissimo.  His  election 
was  hailed  by  cries  of  "  To  Lithuania  !  to  Lithuania  !  "  In  the 
session  of  the  i3th-25th  January,  Count  Ezerski,  one  of  the 
two  negotiators  sent  by  Chlopi£ki  to  St.  Petersburg,  gave  an 
account  of  their  interview  with  the  Emperor.  The  replies  of 
Nicholas  did  not  give  more  ground  for  hope  than  his  proclama- 
tion of  the  lyth  of  December.  He  refused  to  parley  with  rebel 
subjects.  He  at  once  rejected  the  idea  of  despoiling  Russia  of 
the  Lithuanian  provinces  for  the  benefit  of  Poland.  He  consid- 
ered it  a  sacred  duty  to  stifle  the  insurrection  and  punish  the 
guilty,  adding  that  if  the  nation  took  up  arms  against  him  Po- 
land would  be  crushed  by  Polish  guns.  Then  the  Diet  pro- 
claimed the  Romanofs  to  have  forfeited  the  throne.  It  hoped 
by  this  step  to  engage  the  sympathy  of  the  Western  courts,  but 
in  reality  it  rendered  all  attempts  at  pacific  mediation  impossi- 
ble ;  the  Poles  having  abandoned  the  ground  of  the  treaties  of 
1815,  the  only  ones  to  which  European  diplomacy  could  appeal. 
As  to  an  armed  intervention  in  the  presence  of  the  hostility  of 
the  German  Powers,  neither  England  nor  France  could  dream  of 
such  a  thing.  In  vain  the  population  of  Paris  made  energetic 
manifestations  of  its  sympathies,  in  vain  the  Chambers  resounded 
with  warlike  addresses ;  all  these  demonstrations  had  no  effect. 
Six  days  after  its  declaration  of  freedom,  the  Polish  government 
instituted  a  provisional  government  composed  of  five  members  : 
Adam  Czartoryski,  president ;  Barzikovski,  Niemoievski,  Mo- 
razski,  and  Joachim  Le'le'vel,  who  represented  democratic  ten- 
dencies in  this  supreme  council. 

The  TzareVitch  had  completely  evacuated  the  kingdom; 
Modlin  and  all  the  other  fortresses  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
rebels.  To  protect  Warsaw  on  the  east,  they  had  thrown  up  a 
formidable  work  to  cover  the  bridge  ;  the  Polish  forces  with  the 
new  levies  amounted  to  90,000  men,  well  provided  with  artillery. 
In  February,  1831,  an  army  of  120,000  Russians,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Didbitch  Zabalkanski,  the  hero  of  the  Balkans,  en- 
tered Poland  in  a  severe  frost,  driving  back  the  Polish  detach- 
ments into  Warsaw.  The  insurgent  General  Dvernidki  gained 
an  advantage  at  the  skirmish  of  Stoczek.  A  two  days'  battle  at 
Grochov,  glorious  for  Poland  (igth  and  2oth  February),  did  not 
hinder  the  Russians  from  approaching  Warsaw,  and  the  combats 
of  Bialolenska  and  of  the  wood  of  Praga  (24th  and  25th  of  Feb- 
ruary) brought  them  nearly  up  to  the  Praga  quarter.  Radzivill 
then  resigned  his  office,  and  was  succeeded  by  Skrzynecki.  The 
main  body  of  the  Russian  army  had  abandoned  the  bank  of  the 
Vistula,  with  the  exception  of  three  small  corps—  that  of  Rosen 


242  HISTORY  OF  KUSStA. 

at  DembeVilkie*,  that  of  Geismas  at  Waver,  and  a  third  under 
Praga.  The  Polish  general  attacked  them  suddenly,  and  de- 
feated Geismar  at  Waver  and  Rosen  at  Dembe'vilkie'  and  Iganie', 
but  did  not  dare  to  push  his  advantages  further.  An  expedition 
directed  against  Volhynia  by  Dvernigki  failed  completely ;  he 
was  driven  back  into  Gallicia. 

The  Lithuanian  expedition  ended  in  a  disaster  under  Wilna ; 
the  Poles  had  to  cross  the  Prussian  frontier,  and  only  one  divis- 
ion, that  of  Dembinski,  re-entered  Warsaw.  In  the  interval, 
Skrzynegki  having  attacked  the  right  wing  of  the  Russians  at 
Ostrolenka  on  the  Narev,  was,  after  a  severe  fight  forced  back 
on  the  other  side  of  the  river  (26th  of  May).  Cholera  raged  in 
both  armies,  and  carried  off  successively  Didbitch  and  the  Grand 
Duke  Constantine. 

Political  divisions  now  as  always  ruined  Poland.  After  some 
violent  scenes,  Skrzynec,ki  was  replaced  by  Dembinski,  and  then 
by  Malekhovski.  Two  days'  revolt  made  the  streets  run  with 
blood,  and  the  people  committed  massacres  in  the  prisons.  The 
moderate  party  took  flight,  and  Czartoryski  fled  in  disguise. 
The  provisional  government  resigned  its  power  into  the  hands  of 
the  Diet,  who  invested  General  Krukovie'c.ki  with  the  office  of 
dictator.  He  had  some  of  the  mutineers  executed,  but  was  not 
able  to  re-establish  order. 

PaskieVitch  Erivanski,  Didbitch's  successor,  strengthened  by 
the  benevolent  help  of  Prussia,  which  had  thrown  open  to  him 
her  arsenals  and  magazines  of  Dantzig  and  Konigsberg,  had 
crossed  the  Vistula  below  Warsaw,  and  transported  the  theatre 
of  war  to  the  left  bank.  He  intended  to  attack  the  capital,  not 
from  the  side  of  Praga,  as  Souvorof  had  done,  but  from  the  side 
of  Vola  and  the  Czyste^  quarter.  Two  semicircles  of  concentric 
intrenchments  corresponded  to  these  two  quarters,  but  the  Rus- 
sians had  no  longer,  as  on  the  side  of  Praga,  to  overcome  the 
obstacle  of  the  Vistula.  On  the  6th  of  September  the  Russians 
attacked  Vola,  where  General  Sovinski,  who  had  lost  a  leg  at 
the  Moskowa,  and  Wysocjd,  who  began  the  revolution  were 
killed.  The  same  day  PaskieVitch  began  to  cannonade  Czyste* 
and  the  town.  The  next  morning  Krukoviec,ki  asked  to  capitu- 
late. Paskidvitch  exacted  the  unconditional  submission  of  the 
army  and  the  people,  the  immediate  surrender  of  Warsaw,  the 
reconstruction  of  the  bridge  of  Praga,  and  the  retreat  of  the 
troops  on  Ploc.k.  The  Diet  having  allowed  the  time  fixed  for  a 
reply  to  pass,  Paskidvitch  began  the  attack.  Krukovie'c.ki  had 
accepted  his  terms,  but  he  had  been  replaced  in  the  interval  by 
Niemoievski.  Czyste'  was  already  in  flames,  and  the  Russians 
were  scaling  the  ramparts,  when  the  Poles  capitulated.  "  Sire, 


HIS  TOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2^ 

Warsaw  is  at  your  feet,"  wrote  PaskieVitch  to  the  Emperor. 
"  Order  reigns  at  Warsaw,"  such  was  the  funeral  oration  pro- 
nounced by  official  Europe  over  the  insurrection.  Twenty  thou- 
sand soldiers  laid  down  their  arms  at  Plogk,  15,000  of  whom 
Ramorino  took  into  Gallicia. 

Not  only  Warsaw,  but  Poland  herself,  lay  at  the  feet  of  Nich- 
olas. Partial  insurrections  and  new  plots  were  later  to  revive 
his  resentment.  At  present  he  was  happy  at  being  able  to  make 
an  example,  and  intimidate  the  European  revolution.  Seques- 
trations, confiscations,  imprisonments,  and  banishments  to  Sibe- 
ria served  as  commentaries  on  the  amnesty.  The  constitution 
granted  by  Alexander  was  annulled ;  the  public  offices  were 
abolished  and  replaced  by  mere  commissions  emanating  from 
the  public  offices  of  Russia  ;  the  directors  of  these  commissions 
formed,  under  the  management  of  the  namiestnik,  the  council  of 
government.  No  more  diets ;  Poland  was  administered  by  the 
officials  of  the  Tzar.  No  more  Polish  army ;  it  was  lost  in  the 
imperial  army.  The  national  orders  were  only  preserved  as  Rus- 
sian orders,  distributed  among  the  most  zealous  servants  of  the 
government.  The  Russian  systems  of  taxes,  justice,  and  coin- 
age were  successively  introduced  into  the  kingdom.  '  The  an- 
cient historical  palatinates  gave  way  to  Russian  provinces  ;  the 
ancient  divisions  were  modified.  These  governments  amounted 
to  five  after  1844 :  Warsaw,  Radom,  Lublin,  Plogk,  and  Modlin. 
Thus  were  matters  ordered  in  Poland  proper. 

In  Lithuania  and  White  Russia,  the  Polish  element  was  more 
narrowly  watched  :  the  germs  of  nationality  left  by  the  educa- 
tional policy  of  Czartoryski  were  stifled.  In  reply  to  the  Lithu- 
anian insurrection,  the  University  of  Wilna  was  suppressed,  and 
the  Polish  language  banished  from  the  schools.  In  order  to 
attach  the  south-west  provinces  more  closely  to  Russia,  Nicho- 
las, supported  by  Bishop  Joseph  Siemaszko,  abolished  the  Union. 
The  Uniate  bishops  and  clergy  signed  the  act  of  Polotsk,  by 
which  they  entreated  to  be  admitted  into  the  bosom  of  the  na- 
tional orthodox  Church — a  request  that  the  Holy  Synod  hastened 
to  gratify  (1839).  Part  °f  tne  monks  and  the  faithful  resisted. 
Siemaszko,  now  made  Metropolitan  as  the  reward  of  his  ser- 
vices, organized  missions  in  which  an  amount  of  violence  and 
zeal  was  used  to  destroy  the  Union,  equal  to  that  which  the 
Jesuit  party  of  the  i;th  century  had  employed  to  cement  it. 
The  affair  of  the  nuns  of  Minsk  made  a  special  scandal.  The 
orthodox  peasants  profited,  however,  by  this  revolution.  In 
order  to  protect  them  against  the  ill-will  of  their  masters  who 
had  remained  Catholics  or  Uniates,  the  authorities  of  White 
Russia  and  Lithuania  were  desired  to  make  "  inventories  "  which 


»44 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSTA. 


would  exactly  determine  the  amount  of  their  rents  and  the  sum 
of  their  dues.  The  "  inventories  "  put  an  end  to  the  despotism 
of  the  nobles :  this  was  the  beginning  of  emancipation. 


ILL-FEELING  AGAINST   FRANCE  :    THE   EASTERN    QUESTION  ;    REVO- 
LUTION  OF    1848  ;    INTERVENTION    IN    HUNGARY. 

The  Polish  insurrection  had  resulted,  as  to  general  policy,  in 
a  more  intimate  union  between  the  three  Powers  of  the  North, 
which  bound  themselves  by  a  treaty  to  deliver  up  each  other's 
rebel  subjects  ;  and  in  a  kind  of  rupture  between  Russia  and  the 
Western  Powers,  most  of  which  had  given  evidence  of  their 
sympathy  for  the  Polish  cause.  Nicholas  I.,  the  chief  represen- 
tative of  European  conservatism,  looked  on  France  as  the  hot- 
bed of  perpetual  revolutions.  He  wished  the  world  to  be  im- 
movable ;  now  Paris  periodically  shook  the  soil  of  Europe  with 
her  "days."  The  Revolution  of  1830  had  overthrown  his  ally 
Charles  X.,  caused  Belgium  and  Central  Italy  to  revolt,  and  the 
insurrection  of  Poland  was  a  consequence  of  it.  The  sympathies 
of  the  French  for  Poland  were  strongly  manifested  ;  there  had 
been  some  riots  at  Paris,  and  windows  were  broken  at  the 
Russian  embassy.  Fourteen  addresses  were  successively  pre- 
sented in  the  Chambers  at  each  new  session  ;  the  proscribed 
Poles  nowhere  received  a  warmer  welcome,  and  Polish  schools 
were  provided  for  their  children.  Under  the  French  protection 
the  European  revolution  and  the  Polish  emigration  had  become 
close  allies.  In  Hungary,  in  Turkey,  in  the  Caucasus,  Nicho- 
las was  everywhere  to  find  these  guests  of  France,  these  exiles. 
He  had  not  waited  for  these  acts  of  hostility  to  declare  himself 
against  the  French.  His  relations  with  Louis  Philippe,  the 
July  king,  were  a  long  series  of  frets,  of  annoyances,  of  scarcely 
disguised  insults.  In  his  reply  to  the  notification  of  the  acces- 
sion of  the  new  sovereign,  he  had  designated  the  revolution 
which  had  given  Louis  Philippe  his  crown  as  an  "  event  for 
ever  to  be  deplored."  He  affected  a  polite  impertinence  tow- 
ards the  representatives  of  France,  or  gave  them  to  understand 
that  the  respect  he  paid  them  was  a  tribute  merely  to  their  per- 
sonal merit,  and  not  to  their  diplomatic  quality.  MM.  de  Bour- 
going,  de  Barante,  Marshal  Maison,  and  Casimir  Pe'rier  the 
younger,  were  placed  one  after  another  in  this  false  position. 

The  ill-will  of  Nicholas  was  shown  by  acts  of  a  graver  kind 
— by  threatening  manifestations  and  displays  of  military  iorce, 
by  meetings  of  sovereigns,  which  seemed  ominous  of  the  recon- 
stitution  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  by  attempts  at  coalition,  and  even 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


245 


by  flagrant  violations  of  treaties.  Nicholas  was  one  day  to  ex- 
piate  cruelly  the  dangerous  satisfaction  to  his  pride  which  he 
derived  from  these  vain  provocations  to  France  and  the  new 
ideas.  This  situation  of  king  of  kings,  of  head  of  the  monarch- 
ical governments,  of  arbiter  of  Europe,  which  he  was  allowed 
to  hold  by  the  complaisance  of  Austria  and  Prussia,  was  more 
apparent  than  real,  and  had  more  prestige  than  force.  Once 
more  the  so-called  policy  of  principles  was  to  bring  misfortune 
to  Russia. 

When  in  December,  1832,  the  Egyptian  army  under  Ibrahim, 
victorious  at  Bei'lan  and  Konieh,  seemed  to  threaten  Constanti- 
nople, Turkey  appealed  to  the  European  Powers.  Russia  was 
the  first  to  reply  by  sending  her  fleet  to  the  Bosphorus,  by  dis- 
embarking 10,000  men  on  the  coast  of  Asia,  and  causing  24,000 
men  to  advance  to  the  Pruth.  France  and  England  protested 
through  Admiral  Ronsin  and  Lord  Ponsonby,  and  obtained  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Russian  forces,  the  retreat  of  the  Egyptian 
army,  and  the  treaty  of  Kutaieh  between  the  Sultan  and  the 
Khedive.  All  seemed  to  have  ended  quietly,  when  a  rumor 
spread  that  Count  Orlof  had  signed  with  the  Porte  the  Treaty 
of  Unkiar-Skelessi,  which,  under  the  appearance  of  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance,  established  the  dependence  of  Turkey 
on  Russia  (8th  of  June.  1833).  Each  of  the  two  contracting 
parties  engaged  to  furnish  to  the  other  the  aid  necessary  "to 
secure  the  tranquillity  of  its  States."  This  latter  article  might, 
in  such  a  distracted  country  as  Turkey,  involve  a  permanent  oc- 
cupation by  the  Russian  forces.  By  a  secret  article  the  Sultan 
undertook,  if  the  Tzar  were  attacked,  to  close  the  Dardanelles, 
and  to  permit  no  foreign  ships  to  pass  through  them,  on  any 
pretext  whatever.  England  and  France  protested  loudly.  This 
treaty,  however,  was  never  executed. 

When  the  war  between  Egypt  and  Turkey  re-commenced, 
and  Sultan  Mahmoud  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Abdul-Medjid 
(1839),  Nicholas  took  advantage  of  the  lively  sympathy  shown 
by  France  for  the  Viceroy  to  isolate  her  completely  from  the 
other  Powers.  England,  always  anxious  to  maintain  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  Ottoman  empire,  separated  herself  from  France  to 
join  the  Russians,  and  associated  herself  with  the  conspiracy, 
whose  aim  was  to  exclude  the  French  from  the  assembly  of 
European  Powers.  The  Tzar  saw  with  satisfaction  the  affront 
offered  to  France  by  the  Treaty  of  London  (i$th  of  July,  1840), 
concluded  between  Great  Britain,  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia; 
the  irritation  caused  at  Paris  by  the  intervention  of  the  English, 
Austrians,  and  Turks  in  Syria;  the  embarrassment  into  which 
the  French  were  thrown  by  the  warlike  policy  of  Thiers'  cabinet 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

and  the  imminence  of  a  conflict,  where  for  such  a  poor  stake 
they  would  have  a  general  coalition  of  the  great  Powers 
against  them.  England,  which  had  forsaken  France  to  defend 
Turkey  against  Egypt,  soon  felt  the  necessity  of  returning  to  her, 
to  guarantee  Constantinople  against  the  Russian  protectorate. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  "Convention  of  the  Straits"  (i3th  of 
July,  1841)  France  regained  her  European  position.  Nicho- 
las had  played  the  singular  part  of  protector  of  the  Ottoman 
integrity  ;  he  had  allied  himself  with  the  enemy  and  his  natu- 
ral rival,  England  ;  but  at  the  price  of  these  inconsistencies 
he  had  given  himself  the  pleasure  of  humiliating  the  govern- 
ment of  Louis  Philippe,  and  of  exposing  him  to  the  dangers 
of  a  general  war. 

During  all  this  period  he  had  redoubled  his  ill  offices  towards 
France.  In  1833  he  had  convoked  the  Congress  of  Miinchen- 
gratz,  where  the  sovereigns  of  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  and 
their  principal  ministers,  assembled.  In  1835,  at  the  manoeuvres 
of  Kalisch,  he  had  reviewed  an  army  of  90,000  men,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  Austrian  archdukes,  and  a 
multitude  of  princes.  On  the  death  of  Charles  X.  he  ordered 
a  court  mourning  of  twenty-four  days. 

In  1846  troubles  broke  out  in  Austrian  Gallicia.  The  upper 
classes  had  made  great  preparations  for  a  rising  against  Austria, 
and  the  peasants  in  their  turn  revolted  against  their  lords.  The 
free  city  of  Cracow  had  given  an  asylum  to  the  refugees,  and  had 
allowed  a  provisional  Polish  government  to  be  installed  there, 
which  attempted  to  reconcile  the  peasants  and  their  masters  by 
promising  to  the  former  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  division 
of  all  national  property.  Nicholas,  in  his  character  of  queller 
of  revolutions,  found  work  here.  His  troops  were  the  first  to 
enter  Cracow,  where  they  were  followed  by  those  of  Austria  and 
Prussia.  The  sovereigns  declared  the  republic  of  Cracow  to  be 
suppressed,  and  the  town  itself  to  be  annexed  to  Austria. 
France  and  England  could  only  protest  against  this  violation  of 
the  treaties  of  1815. 

The  Revolution  of  1848  shook  Europe  with  a  violence  which 
had  been  hitherto  unfelt.  Not  only  all  Italy  and  Western  Ger- 
many followed  the  movement,  but  the  countries  which  till  now 
had  seemed  opposed  to  the  new  ideas,  and  which  had  been  the 
bulwark  of  monarchic  Europe  against  the  revolutionary  spirit, 
caught  the  infection,  and  the  excitement  spread  even  to  the 
frontiers  of  Russia.  The  German  constitution  was  overthrown  ; 
the  Germans  called  a  parliament  at  Frankfort  ;  the  Slavs  called 
the  Congress  of  Prague.  The  Emperor  Ferdinand  was  expelled 
from  Vienna ;  at  Berlin,  Frederic  William  IV,  saluted  the 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


247 


corpses  which  were  displayed  by  the  revolutionists ;  Hungary 
rose  at  the  voice  of  Kossuth  ;  even  the  Danubian  principalities, 
influenced  by  the  party  of  Roumanian  unity,  dethroned  the  Hos- 
podar  Bibesco  in  Wallachia,  and  the  Hospodar  Stouidza  in 
Moldavia.  Where  would  the  movement  stop  ?  Plots  were  dis- 
covered in  Russia  ;  Poland,  whose  flags  the  Parisian  workmen 
waved  in  their  tumultuous  processions,  quivered  with  eagerness. 

The  Emperor  Nicholas  planted  himself  in  the  face  of  revolu- 
tionary Europe.  He  first  acted  in  the  countries  nearest  to  him ; 
he  used  his  influence  with  the  King  of  Prussia  to  prevent  him 
from  accepting  the  imperial  crown  of  Germany ;  he  protested 
against  the  events  in  Bucharest,  and  sent  an  army  to  the  princi- 
palities ;  he  seized  the  moment  when  the  Hungarian  insurrection 
had  received  a  shock  from  the  counter  Croat  insurrection,  to 
respond  to  the  appeal  of  the  young  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  In 
Hungary  too,  the  Russian  regiments  were  to  encounter  their  old 
enemies  of  1799,  1812,  and  1831 — the  irreconcilable  Polish 
legions,  re-organized  under  Ben  and  Dembinski.  Paskie'vitch 
was  charged  to  complete  in  the  plains  of  Hungary  his  victory  over 
Poland.  He  defeated  the  Polish-Hungarian  army  at  many  points, 
occupied  all  Transylvania,  and  obliged  the  generalissimo  Georgey 
to  sign  the  capitulation  of  Villagos  in  the  open  country  (i2th  of 
August,  1849).  "  Hungary  is  at  the  feet  of  your  Majesty," 
writes  Paskievitch.  Nicholas  put  it  under  the  feet  of  Francis 
Joseph,  who  treated  it  more  cruelly  than  Nicholas  had  treated 
Poland. 

The  Tzar's  intervention  in  the  Danish  question  had  more 
happy  results.  Nicholas  obliged  the  Prussians  to  withdraw  their 
troops  from  4he  duchies,  and  their  support  from  the  revolted 
Holsteiners.  In  1852  he  joined  the  other  Powers  to  cause  the 
integrity  of  the  Danish  monarch  to  be  recognized  at  the  Treaty 
of  London  (8th  May). 

At  the  other  extremity  of  Europe  arose  a  man  who  seemed 
to  work  with  Nicholas  to  put  an  end  to  the  European  revolution. 
By  the  expedition  to  Rome,  he  extinguished  the  Italian  republic  ; 
by  the  December  coup  d^e'tat,  the  French  republic.  Nicholas, 
almost  reconciled  to  the  hated  name  of  Bonaparte,  and  to  the 
imminent  restoration  of  a  Napoleonic  empire,  remarked: 
"  France  has  set  an  evil  example ;  she  will  now  set  a  good 
one.  I  have  faith  in  the  conduct  of  Louis  Napoleon."  The 
Second  Empire  was  to  force  him  to  expiate  his  hostile  and 
mpolitic  conduct  towards  the  July  monarchy  and  the  republic 
of  1848.  His  desire  for  the  coup  d'etat  was  realized  to  his 
own  hurt.  His  power  blazed  for  the  last  time  when,  on  the 
of  May,  1852,  he  reviewed  the  Austrian  army  on  the 


2  48  UISTOK  Y  OF  K  USSIA. 

slopes  of  Vienna,  and  pressed  to  his  heart  that  Austrian   SOT- 
ereign  "  whose  ingratitude  was  to  astonish  Europe." 


SECOND    TURKISH  WAR  ;   THE    ALLIES    IN   THE    CRIMEA — AWAKEN- 
ING OF  RUSSIAN  OPINION. 

Nicholas  was  irritated  to  see  his  influence  in  the  East  held  in 
check  by  France  and  Austria.  In  the  question  of  the  "  holy 
places,"  France  had  just  obtained  a  solution  favorable  to  the 
pretensions  of  the  Catholic  Powers.  "  The  Porte  authorized 
the  Latins  to  build  an  ambry  in  the  cave  of  Bethlehem."  After 
Omar  Pacha's  invasion  of  Montenegro,  it  was  the  Austrian  am- 
bassador who,  without  the  aid  of  Russia,  had  procured  the  re- 
treat of  the  Ottoman  troops.  Nicholas  affected  to  see  in  these 
two  decisions  of  the  Porte  an  attempt  to  annul  the  right  of  pro- 
tectorate over  the  Eastern  Christians,  conferred  on  the  Russian 
sovereign  by  the  treaties  of  Kai'rnadji,  Bucharest,  and  Aclrianople. 
Prince  Menchikof  was  sent  to  Constantinople  with  orders  to 
obtain  a  new  recognition  of  his  right,  and  guarantees  for  the 
future.  The  Porte,  feeling  herself  supported  by  France — on 
the  2oth  of  March  a  French  fleet  had  appeared  in  the  Greek 
waters — refused ;  and  Menchikof,  after  having  uselessly  presented 
his  ultimatum,  abruptly  broke  off  the  negotiations,  and  quitted 
Constantinople.  England  hesitated  to  take  part  in  a  quarrel  in 
which  she  saw  little  but  the  question  of  the  "  holy  places  "  and 
the  pretensions  of  France  :  but  on  the  gth  and  i4th  of  January, 
1853,  two  private  interviews  between  Nicholas  and  the  English 
ambassador,  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour,  revealed  to  the  British 
minister  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  the  Emperor's  schemes.  Their 
aim  was  nothing  less  than  to  wind  up  the  bankrupt  estate  of  the 
"  sick  man."  Servia,  the  Principalities,  and  Bulgaria  were  to 
form  independent  States  under  the  protection  of  Nicholas.  As 
to  Constantinople,  if  circumstances  obliged  him  to  occupy  it,  he 
would  establish  himself  there  as  trustee  and  not  as  proprietor. 
England  should  in  h£r  turn  be  free  to  appropriate  territories  at 
her  convenience,  provided  she  did  not  stretch  out  her  hand  for 
Constantinople.  "  Now,"  he  said,  "  it  is  as  a  friend  and  a  gen- 
tleman that  I  speak  to  you  :  if  England  and  myself  can  come  to 
an  understanding  about  this  affair,  the  rest  matters  little  to  me, 
and  I  shall  care  very  little  as  to  what  the  others  may  think  or  do." 
He  insisted  on  this  latter  point.  "  If  we  are  only  agreed,  I  am 
completely  at  ease  about  the  West  of  Europe  ;  what  the  others 
may  think  at  the  bottom  of  their  heart  is  of  small  importance." 
These  "  others  "  were  first  France  and  then  Austria.  Nicholas 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


249 


flattered  himself  that  he  could  persuade  and  carry  away  the 
English  ;  but  it  did  not  enter  into  his  calculations  that  Napoleo- 
nic France  could  ever  form  an  alliance  with  the  England  of 
Waterloo,  of  St.  Helena,  and  of  Hudson  Lowe.  The  imprudent 
confidence  to  Seymour  rendered  the  strange  alliance  possible. 
England  took  fright,  and  it  was  now  her  turn  to  urge  France  to 
energetic  measures.  The  invasion  of  the  Principalities  appeared 
to  her  to  be  the  first  step  towards  the  execution  of  the  schemes  of 
dismemberment. 

On  the  3rd  of  July,  1853,  the  Russian  troops  crossed  the 
Pruth,  under  the  command  of  General  Gortchakof.  Nicholas 
published  a  proclamation,  in  which  he  announced  that  he  did  not 
intend  to  begin  the  war,  but  that  he  wished  to  have  some  securities 
on  which  he  could  rely  for  the  Divan's  strict  execution  of  the 
treaties.  The  English  and  French  fleets  now  approached  the 
threatened  points,  and  took  up  a  position  in  Besika  Bay,  with- 
out crossing  the  Straits,  which  the  conditions  of  the  treaties  still 
kept  closed  to  ships  of  war.  Russia,  however,  declared  in  a 
circular  that  this  transaction  was  a  threat,  which  was  sure  to 
cause  new  complications. 

Austria  proposed  that  a  conference  should  assemble  at 
Vienna,  and  delegates  from  the  five  Powers  met  and  took  part 
in  it.  Prussia  had  made  advances  to  Austria.  At  this  moment 
peace  might  have  been  secured.  The  Tzar  was  disposed  to 
make  certain  concessions,  provided  his  right  to  the  protectorate 
was  recognized  ;  but  Turkey  took  the  initiative  in  war  by  sum- 
moning Russia  to  evacuate  the  Principalities.  The  Turks  dis- 
played more  energy  in  this  war  on  the  Danube  than  the  Rus- 
sians expected.  On  November  30,  1853,  the  destruction  of  the 
Turkish  fleet  at  Sinope  by  Admiral  Nakhimof  destroyed  al! 
hopes  of  localizing  the  war.  The  French  and  English  fleets, 
which  at  the  beginning  of  hostilities  had  entered  the  Bosphorus, 
now  sailed  into  the  Black  Sea,  and  obliged  the  Russian  fleet  to 
withdraw  into  ports. 

On  the  26th  of  January,  1853,  Napoleon  III.  had  addressed 
an  autograph  letter  to  Nicholas  as  a  last  attempt  at  peace. 
Things,  however,  had  now  gone  too  far,  and  the  Tzar's  reply 
left  no  alternative  but  to  make  war.  Meanwhile,  England  had 
published  Seymour's  despatches  about  his  interview  with  Nich- 
olas, and  this  violation  of  the  secrecy  asked  by  the  Emperor, 
"  speaking  as  a  friend  and  a  gentleman,"  profoundly  irritated 
Russia.  The  consequences  of  these  revelations  were  very 
serious.  France,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  saw  how  completely 
Nicholas  intended  to  sacrifice  them,  and  were  stung  by  his  con- 
tempt for  all  that  "  the  others  "  might  think  or  do.  On  the  iath 


,  s 0  HISTOK  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

of  March,  1854,  France  and  England  assured  Turkey  of  their 
support.  On  the  loth  of  April  an  offensive  and  defensive  treaty 
of  alliance  was  concluded.  On  the  2oth,  Austria,  which  was 
making  a  threatening  concentration  of  troops  on  the  Danube, 
signed  with  Prussia  a  treaty  of  guarantee  and  a  treaty  of  alliance 
in  case  the  Tzar  attacked  Austria  or  crossed  the  Balkans. 
Nicholas  had  found  means  to  unite  the  whole  of  Europe  against 
him. 

The  immense  superiority  of  the  navy  of  the  allies  allowed 
them  to  attack  Russia  in  all  her  seas.  In  the  Black  Sea  they 
bombarded  the  military  port  of  Odessa  (22nd  of  April,  1854), 
while  respecting  the  town  and  the  commercial  port.  The  Rus* 
sian  settlements  on  the  coast  of  the  Caucasus — Anapa,  Redout. 
Kale,  and  Soukoum-Kale — had  been  burned  by  the  Russians 
themselves.  In  the  Baltic  the  allies  blockaded  Cronstadt,  dis- 
embarked on  the  Hes  of  Aland,  took  the  fortress  of  Bomarsund 
(i6th  of  August  1854),  and  in  1855  bombarded  Sveaborg.  In 
the  White  Sea  they  attacked  the  fortified  monastery  of  Solovet- 
ski.  In  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk  they  blockaded  the  Siberian  ports, 
destroyed  the  arsenal  of  Petropavlovsk,  and  threatened  the 
position  of  the  Russians  on  the  river  Amour. 

The  Russians,  menaced  by  the  Austrian  concentration  on  the 
Danube,  by  the  disembarkation  of  the  French  and  English  (first 
at  Gallipoli  and  then  at  Varna),  made  a  last  effort  to  take  Silis- 
tria,  the  siege  of  which  (April  to  July)  had  already  cost  them 
many  men.  They  failed.  In  the  Dobrudscha,  an  expedition 
directed  by  the  French  had  no  military  results,  but  the  army  was 
decimated  by  the  cholera  and  fevers  from  the  marshes.  The 
Russians  decided  to  evacuate  the  Principalities,  which  were  then 
occupied  by  the  Aastrians,  according  to  an  agreement  with 
Europe  and  the  Sultan.  The  war  on  the  Danube  was  ended  ; 
the  Crimean  war  had  begun  !  * 

It  had  been  finally  resolved  on  in  a  council  held  at  Varna  on 
the  2istof  July  between  the  generals  of  the  French,  English, 
and  Turkish  armies.  On  the  i4th  of  September,  500  ships 
landed  the  expeditionary  troops  near  Eupatoria  ;  on  the  2oth, 
the  battle  of  the  Alma  opened  them  the  way  to  Sebastopol.  This 
was  a  thunderbolt  to  Russia.  Since  1812  no  enemy  had  landed 
on  her  soil ;  the  Crimea,  protected  by  a  formidable  fleet,  im- 
pregnable fortresses,  and  a  numerous  army,  seemed  secure  from 
all  attacks.  Now  the  army  was  beaten,  and  the  Black  Sea  fleet, 
which  had  retreated  to  the  harbor  of  Sebastopol,  only  served  to 
obstruct  the  channel.  Sebastopol  itself  was  so  badly  protected 

*  See  Camille  Rousset,  '  Histoire  de  la  Guerre  de  Crime'e,'  2  vols.  with 
fm  atlas  :  and  M.  Rambaud's  '  Fran9ais  et  Kusses,  Moscou  et  Sevastopol.' 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


251 


and  armed — at  least,  on  the  land  side — that  many  officers  still 
think  that  a  bold  march  of  the  allies  on  Sebastopol  would  have 
made  them  masters  of  the  town. 

When,  however,  the  first  moment's  surprise  had  passed,  the 
Russians  set  to  work.  In  a  few  days  they  repaired  years  of 
carelessness  or  official  peculation.  Townsfolk,  soldiers,  and 
sailors  labored  at  the  earthworks.  In  a  very  short  time,  thanks 
to  their  marvellous  activity,  the  stony  soil  of  the  Chersonesus 
Was  raised  in  redoubts,  and  in  ramparts  crowned  with  fascines. 
The  bastions  of  the  Centre,  of  the  Mast,  of  the  two  Redans,  and 
of  the  Malakof,  all  afterwards  so  celebrated,  bristled  with  guns 
taken  from  the  navy.  Fourteen  or  fifteen  thousand  sailors,  all 
eager  to  avenge  the  ruin  of  the  fleet,  came  to  reinforce  the  gar- 
rison. Admirals  Kornilof,  Istomine,  and  Nakhimof,  who  were 
all  three  to  die  on  the  bastion  of  the  Malakof,  directed  the  de- 
fence. The  allies  had  marched  on  the  port  of  Balaclava,  which 
they  had  captured.  They  then  took  up  a  position  on  the  south 
of  Sebastopol,  investing  at  the  same  time  both  the  town  and  the 
Karabelnai'a,  and  getting  supplies  by  the  ports  of  Kamiesch 
and  Balaclava.  On  the  northern  side,  the  beleaguered  place 
communicated  freely,  by  the  bridges  over  the  great  harbor,  with 
the  Russian  field-army,  and  could  continually  receive  reinforce- 
ments and  supplies.  It  was  less  a  city  besieged  by  an  army 
than  two  armies  intrenched  opposite  each  other  and  keeping  all 
their  communications.  Many  times  the  allies  were  interrupted 
in  their  labors  by  the  field-army  ;  and  they  had  to  give  battle  at 
Balaclava  (25th  October),  at  Inkermann  (5th  November),  and 
at  Eupatoria  (iyth  February).  Whilst  the  allies  dug  trenches, 
bored  mines,  and  multiplied  their  batteries,  the  Russian  en- 
gineers, directed  by  Todleben,  strengthened  the  town  fortifica- 
tions, and  built  new  ones — Transbalkan,  Selinghinsk,  Volhyne, 
and  Kamschatka  (White  Works,  Green  Mamelon) — under  the 
enemy's  fire.  The  allies,  in  spite  of  the  hardships  of  a  severe 
winter,  established  themselves  more  and  more  firmly,  braving 
in  a  corner  of  the  Crimea  all  the  forces  of  the  empire  of  the 
Tzars. 

On  the  day  of  the  a6th  of  December,  1825,  Nicholas  had 
been  consecrated,  in  the  blood  of  conspirators,  the  armed 
apostle  of  the  principle  of  authority,  the  exterminating  angel  of 
the  counter-revolution.  This  position  he  had  held  for  thirty 
years,  not  without  glory.  He  had  subdued  the  Polish,  Hun- 
garian, and  Roumanian  revolutions,  and  prevented  Prussia  from 
yielding  to  the  seductions  of  the  German  revolution  and  to  the 
appeals  of  disaffection  in  Holstein.  He  had,  if  not  humiliated, 
at  least  troubled  the  French  revolution  in  all  its  legal  phases — 


252  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

July  royalty,  republic,  and  empire.  He  had  saved  the  Austrian 
empire,  and  hindered  the  creation  of  a  democratic  German  em- 
pire. He  stationed  himself  wherever  the  contrary  principle 
made  its  appearance.  People  surnamed  him  the  Don  Quixote 
of  autocracy  :  like  Cervantes'  hero,  he  possessed  a  chivalrous, 
generous,  and  disinterested  spirit ;  but,  like  him  too,  he  repre- 
sented a  superannuated  principle  in  a  new  world.  His  part  of 
chief  of  a  chimerical  Holy  Alliance  became  more  visibly  an  an- 
achronism day  by  day.  Since  1848  particularly,  the  "aspira- 
tions "  of  the  people  were  in  direct  contradiction  with  his 
theories  of  patriarchal  despotism.  This  opposition  was  apparent 
all  through  Europe.  The  Tzar's  prestige  began  to  suffer.  In 
Russia  he  still  contrived  to  sustain  it :  his  successes  in  Turkey, 
Persia,  the  Caucasus,  Poland,  and  Hungary,  and  the  apparent 
deference  of  the  European  princes,  permitted  him  to  play  his 
part  of  Agamemnon  among  kings.  Russia  hoped  to  indemnify 
herself  for  her  internal  submission  by  her  external  greatness. 
People  forgot  to  exclaim  at  the  interference  of  the  police,  at  the 
fetters  imposed  on  the  press,  at  the  intellectual  isolation  of 
Russia,  and  they  renounced  the  control  of  government,  diplo- 
macy, war,  and  administration.  The  hard-working  monarch, 
they  thought,  would  foresee  all,  watch  over  all,  and  bring  all  to 
a  happy  conclusion.  The  men  with  liberal  "  aspirations,"  the 
discontented  and  critical  spirits,  were  not  listened  to.  In  reply 
to  the  objections  timidly  expressed  by  a  few,  was  urged  the 
monarch's  success.  It  seemed  to  justify  absolute  confidence 
and  relinquishment  of  themselves  to  the  Government. 

The  disasters  in  the  East  caused  a  terrible  awakening.  The 
invincible  fleets  of  Russia  were  forced  to  take  refuge  in  the 
ports,  or  to  retreat  into  the  harbor  of  Sebastopol.  The  army 
was  vanquished  at  the  Alma  by  the  allies,  at  Silistria  by  the 
much-despised  Turks.  Fifty  thousand  Westerns  installed  under 
Sebastopol  insulted  the  majesty  of  the  empire  ;  the  allies  of  old 
had  failed  :  Prussia  was  passive,  Austria  a  traitor.  The  silence 
of  the  press  had  during  thirty  years  favored  the  thefts  of  the 
employes :  the  fortresses  and  the  armies  had  been  ruined  before- 
hand by  administrative  corruption.  The  nation  had  expected 
everything  of  the  Government,  and  the  Crimean  war  appeared 
as  an  immense  bankruptcy  of  autocracy  :  the  absolute  and 
patriarchal  monarchy  handed  in  its  schedule  in  face  of  the  Anglo- 
French  invasion.  The  greater  men's  hopes  had  been — the 
more  people  expected  the  conquest  of  Constantinople,  the  up- 
heaval of  the  East,  the  extension  of  the  Slav  empire,  the  deliv- 
erance of  Jerusalem — the  harder  and  more  cruel  was  the  awaken- 
ing. Then  a  vast  movement  was  felt  in  Russia.  Tongues  were 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


253 


unloosed,  and  in  default  of  the  press  an  immense  manuscript 
literature  was  secretly  distributed.  The  Government  was  pelted 
with  unexpected  charges,  accusing  the  Emperor,  the  ministers, 
the  administration,  the  diplomatists,  the  generals,  every  one  at 
cnce.  "  Arise,  O  Russia  !  ''  said  one  of  these  anonymous  pamph- 
lets. "  Devoured  by  enemies,  ruined  by  slavery,  shamefully  op- 
pressed by  the  stupidity  of  tchinovniks  and  spies,  awaken  from 
thy  long  sleep  of  ignorance  and  apathy !  We  have  been  kept 
long  enough  in  serfage  by  the  successors  of  the  Tatar  khans. 
Arise,  and  stand  erect  and  calm,  before  the  throne  of  the  despot ; 
demand  of  him  a  reckoning  of  the  national  misfortunes.  Tell 
him  boldly  that  his  throne  is  not  the  Altar  of  God,  and  that 
God  has  not  condemned  us  forever  to  be  slaves.  Russia,  O 
Tzar,  had  confided  to  thee  the  supreme  power,  and  thou  wert  to 
her  as  a  god  upon  earth.  And  what  hast  thou  done  ?  Blinded 
by  passion  and  ignorance,  thou  hast  sought  nothing  but  power ; 
thou  hast  forgotten  Russia.  Thou  hast  consumed  thy  life  in 
reviewing  troops,  in  altering  uniforms,  in  signing  the  legislative 
projects  of  ignorant  charlatans.  Thou  hast  created  a  despica- 
ble race  of  censors  of  the  press,  that  thou  mightst  sleep  in  peace, 
and  never  know  the  wants,  never  hear  the  murmurs  of  thy  peo- 
ple, never  listen  to  the  voice  of  truth.  Truth  !  thou  hast  buried 
her ;  thou  hast  rolled  a  great  stone  before  the  door  of  her 
sepulchre,  thou  hast  placed  a  strong  guard  round  her  tomb,  and 
in  the  exultation  of  thine  heart  thou  hast  said,  '  For  her,  no 
resurrection  !  '  Now,  on  the  third  day,  Truth  has  arisen  ;  she 
has  quickened  herself  amongst  the  dead.  Advance,  O  Tzar ! 
appear  at  the  bar  of  God  and  of  history  !  Thou  hast  mercilessly 
trodden  Truth  under  thy  feet,  thou  hast  refused  liberty,  at  the 
same  time  that  thou  wast  enslaved  by  thine  own  passions.  By 
thy  pride  and  obstinacy  thou  hast  exhausted  Russia ;  thou  hast 
armed  the  world  against  her.  Humiliate  thyself  before  thy 
brothers.  Bow-  thy  haughty  forehead  in  the  dust,  implore  par- 
don, ask  counsel ;  throw  thyself  into  the  arms  of  thy  people. 
There  is  no  other  way  of  salvation  for  thee." 

More  than  once,  towards  the  end  of  his  life,  the  Tzar  was 
seized  with  doubts,  but  this  advocate  of  absolute  power  could 
not  make  atonement.  "  My  successor,"  he  said,  "  may  do  what 
he  will  :  I  cannot  change."  He  could  not  change,  he  could  only 
disappear.  He  was  a  man  of  another  age,  an  anachronism  in 
the  new  Europe.  When,  from  his  villa  at  Peterhof,  he  could 
follow  the  manoeuvres  of  the  enemy's  fleet ;  when  he  heard  raised 
against  him  the  voice  of  the  hitherto  silent  nation,  then  this 
proud  heart  bled, — the  "  iron  Emperor  "  was  broken.  He  longed 
to  die.  One  day  in  February  1855,  having  already  bad  in- 


2£4  II IS  TOR  V  OF  JR  USSIA. 

fluenza,  he  went  out  without  his  great-coat,  in  a  cold  of  23° 
Centig.  His  doctor,  Karrel,  tried  to  restrain  him.  "  You 
have  fulfilled  your  duty,"  replied  the  Emperor,  "  let  me  do  mine." 
Other  imprudences  aggravated  his  illness.  He  gave  his  l:ist 
instructions  to  his  heir,  and  himself  dictated  the  despatch  which 
he  sent  to  all  the  great  towns  of  Russia — "  The  Empero^  is 
dying,"  On  February  i9th-March3rd  he  died. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


255 


CHAPTER  XV. 

ALEXANDER  II.    (1855-1877;. 

End  of  the  Crimean  war  :  Treaty  of  Paris — The  Act  of  the  igth  of  February, 
1861  :  judicial  reforms  ;  local  self-government — The  Polish  insurrection- 
Intellectual  movement  ;  industrial  progress  ;  military  law— Conquests  in 
Asia — European  policy. 


E-ND  OF  THE  CRIMEAN  WAR  :  TREATY  OF  PARIS. 

ALEXANDER  II.,  born  in  1819,  succeeded  to  the  throne  at  the 
age  of  thirty-seven,  in  circumstances  which  were  as  complicated 
within  as  without.  "  You  will  find  the  burden  heavy,"  said  his 
father  on  his  death-bed.  His  first  care  was  to  terminate  on  hon- 
orable conditions  the  war  which  was  exhausting  Russia.  At 
the  news  of  the  death  of  Nicholas,  the  Funds  had  risen  on  all 
the  exchanges  of  Europe.  This  peaceful  hope  did  not  allow 
itself  to  be  discouraged  by  the  proclamation  by  which  the  new 
Emperor  proposed  to  himself  "  to  accomplish  the  schemes  and 
desires  of  our  illustrious  predecessors — Peter,  Catherine,  Alex- 
ander the  well-beloved,  and  our  father  of  imperishable  memory." 
The  new  sovereign  knew  better  than  anyone  how  little  the  ambi- 
tious projects  of  Peter  and  Catherine  were  appropriate  to  the 
circumstances  in  which  he  found  himself.  A  conference  was 
again  opened  at  Vienna,  between  the  representatives  of  Austria, 
Russia,  and  the  two  Western  Powers.  They  could  not  agree  as 
to  the  guarantees  to  be  exacted  from  Russia.  France  demanded 
the  neutralization  of  the  Black  Sea,  or  the  limitation  of  the 
number  of  vessels  which  the  Tzar  might  keep  in  it.  "  Before 
you  limit  our  forces,"  Gortchakof  and  Titof,  the  representatives 
of  Russia,  might  reply,  "  at  least  take  Sebastopol." 

The  siege  continued.  Sardinia  in  her  turn  now  sent  20,000 
men  to  the  East.  Austria  had  engaged  (2nd  December,  1854)  to 
defend  the  Principalities  against  Russia,  and  Prussia  to  defend 
Austria.  Napoleon  III.  and  Queen  Victoria  exchanged  visits. 
Pelissier  had  succeeded  General  Canrobert  (i6th  of  May).  In 
the  night  of  the  22nd  of  May,  two  sorties  of  the  Russians  were 
repulsed.  The  allies  encamped  with  a  strong  force  on  the  left 


256  HISTORY  OF  RUSMA. 

bank  of  the  Tchernaia,  an  expedition  destroyed  the  military 
establishments  of  Kertch  and  lenikale,  occupied  the  Sea  of  Azof, 
and  bombarded  Taganrog,  thus  leaving  to  the  Russians  no  base 
of  supplies  except  Perekop.  The  Turks  were  in  Anapa,  and 
summoned  the  Circassians  to  revolt. 

Pe'lissier  had  announced  that  he  would  take  Sebastopol.  On 
the  yth  of  June  he  took  the  Green  Mamdlon  and  the  White 
Works  by  assault.  On  the  i8th  the  French  assailed  the  Malakof, 
and  the  English  the  Redan,  but  they  were  repulsed  with  a  loss  of 
3000  men.  On  the  i6th  of  August  the  Italian  contingent  dis- 
tinguished itself  at  the  battle  of  Traktir  on  the  TchernaYa.  The 
last  day  of  Sebastopol  had  come  :  874  guns  thundered  against 
the  bastions,  and  against  the  town.  The  Russians  displayed  a 
stoical  bravery  and  a  reckless  intrepidity.  In  the  last  twenty- 
eight  days  of  the  siege  they  lost  18,000  men  by  the  bombardment 
alone  ;  a  million  and  a  half  of  bullets,  bombs,  shells,  and  gren- 
ades had  been  thrown  into  the  town.  The  French  had  dug 
fifty  miles  of  trenches  during  the  336  days  of  the  siege,  and 
4100  feet  of  mines  before  one  bastion  alone.  They  had  pushed 
their  lines  within  100  feet  of  the  Malakof,  under  "  a  hell  fire," 
the  noise  of  which  was  heard  for  more  than  sixty-two  miles  round. 
The  Russian  bastions  crumbled,  bomb-proof  roofs  were  driven 
in,  the  gunners  fell  by  hundreds,  the  soldiers  of  the  reserve  by 
thousands.  Korrtilof,  Istomine,  and  Nakhimof  had  fallen.  The 
besieged  had  no  longer  time  to  repair  the  breaches  made  by  the 
batteries,  to  charge  the  useless  pieces,  hardly  to  carry  away  the 
dead.  In  one  single  day  70,000  projectiles  were  fired  into  the 
town.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  On  the  8th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1855,  at  twelve  o'clock,  the  allied  batteries  suddenly 
ceased  to  fire.  The  French  threw  themselves  on  the  Malakof, 
and  maintained  their  position  against  all  efforts  to  dislodge  them, 
and,  in  spite  of  the  check  of  the  English  at  the  Great  Redan, 
Sebastopol  was  taken.  The  Russians  evacuated  the  city  and  the 
Karabelnai'a,  burning  and  blowing  up  everything  in  their  rear,  and 
retreated  to  the  northern  side.  Meanwhile  the  navy  had  con- 
tinued to  threaten  the  coasts  ;  it  destroyed  the  fort  of  Kinburn, 
and  the  Russians  blew  up  that  of  Otchakof. 

Russia,  however,  did  not  yet  seem  ready  to  submit.  Gortcha- 
kof  announced  to  the  army  assembled  at  the  north  of  the  harbor 
of  Sebastopol  that  "  he  would  not  voluntarily  abandon  this 
country  where  St.  Vladimir  had  received  baptism."  Alexander 
too  encouraged  the  brave  troops  with  his  presence,  and  wept 
over  the  ruins  of  the  great  fortress.  The  Bee  newspaper  officially 
announced  to  Europe  "that  the  war  was  now  becoming  serious, 
and  that  Sebastopol  being  destroyed,  a  stronger  fortress  would 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  2^7 

be  built,"  but  the  fact  could  no  longer  be  disguised  that  the 
country  wished  for  peace.  This  war  had  cost  250,000  men  ;  the 
banks  only  paid  in  paper,  and  the  public  refused  that  of  the 
Government.  England,  on  her  side,  manifested  the  most  warlike 
disposition.  Palmerston  and  the  greater  part  of  the  British  news- 
papers did  not  consider  Russia  sufficiently  humiliated,  but  it  was 
obvious  that  the  war  was  drawing  to  a  close.  The  Treaty  of 
November  1855,  between  France  and  Sweden,  only  contained  a 
simple  guarantee,  and  no  mention  was  made  of  the  offensive 
alliance  proclaimed  by  the  Gazettes.  The  fall  of  Kars,  by  con- 
soling the  military  vanity  of  Russia,  made  her  more  inclined  to 
treat.  Alexander  II.  declared  his  intention  of  adhering  in 
principle  to  the  "  ultimatum  of  the  four  guarantees  "  presented 
by  Count  Esterhazy,  and  a  congress  met  at  Paris  on  the  25th  of 
February,  1856.  France,  England,  Austria,  Prussia,  Sardinia, 
and  Turkey  appeared  at  it,  and  Russia  was  represented  by  Baron 
de  Briinnow  and  Alexis  Orlof.  Peace  was  signed  on  the  3oth  of 
March  on  the  following  bases  : — i.  Russia  renounced  her  ex- 
clusive right  of  protection  over  the  Danubian  principalities,  and 
all  interference  with  their  internal  affairs.  2.  The  free  naviga- 
tion of  the  Danube  was  to  be  effectuaUy  secured  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  commission,  in  which  the  contracting  parties  should 
be  represented.  Each  of  them  should  have  the  right  to  station 
two  sloops  of  war  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Russia  consented 
to  a  rectification  of  frontiers  which  should  leave  Turkey  and  the 
Roumanian  principalities  all  the  Danubian  delta.  3.  The  Black 
Sea  was  made  neutral  ground  :  her  waters,  open  to  merchant 
ships  of  all  nations,  were  forbidden  to  men-of-war,  whether  of  the 
Powers  on  the  coasts  or  of  any  others.  No  military  or  maritime 
arsenals  were  to  be  created  there.  Turkey  and  Russia  could 
only  maintain  ten  light  ships  to  watch  the  coasts.  4.  The  hat- 
tischerif  by  which  the  Sultan  Abdul-Medjid  renewed  the  privi- 
leges of  his  non-Mussulman  subjects  was  inserted  in  the  treaty, 
but  with  the  clause  that  the  Powers  could  not  quote  this  insertion 
as  authorizing  them  to  interfere  between  the  Sultan  and  his 
subjects. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Paris  Russia  lost  both  the  domination  of 
the  Black  Sea  and  the  protectorate  of  the  Eastern  Christians, 
thus  annihilating  the  fruits  of  the  policy  of  Peter  I.,  Anne,  Cath- 
erine II.,  and  Alexander  I.  Thus  were  condemned  to  ruin  the 
fleets  and  naval  arsenals  created  by  Potemkine,  the  Due  de 
Richelieu,  the  Marquis  de  Traversay,  and  Admiral  Lazare'f; 
thus  the  fortresses  of  Sebastopol,  Kinburn,  and  lenikale  were 
deserted.  The  treaties  of  Kairnadji,  Bucharest,  and  Adrianople 
were  deprived  of  all  the  hopes  of  conquest  and  dominion  to 


2r;8  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

which  they  had  given  rise.  The  imprudent  policy  of  Nicholas 
had  compromised  the  work  of  two  centuries  of  successful  efforts. 
Russia  also  took  part  in  the  Convention  of  1858,  which 
organized  the  principalities  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  and  in 
that  of  1859,  which  allowed  them  to  become  one  State,  namely 
Roumania,  a  precious  relic  of  the  great  Roman  colony  founded 
by  the  Emperor  Trajan  on  the  Lower  Danube. 


THE  ACT  OF  THE    igTH  OF    FEBRUARY,   l86l  :    JUDICIAL    REFORMS; 
LOCAL    SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

In  the  manifesto  which  announced  to  his  people  the  termi- 
nation of  the  Eastern  war,  Alexander  expressed  his  conviction 
that  "by  the  combined  efforts  of  the  Government  and  the 
nation,"  government,  law,  and  police  would  undergo  important 
reforms.  He  understood  that  the  disasters  of  the  Danube  and 
the  Crimea  must  in  a  great  measure  be  imputed  to  the  admin- 
istration, protected  as  it  was  by  the  silence  of  public  opinion, 
the  slavery  of  the  press,  and  the  rigor  of  the  police  and  of  the 
censorship.  The  events  of  1855  taught  the  important  lesson 
that  a  people  in  which  the  majority  of  the  agricultural  classes 
was  subjected  to  serfage  could  not  rival  the  European  nations 
in  intellectual,  scientific,  or  industrial  progress.  Now,  in  modern 
warfare,  success  is  the  result  of  all  the  moral  and  material  forces 
of  a  State.  The  system  of  governing  Russia  without  giving  the 
people  a  voice  in  the  management  of  their  own  affairs,  of  con- 
ducting all  public  business  in  the  routine  and  silence  of  the 
bureaux,  was  condemned.  The  officials,  so  haughty  under 
Nicholas,  bowed  their  heads  under  the  public  execration.  The 
name  of  tchinovnik,  once  so  formidable,  became  a  term  of  de- 
rision and  contempt ;  public  opinion  naturally  associated  it  with 
everything  superannuated,  ridiculous,  or  odious.  The  servants 
of  the  autocracy,  stooping  beneath  the  weight  of  a  crushing  re- 
sponsibility, displayed  a  kind  of  shame  by  hiding  their  pompous 
titles  and  the  decorations  which  they  had  formerly  flaunted  with 
pride.  It  seemed  as  if  the  Conservative  Russia  of  Nicholas  I. 
had  sunk  into  the  earth  ;  every  one  called  himself  a  Liberal.  A 
breath  of  audacious  hope,  of  courageous  enterprise,  passed  through 
the  country.  The  movement,  which  in  1801  only  affected  the 
immediate  surrounding  of  Alexander,  now  spread  through  all 
Russia.  A  thousand  voices  were  raised  in  the  papers,  in  the 
reviews,  and  in  the  books,  all  suddenly  emancipated  ;  in  the 
drawing-rooms  and  in  the  streets,  where  the  bewildered  police 
forgot  to  spj.  What  had  been  murmured  in  the  manuscript 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


259 


literature  of  the  last  months  of  Nicholas  was  now  printed  freely. 
"  The  heart  beats  with  joy,"  said  one  of  the  leading  organs  of 
the  press,  "  in  expectation  of  the  social  reforms  which  are  on  the 
point  of  being  carried  out — reforms  which  will  give  satisfaction  to 
the  minds,  wishes,  and  hopes  of  the  public.     The  ancient  harmony 
and  community  of  sentiment  which,  in  all  but  short  and  excep- 
tional periods,    have  always   existed  between   the  Government 
and  the  people,  are  completely  re-established.     The  absence  of 
all  sentiment  of  caste,  the  feeling  of  a  common  origin,  and  of  a 
fraternity  which  binds  all  classes  of  Russia  into  a  single  homo- 
geneous people,  will  permit  the  easy  and  peaceful  fulfilment,  not 
only  of  those  great  reforms  which  have  cost  Europe  centuries  of 
bitter  struggles,  but  of   other  reforms  that  the  nations   of   the 
West,  enchained  by  their  feudal  traditions  and  their  caste  prej- 
udices, are  even  now  in  no  state  to  accomplish."     And  again  : 
"  We  have  to  fight  in  the  name  of  the  highest  truth  with  egotism 
and  the  pitiful  interests  of  the  moment.     We  must  prepare  our 
children  from  their  tenderest  years  to  take  part  in  the  struggle 
that  awaits  every  brave  man.     We  must  thank  the  war  which 
has  opened  our  eyes  to  the  dark  sides  of  our  political  and  social 
organization,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  profit  by  the  lesson.     But  we 
ought  not  to  suppose  that  the  Government  can  of  itself  cure  us 
of  our  faults.     Russia  is  like  a  stranded  ship,  which  the  captain 
and  the  crew  alone  could  never  rescue  ;  she  can  only  be  floated 
by  the  all-powerful  reflux  of  the  national  life."     Men  of  letters, 
suspected  and  spied  upon  during  the  preceding  reign,  now  led 
public  opinion.     Literature  took  a  militant  and  practical  char- 
acter; the  old  quarrel  of  the  romantic  and  classical  schools  was 
left  far  behind.     "  It  did  not  seem  strange,"  says  Mr.  Mackenzie 
Wallace,  "  that  a  drama  should  be  written  to  defend  free  trade 
or  a  poem  to  extol  a  certain  form  of  impost,  nor  that  political 
ideas  should  be  expressed  in  a  story,  whilst  the  adversary  replied 
in  a  comedy."     The  delicate  questions  that  the  Russian  press 
feared  to  bring  forward,  and  the  great  personages  that  it  did  not 
dare  to  attack,  were  left  to  the  exiled  Hertzen  in  London,  with 
his  terrible  Bell  (Kolokoi),  the  dread  of  dishonest  officials.     The 
proscribed  numbers  of  the  Kolokol  made  their  way  by  thousands 
into  Russia,  were  laid  on  the  table  of  the  Emperor,  and  revealed 
to  him  the  most  secret  iniquities. 

In  their  eagerness  for  reform  tne  people  wished  everything 
to  be  undertaken  at  once,  but  it  was  soon  seen  that  all  questions 
remained  in  abeyance  till  that  of  the  emancipation  of  the  peas- 
ants was  settled.  Whether  it  was  a  question  of  self-government, 
of  education,  of  industrial  liberty,  of  military  service,  or  legal 
equality,  it  was  sure  to  come  back  to  social  reform,  where  there- 
fore they  must  begin. 


36o  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  unfree  population  of  Russia  amounted  at  that  time  to 
47,100,000  individuals,  divided  into  20,000,000  Crown  peasants, 
4,700,000  peasants  of  appanages,  mines,  factories,  etc.,  21,000,000 
belonging  to  proprietors,  and  1,400,000  dvorovti,  or  domestic 
servants.  The  peasants  of  the  Crown  and  of  the  appanages 
might  be  considered  as  freemen,  subject  to  the  payment  of  a 
rent,  or  of  other  well-defined  dues,  settled  by  the  State,  which 
was  represented  either  by  the  administration  of  the  domain  or 
by  the  department  of  the  appanages.  The  Crown  peasants  even 
enjoyed  a  sort  of  local  self-government.  They  regulated  their 
affairs  in  their  communes  or  mirs  through  an  elder  and  an 
elected  council.  They  were  judged  by  elected  tribunals — the 
tribunal  of  the  village  and  the  tribunal  of  the  volost  or  district, 
which  applied  the  peasant  customs.  Nothing  more  was  needed 
than  to  give  the  name  of  freemen  to  men  substantially  free. 
This  was  done  when  their  right  to  personal  liberty  was  pro- 
claimed, and  when  certain  restrictions  on  their  right  to  come 
and  go,  to  acquire  new  lands,  or  to  dispose  of  their  goods  were 
abolished.  This  was  accomplished  by  a  series  of  edicts,  the  first 
dating  July  1858. 

The  case  of  peasants  belonging  to  private  owners,  and  the 
position  of  the  dvorovit.  were  different.  The  emancipation  of 
these  22,500,000  men  was  to  bring  about  the  most  prodigious 
social  change  which  has  taken  place  in  Europe  since  the  French 
Revolution.  The  liberation  of  the  peasants  properly  so  called, 
which  would  make  them  owners  of  part  of  the  soil  which  they 
cultivated,  was  an  enterprise  surrounded  with  difficulties  on  all 
sides.  As  to  the  question  of  personal  liberty,  every  one  was 
agreed,  but  there  were  dissensions  as  to  the  question  of  property. 
To  elucidate  this  it  was  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  historic 
origin  of  Russian  property,  to  choose  between  the  systems  and 
theories  formulated  by  different  schools  of  historians.  The  most 
authoritative  of  these  proved  that  serfage  was  not  introduced 
into  Russia  by  the  conquest  of  one  race  by  another,  for  it  was 
exactly  in  those  provinces  conquered  by  the  Russians — in  the 
Finnish  or  Tatar  countries — that  serfage  did  not  exist,  while  its 
greatest  development  was  to  be  found  in  the  midst  of  the 
conquering  people.  Serfage  had  been  sanctioned  by  a  series  of 
acts  emanating  from  the  throne  ;  and  the  nearer  a  province  was 
to  the  Muscovite  centre,  the  more  ancient  and  the  more  firmly 
established  was  serfage  found  to  be.  The  northern  regions,  the 
governments  of  Archangel  and  Vologda,  were  exempt  from  it. 
The  krtpostnoe  pravo  was  therefore  a  Muscovite  institution,  a 
creation  of  the  Tzarian  power.  It  took  its  rise  in  the  period 
when,  under  the  pressure  of  the  Mongol  yoke,  Russian  society 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2 6 1 

formed  itself  into  a  rigorous  hierarchy,  in  which  the  sovereign 
of  Moscow  arrogated  to  himself  absolute  authority  over  the 
nobles,  as  the  nobles  did  over  the  peasants — their  subjects.  The 
krtpostnod  pravo  sprang  from  the  new  wants  of  the  infant  State. 
The  grant  of  lands  to  the  military  class,  to  the  nobles,  was  the 
recompense  for  the  service  exacted  from  them  ;  the  revenues  of 
the  soil  constituted  their  pay,  and  were  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
their  outfit  and  equipment.  They  were  besides  charged  to  govern 
and  administer  the  lands  of  their  domain,  and  to  pay  in  the 
amount  of  the  poll-tax  to  the  prince,  whose  tax-gatherers  they  were. 
But  the  land  had  no  value  without  the  hands  that  cultivated 
it,  the  revenues  of  an  estate  diminished  with  the  number  of  peas- 
ants ;  the  noble  who  was  deserted  by  his  peasants  was  ruined,  and 
in  no  condition  to  serve  the  prince.  In  order  that  military 
service  might  be  secured,  and  that  the  produce  of  the  tax  might 
suffer  no  diminution,  it  was  necessary  to  hinder  the  emigration 
of  the  peasants.  The  interest  of  the  noble,  as  well  as  the 
interest  of  the  State,  demanded  that  the  liberty  of  coming  and 
going  should  be  restrained,  that  the  noble  should  be  armed  with 
a  formidable  authority  over  the  peasant,  and  that  the  laborer 
should  be  fixed  to  the  soil.  Almost  everywhere,  without  any  in- 
tervention on  the  part  of  the  legislature,  the  husbandman 
gradually  became  a  serf.  Legally  free,  the  peasant  had  become 
a  slave  ;  legally  a  simple  tenant  for  life,  the  noble  had  become 
in  fact  the  owner  of  the  land,  the  proprietor  of  the  peasants. 
The  state  of  things  created  by  arbitrary  power  was  afterwards 
legalized  by  a  series  of  legislative  acts,  which  one  after  the 
other  restrained  the  liberty  of  the  mougik  and  augmented  the 
authority  of  the  lord.  Such  were  the  oukazes  of  Feodor  Ivano- 
vitch  in  1592  and  1597,  of  Boris  Godounof  in  1601,  of  Vassili 
Choui'ski  in  1607,  of  Peter  the  Great  in  1723,  and  of  Catherine 
II.  for  Little  Russia  in  1783. 

The  peasant,  while  resigning  himself  to  this  condition  of 
affairs,  had  not  entirely  lost  all  sense  of  his  rights.  His  ancient 
right  to  the  ownership  of  the  land  he  expressed  after  his  own 
fashion  in  the  proverb,  "  Our  backs  are  the  lord's,  but  the  soil  is 
our  own."  He  forgot  less  easily  than  the  Government  the  fact 
{hat  the  peasant's  obligation  to  serve  the  lord  was  co-relative  to 
<he  lord's  obligation  to  serve  the  Tzar.  When  Peter  III.  in  his 
*hort  reign  freed  the  nobles  from  the  obligation  of  serving  the 
State,  the  peasant  expected  that  the  corollary  of  this  first  edict 
would  be  a  second  edict,  setting  free  the  peasant  from  his 
bondage  to  the  soil  and  from  paying  dues  to  the  lord.  Hence 
the  troubles  of  1762,  the  insurrection  of  1773,  when  a  false 
Peter  III.  appeared  to  finish  the  work  of  the  deceased  Emperor. 


X 62  MIS  TOR  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

During  the  campaign  of  1812,  the  peasants  for  a  moment 
believed  that  Napoleon  was  bringing  them  liberty,  and  the  agi- 
tation was  revived  during  the  Crimean  war.  Serfage  .was  de- 
cidedly the  weak  point  of  Russia.  An  invader  could  raise 
against  her  at  once  a  servile  and  a  foreign  war. 

We  have  seen  the  efforts  at  emancipation  under  Alexander 
I.,  and  the  edict  of  Nicholas  in  1842.  The  latter,  by  the 
oukazes  of  1845,  1847,  an<^  1848,  had  recognized  the  right  of  in- 
dividuals and  communes  to  acquire  landed  property.  One  of 
Nicholas's  enemies  has  not  been  able  to  refuse  him  this  testi- 
mony :  "  However  hostile  may  have  been  his  views  of  liberty, 
we  must  do  him  the  justice  to  say  that  he  never  ceased  through 
the  whole  of  his  life  to  cherish  the  idea  of  emancipating  the 
serfs  "  ('  Truth  about  Russia').  He  had  to  bequeath  this  task 
to  his  son.  A  few  days  after  the  Treaty  of  Paris  was  signed,  in 
March  1856,  Alexander  II.,  in  an  address  to  the  marshal  of  the 
Moscow  nobility,  while  guarding  himself  against  the  notion  that 
he  aimed  at  the  instant  emancipation  of  the  serfs,  invites  "  his 
faithful  nobles  "  to  seek  the  proper  means  to  prepare  for  the 
execution  of  this  measure.  The  Muscovite  proprietors  showed, 
however,  but  little  enthusiasm.  The  Emperor  had  to  content 
himself  with  appointing  (2nd-i4th  January,  1857)  "  a  chief 
Committee  for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  peasants." 
"He  understood  that  such  a  measure  could  only  be  carried  out  by 
an  energetic  exercise  of  the  imperial  power.  This  same  year 
the  nobles  of  the  governments  of  Kief,  Volhynia,  and  Podolia, 
disturbed  by  the  measures  taken  by  Nicholas  I.  after  the  insti- 
tution of  the  "  inventories,"  "  took,"  says  Schnitzler,  "  a  desperate 
resolution."  They  declared  themselves  ready  to  emancipate 
the  peasants.  Whether  they  thought  that  the  bare  idea  of  so 
radical  a  measure  would  alarm  the  Government,  or  whether  they 
hoped  that  the  emancipation  would  necessarily  be  based  on  the 
idea  of  a  proportionate  pecuniary  indemnity,  they  furnished  the 
Emperor  with  the  occasion  he  sought  to  give  the  question  a  final 
impulse.  He  authorized  by  an  edict  the  nobility  of  the  three 
Lithuanian  governments  to  proceed  with  the  work  of  emancipa- 
tion. He  sent  this  edict  and  the  ministerial  instructions  which 
formed  its  commentary  to  all  the  governors  and  all  the  marshals 
of  the  nobility  throughout  the  provinces  of  the  empire,  "  for 
their  information,"  and  also,  adds  the  circular,  "  for  your  direc- 
tion, in  case  that  the  nobles  confided  to  your  care  should  express 
the  same  intention  as  the  three  Lithuanian  governments.  The 
nobles  of  St.  Petersburg,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  Orel  made  a 
reply  which  encouraged  the  Emperor. 

Another  encouragement  came  to  him  from  the  press,  almost 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2 63 

the  whole  of  which  hailed  with  enthusiasm  a  measure  "  which 
was  to  open  a  new  and  glorious  epoch  in  the  national  history." 
"  All  sections  of  the  literary  world,"  says  Mr.  Mackenzie  Wal- 
lace (vol.  ii.  p.  277),  "had  arguments  to  offer  in  support  of  the 
foregone  conclusion.  The  moralists  declared  that  all  prevailing 
vices  were  the  product  of  serfage,  and  that  moral  progress  was 
impossible  in  an  atmosphere  of  slavery ;  the  lawyers  asserted 
that  the  arbitrary  authority  of  the  proprietors  over  the  peasants 
had  no  firm  legal  basis  ;  the  economists  explained  that  free 
labor  was  an  indispensable  condition  of  industrial  and  commer- 
cial prosperity ;  the  philosophical  historians  showed  that  the 
normal  historical  development  of  the  country  demanded  the 
abolition  of  barbarism  ;  and  the  writers  of  the  sentimental,  gush- 
ing type  poured  forth  endless  effusions  about  brotherly  love  to 
the  weak  and  oppressed." 

Already  the  question  was  not  one  of  giving  the  peasant  his 
liberty  alone.  In  order  to  prevent  the  peasant,  now  free,  but 
detached  from  the  soil,  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  his  ancient 
master,  and  into  a  state  of  dependence  more  insupportable  than 
that  of  the  past ;  to  hinder  the  formation  of  an  immense  pro- 
letariat, more  hungry  and  more  dangerous  than  that  which,  it 
was  said,  menaced  the  kingdoms  of  the  West,  it  was  necessary 
to  give  the  newly  liberated  men  some  property,  to  reconstitute 
and  strengthen  the  Russian  commune,  whose  strong  unity  and 
indestructible  life  formed  the  best  rampart  against  pauperism. 
Many  proprietors  associated  themselves  with  this  movement ; 
they  trusted  that  the  abolition  of  the  serfage  of  the  peasants 
would  have  as  its  consequence  the  limitation  of  the  autocratic 
authority  of  the  Tzars,  and  that  by  enfranchising  their  serfs  they 
would  themselves  gain  political  liberty.  The  re-establishment 
of  the  ancient  douma  of  the  sobor  was  more  than  once  spoken  of, 
the  kind  o.  national  parliament  which  under  more  modern  forms 
would  associate  the  country  with  the  exercise  of  the  supreme 
authority. 

The  Government,  supported  by  the  addresses  of  many  bodies 
of  nobility,  ordered  the  creation  of  committees  of  landowners, 
charged  to  examine  the  question.  Forty-six  committees,  com- 
posed of  1336  landowners,  assembled  to  discuss  the  rights  of 
23,000,000  of  serfs,  and  of  120  proprietors.  The  forty-six  com- 
mittees unanimously  pronounced  for  the  abolition  of  serfage 
without  any  recompense,  but  opinions  were  divided  as  to  the 
distribution  of  lands  and  the  conditions  of  indemnity.  The  Em- 
peror had  again  to  interfere.  He  called  a  chief  committee,  com- 
posed of  twelve  persons,  over  which  he  presided.  This  com- 
mittee more  than  once  opposed,  in  conjunction  with  some  of  th* 


264  HISTOK  Y  OF  R USSIA. 

provincial  committees,  passive  resistance  to  the  beneficent 
schemes  of  the  sovereign.  The  Emperor  went  through  the 
provinces,  appealing  to  the  conciliatory  spirit  and  devotion  of 
his  nobility,  reprimanding  those  who  hung  back,  and  reminding 
them  that  "  reforms  came  better  from  above  than  from  below." 
To  subdue  the  resistance  of  the  superior  committee  he  created 
another,  to  which  the  old  one  was  subordinated,  and  which  he 
packed  with  men  devoted  to  the  new  idea. 

The  new  "  imperial  commission  "  did  not  content  itself  with 
elaborating  the  materials  furnished  by  the  provincial  committees. 
Directly  inspired  by  the  Emperor,  who  sent  them  his  paper  on 
"  the  progress  and  issue  of  the  peasant  question,"  they  legislated 
on  all  sides,  at  the  risk  of  throwing  into  opposition  proprietors 
who  were  well  disposed,  but  who  complained  that  they  had 
never  been  consulted,  and  that  the  commission  seemed  desirous 
of  depriving  them  of  the  merit  of  their  sacrifices.  The  commis- 
sion gradually  gave  to  the  reform  a  more  and  more  radical  char- 
acter. It  admitted  the  principle  that  the  emancipation  should 
not  take  place  gradually,  but  that  the  law  should  insure  the  im- 
mediate abolition  of  serfdom  ;  that  the  most  effectual  measures 
should  be  taken  to  prevent  the  re-establishment  of  the  seignorial 
authority  under  other  forms,  by  the  liberal  organization  of  the 
rural  communes  ;  and  that  the  peasant  should  become  a  pro- 
prietor on  the  payment  of  an  indemnity.  From  these  delibera- 
tions resulted  the  new  law,  announced  by  the  manifesto  of  the 
igth  of  February-jrd  of  March,  1861. 

The  fundamental  principles  of  the  new  legislation  may  be 
summed  up  thus  : — i.  The  peasants  up  to  that  time  attached  to 
the  soil  were  to  be  invested  with  all  the  rights  of  free  cultiva- 
tors. 2.  The  peasants  should  obtain,  minus  the  dues  fixed  by 
law,  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  enclosure  (dvor),  and  also  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  arable  land,  sufficient  to  guarantee  the  accom- 
plishment of  their  obligations  towards  the  State.  This  "  perma- 
nent enjoyment  "  might  be  exchanged  for  an  "  absolute  owner- 
ship "  of  the  enclosure  and  the  lands,  subject  to  a  right  to  buy 
them  back.  3.  The  lords  were  to  concede  to  the  peasants  or  to 
the  rural  communes  the  land  actually  occupied  by  the  latter ;  in 
each  district,  however,  a  maximum  and  a  minimum  were  to  be 
fixed.  On  the  whole  there  was  an  average  of  three  dessiatines 
and  a  half  for  each  male  peasant ;  but  it  varied  from  one  to 
twelve  dessiatines,  that  is  to  say,  the  peasants  in  general  received 
iess  in  the  Black  Land,  and  more  in  the  less  productive  zones. 
4.  The  Government  was  to  organize  a  system  of  loans,  which  would 
permit  the  peasants  immediately  to  liberate  themselves  from 
their  lords,  while  remaining  debtors  to  the  State.  5.  The 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  265 

dvorovit,  who  were  not  attached  to  the  soil,  were  only  to  receive 
their  personal  liberty,  on  condition  of  serving  their  masters  for 
two  years.  6.  To  bring  the  great  work  of  partition  into  seigno- 
rial  lands  and  peasant  lands,  to  a  happy  conclusion  ;  to  regulate 
the  amount  of  the  dues,  the  conditions  of  repurchase,  and  all 
the  questions  which  might  arise  from  the  execution  of  the  law, 
the  temporary  magistracy  of  the  mirovyt  possre  dniki,  or  media- 
tors of  peace,  was  instituted,  who  showed  themselves  for  the 
most  part  honest,  patient,  impartial,  equitable,  and  who  deserve 
a  great  part  of  the  honor  of  this  pacific  settlement. 

The  peasants,  freed  from  the  seignorial  authority,  were  or- 
ganized into  communes  ;  or  rather  the  commune,  the  mir,  which 
is  the  primordial  and  antique  element  of  Slavo-Russian  society, 
acquired  a  new  force.  It  inherited  the  right  of  police  and  of  sur- 
veillance, held  by  the  lord  over  his  subjects ;  it  administered 
and  judged  with  more  liberty  the  suits  of  the  peasants.  In  ac- 
cordance with  the  ancient  Slav  law,  the  land  bought  from  the 
lord  remained  the  common  property  of  all  the  members  of  the 
mir :  each  peasant  only  held  as  his  private  property  his  en- 
closure and  the  land  thereto  pertaining.  Arable  lands  are  sub- 
ject to  periodical  partition,  more  or  less  frequent,  among  the 
heads  of  families,  and  only  possessed  by  them  by  way  of  usufruct. 
The  law,  which  does  not  permit  a  final  partition  of  the  common 
land,  except  when  two-thirds  of  those  interested  consent,  will 
for  long  maintain  against  the  destructive  action  of  new  manners 
and  new  wants  this  old  European  institution,  which  in  our  Wes- 
tern countries  has  disappeared  for  centuries,  in  France  especi- 
ally, and  has  left  no  trace,  except  so-called  communal  properties. 
The  communes,  freed  from  the  lords,  were  grouped,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  imperial  domains,  into  volosts :  a  volost  tribunal  re- 
ceived the  appeal  from  the  communal  justices,  and  a  volost  muni- 
cipality was  charged  to  watch  over  the  common  interests  of  all 
the  villages  under  its  jurisdiction.  The  mayor  of  the  commune 
was  called  starost ;  the  volost  mayor,  starchina.  The  Russian 
peasants  were  thus  given  a  complete  system  of  local  self-govern- 
ment, of  an  absolutely  rural  character,  for  the  former  lord  was 
kept  absolutely  apart  from  it.  Since  his  ancient  domain  had 
been  divided  into  seignorial  lands  and  peasant  lands,  he  ceased 
legally  to  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  village.  His  interests  being 
absolutely  distinct  from  those  of  the  peasants,  he  was  forbidden 
to  meddle  either  with  them,  their  elections,  their  administra- 
tion, or  their  justice. 

The  great  measure  of  emancipation  was,  in  fact,  a  settle- 
ment of  accounts  as  to  the  ancient  community  existing  between 
masters  and  peasants.  It  imposed  sacrifice  on  both  the  inter- 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

csted  parties.  If  the  proprietors  were  forced  to  renounce  their 
seignorial  rights,  the  obrok,  the  corvfc,  and  part  of  their  lands  in 
exchange  for  an  indemnity,  the  peasant  found  it  hard  to  be 
obliged  to  buy  the  very  ground  whereon  his  cottage  stood  ;  the 
soil  which  his  ancestors  had  cultivated  in  the  sweat  of  their 
brows,  even  the  land  reserved  for  the  lord,  they  regarded  in 
many  places  as  their  own  property,  because  it  had  been  culti- 
vated by  them  from  time  immemorial.  The  partition  imposed 
by  the  law  seemed  spoliation  to  them.  The  discontent  often 
showed  itself  in  an  obstinate  resistance  to  the  advice  of  the 
"mediators  of  peace,"  by  the  refusal  to  acquit  themselves  of 
their  legal  obligations,  and  to  enter  into  negotiation  with  the 
lord  for  the  repurchase  of  the  land.  They  persuaded  themselves 
that  the  nobles  and  officials  had  falsified  the  edict  of  the  Tzar, 
or  that  a  fresh  act  of  emancipation,  the  true  one,  was  to  be  pro- 
claimed. A  strange  ferment  arose  in  many  provinces ;  it  was 
necessary  to  call  out  the  soldiery,  and  three  times  the  troops 
had  to  fire  on  the  people.  In  the  government  of  Kazan,  10,000 
men  rose  at  the  call  of  the  peasant  Pe'trof,  who  announced  to 
them  "  the  true  liberty."  A  hundred  perished,  and  the  chief 
himself  was  taken  and  shot.  The  emancipation  was  none  the 
less  a  beneficent  and  essential  reform,  of  which  the  present  gen- 
eration will  have  to  pay  the  price,  while  its  good  results  will  de- 
velop in  future  generations.  The  Russian  peasants  owe  their 
liberty  above  all  to  the  firm  will  of  the  Emperor ;  to  the  gener- 
ous efforts  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine,  and  of  the  Grand 
Duchess  Helena,  who  in  1859  gave  an  example  by  emancipating 
her  own  peasants  ;  to  the  enlightened  patriotism  of  Rostovtsof, 
of  Panine,  Minister  of  Justice,  of  Nicholas  Milioutine,  of  Prince 
Tcherkasski,  of  louri  Samarine,  members  of  the  Imperial  Com- 
mission, of  Kochelef,  Solovief,  loukovski,  Domotouvitch,  etc. ; 
and  to  a  great  part  of  the  proprietors,  many  of  whom  granted 
their  peasants  more  than  the  maximum  of  land  fixed  by  law. 

As  a  reward  for  their  sacrifices  the  upper  classes  in  Russia 
demanded  reforms,  and  more  political  liberty.  If  they  were  re- 
fused the  re-establishment  of  the  douma,  that  is  to  say  constitu- 
tional government,  great  reforms  were  at  last  accomplished  in 
justice  and  in  provincial  administration. 

In  judicial  affairs,  the  edicts  from  1862  to  1865  introduced 
innovations  sanctioned  by  the  experience  of  Western  States. 
Public  accusation  and  defence  succeeded  to  the  written  and  in- 
quisitorial procedure  of  former  times.  Criminal  justice  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  a  jury  ;  the  police  were  deprived  of  the 
judicial  instruction,  which  was  given  to  special  magistrates,  the 
juges  d 'instruction;  and  district  courts  (pkroujnyt soudf)  were  es- 


HISTORY  OF  RVSSTA.  2&j 

tablished  in  each  group  of  ouiezdi,  or  districts.  Appeals  were 
carried  up  to  "  palaces  of  justice  "  (soudebnya palaty)  similar  to 
the  French  courts  of  appeal,  but  which  only  reversed  the  sen- 
tences of  the  first  judges  in  cases  where  the  law  was  misinter- 
preted and  misapplied.  The  senate,  made  into  a  court  of  revi- 
sion or  of  annulment,  crowns  all  this  organization,  in  which  we 
find  certain  wholly  French  ideas.  The  justices  of  the  peace 
constitute  a  separate  hierarchy  :  the  judge  of  peace  (niirovoi 
soudia),  elected  by  the  landed  proprietors  of  the  district,  sits  al- 
so in  a  tribunal  of  arbitration  and  of  ordinary  police ;  his  juris- 
diction, much  more  extensive  than  in  France,  includes  the  civil 
cases  not  exceeding  500  roubles,  and  criminal  cases  where  the 
penalty  does  not  exceed  300  roubles,  or  more  than  a  year's  im- 
prisonment. The  sentence  can  only  be  appealed  from  when  the 
the  sum  involved  exceeds  thirty  roubles  in  civil,  and  fifteen 
roubles  or  three  days'  imprisonment  in  criminal  cases.  In  this 
case  the  appeal  is  taken,  not  as  in  France  before  the  district 
tribunal,  but  before  the  assembly  of  justices  of  the  peace  for  the 
district  (arrondissemenf),  or  mirorri  siezd,  whose  verdict  can  only 
be  annulled  by  the  senate. 

The  Russian  provinces  or  governments  (gouoemii)  are 
divided  into  ouiezdi  or  districts.  In  each  district  the  law  of 
1864  institutes  a  district  council,  formed  by  deputies  elected 
every  three  years,  in  certain  fixed  proportions,  by  the  three 
orders  of  the  State, — the  landed  proprietors,  or  gentlemen  ;  the 
rural  communes,  or  mirs ;  and  the  towns.  The  council  as- 
sembles once  a  year,  and  is  replaced  in  the  interval  between  its 
sessions  by  a  permanent  executive  committee.  The  functions 
of  the  district  council,  which  occupies  in  the  administrative 
hierarchy  the  rank  immediately  superior  to  the  municipal  coun- 
cil of  the  towns  and  to  the  councils  of  the  rural  volosts,  consist 
in  being  obliged  to  keep  the  roads  and  bridges  in  repair,  to 
watch  over  education  and  sanitary  affairs,  to  inspect  the  state 
of  the  harvest,  and  to  take  measures  for  the  prevention  of  famine. 
Above  the  district  council  (puiezdnoe  zemstvo)  was  instituted  the 
general  council  (goubernkoe  zemstvo},  elected,  not  by  the  primary 
electors,  but  by  the  district  councils  of  the  provinces,  and  in 
which  there  was  practically  a  large  proportion  of  noble  deputies, 
in  consequence  of  the  tendency  of  the  peasants  to  avoid  all 
public  charges,  more  considerable  in  this  than  in  the  other 
assembly.  The  general  council  occupies  itself  with  affairs  con-> 
cerning  several  districts,  and  votes  the  provincial  budget.  Such 
is  a  summary  of  the  system  of  self-government  with  which  the 
present  reign  has  endowed  Russia. 

Corporal  punishments,  that  blot  on  ancient   Russia,  have 


268  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

been  abolished  in  the  army  and  the  imperial  tribunals.  They 
only  remain  in  vigor  in  the  tribunals  of  the  peasants,  who,  from 
their  attachment  to  the  ancient  patriarchal  customs,  still  apply 
some  blows  with  a  cord  to  delinquents.  The  censorship  has 
been  mitigated ;  the  newspapers  of  both  capitals  have  received 
the  right  to  choose  between  censorship  or  the  liberty  of  appear- 
ing at  their  own  risk  and  peril.  In  this  case  an  arrangement 
borrowed  from  the  second  French  empire  is  applied:  after  three 
warnings,  the  paper  may  be  suspended  or  suppressed.  The 
periodical  press  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  has  developed 
in  a  surprising  manner  in  an  atmosphere  of  comparative  liberty ; 
on  the  other  hand,  the  provincial  press,  even  in  the  largest 
towns,  such  as  Kief  and  Kazan,  scarcely  exists.  That  of  War- 
saw is  in  an  exceptional  situation ;  that  of  the  Baltic  provinces 
enjoys  a  greater  freedom. 

Since  1859  the  table  of  receipts  (559  million  roubles),  and 
that  of  State  expenses  (553  millions),  have  been  given  a  kind 
of  publicity.  In  1860  foreigners  acquired  all  the  civil  rights 
accorded  to  natives,  and  which  are  held  by  Russians  in  foreign 
countries.  The  barriers  raised  by  Nicholas  between  his  empire 
and  Europe  have  been  partially  overthrown.  The  Jews,  those 
at  least  exercising  a  trade,  were  authorized  to  remove  from 
Poland  and  the  western  governments  into  the  interior  of  the 
empire.  The  universities  have  been  freed  from  the  shackles 
imposed  by  Nicholas,  the  limitation  of  the  number  of  students 
abolished,  the  charges  of  study  lowered,  and  numerous  scholar- 
ships created. 

THE  POLISH  INSURRECTION. 

Great  hopes  awakened  in  Poland  at  the  accession  of  the  new 
sovereign  ;  they  went  as  far  as  the  re-establishment  of  the 
constitution,  and  even  to  the  reunion  of  the  Lithuanian  prov- 
inces with  the  kingdom.  The  awaking  of  Italy  had  made  that 
of  Poland  appear  possible  ;  the  concessions  of  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  to  Hungary  led  men  to  expect  the  same  from  Alexander 
II.  The  interview  of  the  three  Northern  sovereigns  at  Warsaw, 
in  October  1860,  caused  a  certain  irritation  among  the  people. 
It  is  necessary  also  to  take  into  consideration  the  intrigues  set 
on  foot  by  the  Polish  committees  abroad.  If  many  Poles  counted 
on  the  support  of  Alexander  II.  to  help  them  to  raise  their 
country,  others  wished  to  emancipate  her  entirely  from  Russia. 
There  existed,  therefore,  two  parties  in  Warsaw  and  in  the 
foreign  committees;  the  one  wished  to  take  Italy  as  an  ex- 
ample, the  other  would  be  content  with  the  new  lot  of  Hungary. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  269 

The  emancipation  of  the  peasants  was  in  Poland,  as  in  Russia, 
the  question  of  the  day,  but  the  conditions  of  the  question  were 
different  in  Warsaw  from  what  they  were  in  Moscow :  the  per- 
sonal liberty  of  the  rustics  had  been  decreed  by  Napoleon  I., 
at  the  time  that  the  Grand  Duchy  was  created ;  but  as  they  had 
received  no  property,  they  continued  to  farm  the  lands  of  the 
nobles,  and  paid  their  rent  either  in  money  or  by  conges.  The 
substitution  of  a  fixed  money  payment  instead  of  a  corvee  was 
the  first  step  in  the  path  of  reform,  which  might  be  carried 
further  by  allowing  the  husbandman  to  become  a  proprietor,  by 
paying  annually  a  fixed  sum  towards  the  repurchase  of  the  land, 
and  putting  means  of  credit  at  his  disposal.  The  Agricultural 
Society,  presided  over  by  Count  Andrew  Zamoiski,  found  that  it 
was  the  interest  of  the  Polish  nation  to  anticipate  the  Russian 
Government,  and  to  secure  to  the  native  nobility  the  honor  of 
emancipation  ;  the  Government,  on  the  contrary,  represented 
by  M.  Moukhanof,  director  of  the  Interior,  decided  that  it  was 
to  its  advantage  to  fetter  the  activity  of  the  society,  to  forbid 
the  discussion  of  the  question  of  repurchase,  and  to  confine 
its  functions  to  the  mutation  of  the  corvte  into  fixed  dues. 

The  contest  between  the  Agricultural  Society  and  the  Gov- 
ernment increased  the  agitation  which  already  existed  at  Warsaw. 
On  the  2gth  of  November,  1860,  on  the  occasion  of  the  thirtieth 
anniversary  of  the  revolution  of  1830,  demonstrations  at  once 
national  and  religious  took  place  in  the  streets  of  the  capital, 
and  portraits  of  Kosciuszko  and  Kilinski  were  distributed.  On 
the  25th  of  February,  1861,  the  day  of  the  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Grochov,  the  Agricultural  Society  held  a  meeting  to 
deliberate  on  an  address,  in  which  the  Emperor  should  be  asked 
for  a  constitution.  Tumultuous  crowds  gathered  in  the  streets, 
singing  national  songs.  On  the  27th,  on  the  occasion  of  a 
funeral  service  for  the  victims  of  the  preceding  insurrections, 
there  was  a  new  demonstration,  which  had  to  be  suppressed, 
with  the  loss  of  five  killed  and  ten  wounded.  Prince  Gortchakof, 
Viceroy  of  Poland,  touched  by  these  strange  manifestations,  in 
which  the  disarmed  people  confined  themselves  stoically  to 
facing  the  musketry  without  interrupting  their  songs,  labored 
with  Count  Zamoiski  for  the  restoration  of  order.  The  address 
to  the  Emperor  circulated  in  Warsaw,  and  was  covered  with 
signatures  ;  100,000  persons  quietly  followed  the  obsequies  of 
the  victims  of  the  27th  of  February. 

Without  desiring  to  grant  a  constitution,  the  Emperor  Alex- 
ander II.  made,  however,  many  important  concessions.  He  de- 
creed (edict  of  March  26)  a  council  of  state  for  the  kingdom,  a 
department  of  public  education  and  of  worship,  elective  councils 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

in  each  government  and  each  district,  and  municipal  councils  at 
Warsaw  and  the  principal  cities  of  the  kingdom.  The  Marquis 
Vie'le'polski,  a  Pole  belonging  to  the  party  which  hoped  for  the 
re-establishment  of  Poland  by  Russia,  was  named  director  of 
public  worship  and  education. 

These  concessions  were  likely  to  reconcile  at  least  the  con- 
stitutional party ;  unhappily  their  effect  was  destroyed  by  the 
sudden  dissolution  of  the  Agricultural  Society,  in  which  the 
mass  of  the  people  had  placed  its  hopes,  and  the  demonstrations 
continued.  On  the  yth  of  April  a  crowd  assembled  in  the 
square  of  the  Zamok  (castle  of  the  Viceroy)  to  demand  that  the 
edict  of  dissolution  should  be  withdrawn,  but  it  dispersed  with- 
out any  result  before  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  troops.  On  the 
8th  of  April  the  multitude  reappeared,  more  numerous  and  more 
violent,  shouting  that  they  wanted  a  country ;  a  postilion,  who 
was  driving  a  postchaise,  played  on  his  cornet  the  favorite  air  of 
Dombrovski's  legions,  "  No,  Poland  shall  not  perish."  The 
crowd,  composed  in  great  part  of  women  and  children,  presented 
a  passive  resistance  and  invincible  vis  inertia,  on  which  the 
charges  of  cavalry  had  no  effect.  The  troops  then  had  recourse 
to  their  arms,  and  fifteen  rounds  of  shot  laid  200  dead  and  a 
large  number  of  wounded  at  the  feet  of  the  statue  of  the  Virgin. 
On  the  following  days  the  people  appeared  only  in  mourning,  in 
spite  of  the  prohibition  of  the  police.  This  uneasy  state  of 
things  was  prolonged  for  many  months.  On  the  loth  of  October 
a  Polish  and  a  Lithuanian  procession  celebrated  at  Hodlevo,  on 
the  Polo-Lithuanian  frontier,  the  four  hundreth  anniversary  of 
the  union  of  the  two  countries.  The  humanity  of  the  Russian 
commandant  allowed  the  fete  to  be  held  without  the  effusion  of 
blood. 

The  Government  still  made  one  attempt  at  conciliation  when 
the  Emperor  appointed  Count  Lambert  as  Viceroy,  with  orders 
to  apply  the  reforms  decreed  in  Mardh  1761,  but  the  effect  of 
his  nomination  was  weakened  by  the  presence  at  his  side  of  men 
devoted  to  the  policy  of  repression.  The  anti-Russian  party, 
besides,  had  not  disarmed.  On  the  i5th  of  October,  on  the  an» 
niversary  of  Kosciuszko,  the  people  flocked  to  the  churches  of 
Warsaw ;  the  military  authorities  caused  the  churches  to  be  sur- 
rounded by  detachments,  without  seeing  that  the  inoffensive  in- 
habitants, alarmed  at  this  display,  would  refuse  to  leave  the 
churches,  and  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  drag  them  out  by 
force.  In  fact,  after  a  useless  blockade  that  lasted  a  day  and  a 
night,  up  to  four  in  the  morning,  the  soldiers  had  to  force  the 
cathedral,  and  carry  2000  people  to  the  fortress.  Count  Lam- 
bert loudly  complained  to  General  Gerstenszweig,  the  military 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA..  tjt 

governor.  After  a  fierce  altercation  the  latter  blew  out  his 
brains,  and  Lambert  was  recalled. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Count  Liiders,  who  began  a  period  of 
reaction,  and  a  certain  number  of  influential  Warsovians  were 
transported.  The  Grand  Duke  Constantine,  made  Viceroy  on 
the  8th  of  June,  1862,  again  tried  a  policy  of  reconciliation. 
Vie'lepolski,  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  address  to  the  Emperor, 
was  nominated  chief  of  the  civil  power.  Enthusiasts  attempted 
the  lives  of  Ltiders,  of  Vie'le'polski,  even  of  the  Grand  Duke,  and 
violent  men  profited  by  all  the  errors  of  the  Government  to  push 
things  to  extremity,  and  to  turn  its  good  intentions  against  it. 
The  Poles  of  Warsaw  committed  the  error  of  disquieting  Russia 
about  the  provinces  which  she  regarded  as  Russian,  and  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  empire ;  the  proprietors  did  not  content  them- 
selves with  demanding,  in  an  address  to  Constantine,  that  the 
government  of  Poland  should  be  Polish,  which  was  reasonable 
and  just,  but  insisted  that  the  Lithuanian  palatinates  should  be 
reunited  to  the  kingdom.  The  upper  classes  of  Podolia  express- 
ed the  same  wish  with  regard  to  that  province,  to  Volhynia  and 
the  Ukraine.  These  imprudences  caused  the  exile  of  Zamoiski 
and  the  arrest  of  the  Podolian  agitators.  All  understanding 
became  impossible ;  an  exercise  of  authority  precipitated  the  ex- 
plosion :  in  the  night  of  the  i5th  of  January,  1863,  the  military 
government  laid  violent  hands  on  the  recruits. 

The  conscripts  who  had  escaped  from  the  police  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  rebel  bands  which  promptly  appeared  at  Blonid 
and  at  Sieroc.k.  The  war  could  no  longer  assume  the  great 
character  of  those  of  1794  or  of  1831 ;  there  was  now  no  Polish 
army  to  struggle  seriously  with  that  of  Russia  :  it  was  a  little 
war  of  guerillas  and  sharpshooters,  who  could  nowhere  hold  their 
own  against  the  Russians,  but  who  plunged  into  the  thick  forests 
of  Poland,  and  concealed  themselves  there  only  to  appear  further 
on  and  harass  the  columns.  There  were  no  battles,  only  skir- 
mishes, the  most  serious  of  which  was  that  of  Vengrov,  on  the  6th 
of  February,  1863.  A  few  chiefs  made  themselves  names : 
among  these  were  Leo  Frankovski,  Sigismond  Padlevski,  Casimir 
Bogdanovitch,  Mielen£ki,  the  energetic  Bossak-Hauke  (who  was 
one  day  to  fall  under  the  French  flag  in  the  fields  of  Burgundy), 
the  French  Rochebrune  and  Blankenheim,  Mademoiselle  Pous- 
tovoijov,  Sierakovski  (ex-colonel  in  the  Russian  army,  who  was 
hanged  after  his  check  in  Lithuania),  the  priest-soldier  Magkie'- 
vicz,  Narbutt  (son  of  the  historian),  Ldlerel  (a  pseudonym 
adopted  by  a  Warsaw  workman),  and  Marian  Langievicz,  soon 
appointed  dictator,  but  who,  after  the  skirmishes  of  the  i7th, 
i8th,  and  igth  of  March,  was  driven  back  into  Gallicia,  and  de- 


272 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


tained  there  by  the  Austrians.  The  secret  committee  of  insur- 
rection, or  anonymous  government  of  Poland,  had  summoned 
the  peasants  to  liberty  and  the  enjoyment  of  property. 

The  exasperated  Russians  treated  the  towns  and  villages  con- 
cerned in  the  affair  with  great  cruelty.  The  village  of  Ibiany 
was  destroyed,  and  the  Polish  chiefs  taken  with  arms  in  their 
hands  were  shot  or  hanged.  General  Mouravief  in  Lithuania 
declared  that  it  was  "  useless  to  make  prisoners."  Berg  in 
Poland,  Dlotovskoi  in  Livonia,  and  Annenkof  in  the  Ukraine, 
were  the  agents  of  rigorous  repression.  Felinski,  Archbishop  of 
Warsaw,  was  transported  into  the  interior  of  Russia,  as  a  punish- 
ment for  having  written  a  letter  to  the  Emperor. 

Europe  was  touched.  On  the  5th  of  January,  1863,  trie 
French  minister  Billault,  in  the  tribune  of  the  Corps  Le*gislatif, 
had  blamed  the  "  baseless  hopes  excited  in  the  minds  of  patriots, 
whose  powerless  efforts  could  only  bring  about  new  evils  " ;  he 
recommended  the  insurgents  to  the  clemency  of  Alexander. 
Then  France,  England,  and  Austria  decided  to  have  recourse  to 
diplomatic  intervention,  invited  the  other  Powers  who  had  signed 
the  Treaty  of  Vienna  to  join  in  their  efforts,  and  laid  before  the 
Russian  government  the  notes  of  April  1863,  which  invited  her 
to  put  an  end  to  the  periodical  agitations  of  Poland  by  a  policy  of 
conciliation.  On  June  17  the  three  Powers  proposed  a  programme 
with  the  following  conditions: — i.  An  amnesty;  2.  The  estab- 
lishment of  a  national  representation  ;  3.  The  nomination  of 
Poles  to  public  offices ;  4.  The  abolition  of  restrictions  placed 
on  Catholic  worship ;  5.  The  exclusive  use  of  the  Polish  language, 
as  the  official  language  of  the  administration,  of  justice,  and 
of  education ;  6.  A  regular  and  legal  system  of  recruiting. 
This  intervention  of  the  Western  Powers,  which  was  supported 
by  no  military  demonstration,  was  rejected  by  the  famous  note 
of  Prince  Gortchakof,  Chancellor  of  the  empire,  and  the  idea  of 
a  European  conference  was  likewise  rejected.  Europe  found 
herself  powerless,  and  Napoleon  III.  had  to  content  himself  in 
his  speech  from  the  throne  with  the  declaration  that  the  treaties 
of  1815  were  "trampled  under  foot  at  Warsaw."  The  conduct 
of  Prussia  had  been  quite  different ;  she  had  concluded  with 
Russia  the  convention  of  the  8th  of  February,  1863,  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  Polish  manifestations,  and  thus  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  that  Prusso-Russian  alliance  which  was  to  prove  so  use- 
ful to  her. 

This  insurrection  was  to  cost  Poland  dear.  The  last  remains 
of  her  autonomy  were  extinguished.  To-day  the  "  kingdom  "  is 
nothing  but  a  name,  and  the  country  has  been  divided  into  ten 
provinces  (1866).  The  Russian  language  has  replaced  the 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSfA.  J73 

Polish  in  all  public  acts  ;  the  University  of  Warsaw  is  a  Russian 
university  ;  the  primary,  secondary,  and  superior  education  all 
lend  their  aid  to  the  work  of  denationalization.  Poland  lost  her 
institutions  without  obtaining  the  benefit  of  those  of  Russia — the 
zemstva,  the  jury,  and  the  new  tribunals.  As  the  Government 
held  the  nobles  responsible  for  the  insurrection,  it  therefore 
markedly  favored  the  peasants,  authorizing  them  to  "  enter  into 
full  and  entire  possession  of  the  lands  which  they  held."  An 
oukaze  of  the  loth  of  December,  1865,  rendered  the  sale  of 
confiscated  and  sequestrated  property  imperative,  and  Russians 
alone  might  be  purchasers. 

Finland,  on  the  contrary,  had  all  her  privileges  confirmed. 
In  1863,  Alexander  convoked  the  diet  of  the  grand  duchy,  the 
second  that  had  been  held  since  the  annexation  to  the  empire. 
The  German  nobility  of  the  Baltic  provinces,  more  docile  and 
more  politic  than  that  of  Poland,  were  not  disturbed.  The 
University  of  Dorpat  remained  a  German  university  ;  the  Govern- 
ment only  took  measures  to  protect  the  language  and  religion  of 
the  empire  against  the  propagation  of  the  German  tongue  and  of 
the  Protestant  religion.  The  bold  demands  of  the  Slavophil 
louri  Samarine,  in  his  '  Russian  Frontiers,'  and  the  lively  po- 
lemic sustained  against  him  by  the  Baltic  writers  Schirren,  Wil- 
helm  von  Bock,  Julius  Eckart,  and  Sternberg,  did  not  lead  to  any 
important  changes  in  the  three  governments  of  Livonia,  Cour- 
land,  and  Esthonia. 


INTELLECTUAL   MOVEMENT  ;  MATERIAL  PROGRESS  ;    MILITARY   LAW. 

The  Russian  agitation  began  simultaneously  with  the  Polish 
troubles.  At  the  beginning  it  seemed  associated  with  the 
Polish  movement.  The  students  of  St.  Petersburg  openly 
sympathized  with  the  Warsaw  anniversaries  ;  and  the  students 
of  Kazan  attended  the  funeral  of  Andrew  Petrof,  an  insur- 
gent peasant.  The  augmentation  of  the  cost  of  study  in 
the  provincial  universities,  the  prohibition  of  meetings,  prom- 
enades, deputations,  libraries,  and  students'  conferences, 
brought  about  troubles  which  ended  in  the  universities  of 
the  two  capitals  being  closed  and  numerous  arrests  being 
made.  Then  came  addresses  from  the  assemblies  of  nobles  : 
that  of  Tver  had  in  1862  requested  the  abolition  of  privileges, 
and  the  convocation  of  a  national  assembly  ;  in  that  of  Toula 
a  meeting  of  the  States-general  was  discussed.  Events  in  Poland 
soon  gave  the  current  of  ideas  a  new  direction.  The  Moscow 
Gagetfe,  under  M.  Katkof,  seized  the  leadership  of  opinion.  It 


•74 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


awakened  the  national  Russian  sentiment  against  the  demands 
of  Poland,  and  signified  to  her  that  nothing  now  remained  to  her 
"  but  to  unite  her  aspirations  with  those  of  Russia,  and  to  inoc- 
ulate herself  with  the  principles  which  have  been  elaborated,  and 
elaborate  themselves  in  the  political  development  of  the  Russian 
people."  It  provoked  demonstrations  in  honor  of  Mouravief, 
glorified  his  energetic  and  pacific  measures  in  Lithuania,  and 
actually  ascribed  the  numerous  fires  of  1862  to  Polish  emissa- 
ries. By  making  itself  the  advocate  of  Russian  nationality,  the 
press  gained  unexpected  freedom,  which  was  also  exacted  by 
M.  Katkof,  even  from  the  ministers.  He  was  the  man  of  the 
new  state  of  things,  as  Hertzen  had  been  that  of  the  liberal 
movement  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  The  attempt  of 
Karakozof  upon  the  life  of  the  Emperor  in  the  Summer  Garden 
in  1866,  made  in  the  name  of  the  Russian  revolutionaries,  and 
that  of  Berezovski  at  Paris  in  1867,  in  the  name  of  the  Polish 
revolutionaries,  show  how  deeply  men's  minds  were  troubled. 
It  would  be  idle  to  insist  on  the  changes  of  ministers,  sometimes 
progressionists,  sometimes  reactionaries,  who  reflected  the  impres- 
sions produced  by  events  on  the  mind  of  the  Emperor.  Under 
a  government  which  on  the  whole  was  liberal,  Russia  still  con- 
tinued to  transform  herself.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  enumerate 
a  few  of  the  results. 

The  preceding  Government  had  only  bequeathed  to  Russia 
218  miles  of  railway;  to-day  the  Russian  lines,  fifty-three  in  num- 
ber, are  composed  of  10,384  miles  already  being  worked,  and 
1145  miles  in  process  of  construction.  The  railways  unite  nearly 
all  the  large  towns  of  Russia  in  Europe  :  in  the  north  they  end 
at  Helsingfors  and  at  Vologda ;  in  the  east  at  Nijni-Novgorod, 
Saratof,  Samara,  with  a  line  projected  as  far  Orenburg  ;  in  the 
south  at  Kichenef,  Odessa,  Cherson,  Sebastopol,  and  Taganrog, 
with  a  line  projected  as  far  as  Vladikavkaze.  Russia  is  placed 
in  communication  with  the  West  by  means  of  the  lines  of  St. 
Petersburg  and  Berlin,  Warsaw  and  Berlin,  Warsaw  and  Vienna, 
and  Kichenef  and  lassy.  The  Caucasian  line  already  unites  Poti 
on  the  Black  Sea  toTiflis;  it  will  be  prolonged  as  far  as  Bakou 
on  the  Caspian.  The  Siberian  railway  is  at  present  under  con- 
sideration. The  four  seas,  the  great  lakes,  the  rivers  and  canals 
of  Russia,  are  furrowed  by  numerous  steamboats.  The  telegraph 
and  the  post,  of  which  the  cost  has  been  lowered,  put  the  empire 
in  rapid  and  regular  communication  with  the  whole  world. 

Trade  has  also  greatly  developed.  "The  people  are  begin- 
ning to  move,"  writes  Mr.  Herbert  Barry,  "  and  many  manufac- 
tories are  in  course  of  construction.  The  Russians  are  clever  at 
all  handicrafts.  An  Englishman,  the  director  of  a  paper  factory 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


275 


which  I  was  astonished  to  find  in  the  middle  of  the  Oural  Moun- 
tains, told  me  that  in  England  many  years  of  apprenticeship  were 
needed  to  make  a  good  paper-worker,  but  that  a  Russian  learnt 
as  much  in  three  months  as  an  Englishman  in  three  years." 
The  branches  of  commerce  which  have  prospered  the  most  are 
the  manufactures  of  cotton  and  silk,  metallurgy,  steel,  &c.  Numer- 
ous banks  have  been  started,  even  in  some  of  the  most  remote 
towns  of  the  empire. 

Primary  education  leaves  more  to  be  desired  than  that  of  any 
other  country  in  Europe.  Russia,  with  her  9  or  10  per  cent,  of 
people  who  can  read,  is  below  even  Austria,  which  only  reckons 
29  per  cent.  In  France  the  average  is  77  per  cent.  Thanks 
to  the  efforts  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  and  the 
Minister  of  War  in  his  regimental  schools,  the  average  is  slowly 
but  surely  rising.  Primary  education  is  more  advanced  in  Po- 
land because  of  the  efforts  of  the  Government ;  in  the  Baltic 
provinces  and  in  Finland,  because  of  the  Protestant  culture ;  in 
Central  Russia,  because  of  the  industrial  influences.  In  1871 
the  minister  Tolstoi,  in  his  report  to  the  Emperor,  enumerates 
24,000  schools  attended  by  875,000  scholars,  and  424  superior 
primary  schools,  attended  by  27,830  scholars. 

On  the  ist  of  January,  1872,  there  existed  126  gymnasia  and 
$2  progymnasia,  including  42,791  pupils.  At  this  same  date  M. 
Tolstoi  had  issued  an  order  to  introduce  or  confirm  the  study  of 
Greek  and  Latin  in  these  establishments.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  regulation  of  the  i2th  of  May,  1873,  instituted  practical 
schools  for  the  teaching  of  professions. 

In  1876  the  eight  universities  of  the  empire  (St.  Petersburg, 
Moscow,  Kharkof,  Kazan,  Kief,  Dorpat,  New  Russia  or  Odessa, 
founded  in  1864,  and  Warsaw,  founded  in  1869)  reckoned  5466 
students  and  457  free  pupils.  Amongst  the  students  1325  were 
scholars. 

To  the  educational  institutions  for  the  daughters  of  the  no- 
bility, established  by  Catherine  II.  and  developed  by  Maria 
Feodorovna,  wife  of  Paul,  were  added  seminaries  of  a  kind  more 
appropriate  to  the  new  needs,  and  where  young  girls  of  all 
classes  are  received.  There  are  the  female  gymnasia  zn&progym- 
nasia, — a  kind  of  lyceums  for  girls,  where  boarders  are  not 
admitted.  The  earliest  of  these  schools  were  founded  under 
the  auspices  of  the  present  Empress,  on  the  basis  of  the  4th 
section  of  the  imperial  chancery.  They  are  26  in  number — 6  at 
St.  Petersburg,  5  at  Moscow,  15  in  the  provinces.  The  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction  had  in  his  turn  created,  in  1871,56  gymna- 
sia and  130  progymnasia  on  the  same  model,  attended  by  23,404 
pupils.  Nowhere  in  Europe  has  such  a  vast  development  been 


2  y  6  HIS  TOR  Y  OF  R  USSIA. 

given  to  the  scientific  education  of  young  girls,  and  nowhere 
have  they  been  given  such  easy  access  to  liberal  careers,  and  to 
Government  employments,  posts,  telegraphs,  £c.  In  1875,169 
lady  students  followed  the  courses  of  surgery  and  medicine  in 
the  University  of  St.  Petersburg. 

Periodical  publications  have  enormously  increased  since  the 
Crimean  war.  There  exist  at  present  about  472  newspapers,  of 
which  377  are  in  the  Russian  language.  At  St.  Petersburg  are 
published  the  Golos,  which  has  the  largest  circulation  ;  the 
Gazette  de  St.  Petersbourg ;  the  Gazette  de  la  Bourse,  which 
sympathized  with  France  in  the  war  of  1870  ;  the  Monde  Russe, 
which  has  had  some  military  discussion  with  the  Invalidc ; 
and  the  New  Era,  devoted  to  Slav  interests :  at  Moscow 
the  Gazette  de  Moscou,  which  has  not  ceased  to  belong  to 
the  university,  has  passed  into  the  editorship  of  M.  Katk- 
of.  Amongst  the  reviews  which  are  of  general  interest,  we 
may  enumerate  the  Messager  d"1  Europe  of  M.  StasiouleVitch,  the 
Messager  Russe  of  M.  Katkof,  the  Citoyen,  the  Annales  de  la 
Patrie,  and  the  Dielo  (Action),  an  advanced  organ.  Others 
have  a  specially  historic  character ;  such  are  the  Archive  Russe 
of  M.  Bartdnief,  the  Antiquite"  Russe,  the  Russe  Andenne  et  Nou- 
velle,  and  the  Recueil  de  la  Societe"  Iniperiale  d'Histoire  Russe^ 
started  in  1867. 

The  present  time  is  remarkable  for  its  literary  activity.  We 
can  only  quote  names:  in  the  novels  of  manners,  MM.  Tour- 
gudnief,  Pisemski,  Dostoievski,  Gontcharof,  Melnikof,  Stebnitski, 
Boborikine,  Madame  Krestovski,  and  the  Little  Russian  Marko- 
Vovtchok  ;  in  historical  novels,  MM.  Alexis  Tolstoi  ('  Le  Prince 
Se're'brannyi,  ou  Ivan  le  Terrible'),  Leo  Tolstoi  ('  La  Guerre  et 
la  Paix,'  a  study  of  the  Napoleonic  wars),  and  Sahlias  ('  Les 
Compagnons  dc  PougatcheP)  ;  in  satirical  novels,  the  dreaded 
Chtchedrine ;  in  play  writing,  MM.  Ostrovski,  Potie'khinc,  and 
Solohoup;  and  for  historical  dramas,  Mel,  A.  Tolstoi  ('La 
Mort  d'lvan  le  Terrible'),  and  Averkief  ('  Vassilil'Aveugle'). 

Among  the  historians  must  be  cited  Pogodine  ('  Russia  up  to 
the  Invasion  of  the  Tatars  '),  Kostomarof  ('  Historical  Mono- 
graphs and  Researches,'  *  History  of  the  Fall  of  Poland,'  '  His- 
tory of  Russia  in  Biographies'),  Solovief  (' History  of  Russia 
from  the  most  ancient  Times,'  twenty-six  volumes,  as  far  as 
Catherine  II.),  Ilova'iski  ('The  Origins  of  Russian  History,' 
'The  Diet  of  Grodno'),  Oustrielof  ('History  of  Peter  the 
Great'),  Zabie'line  ( '  Private  Life  of  the  Tzars,  the  Tzarinas,  and 
the  Russian  People'),  Bogdanovitch  ( '  History  of  Alexander  I.,' 
and  the  '  History  of  the  War  in  the  East '),  Milioutine  ('  Cam« 
ptign  of  1799'),  Galitsyne  ('Universal  Military  History'), 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


277 


Pekarski  ('  Science  and  Literature  under  Peter  the  Great '), 
Pypine  ('  Progress  of  Ideas  under  Alexander  I.'),  Kovalevski, 
Korff.  and  Popof  ('  Epoch  of  Alexander  I.').  MM.  Sreznevski, 
Afanasief,  Rybnikof,  Kirieevski,  Bezsonof,  Hilferding,  Oreste 
Miller,  and  Bouslaief  have  collected  or  illustrated  precious 
monuments  of  popular  literature. 

The  artistic  movement  likewise  took  more  breadth  and  va- 
riety. The  composers  Tcha'ikovski,  Sierof,  Dorgomyjski,  and  Ru- 
bistein  ;  the  landscape-painter  Aivazovski ;  the  portrait-painters 
Tropinine,  Kharlamof,  and  Zarenko;  the  painters  of  history,  Mak- 
hovski,  Semigradski,  Gay,  and  Flavitski;  the  painters  of  genre, 
or  of  battles,  Sterenberg,  Verechtchaghine,  Repine,  &c. ;  and 
the  sculptors  Antakolski,  Kamenski,  and  Pime'nef,  have  acquired 
a  European  reputation.  In  1862  M.  Mikiechine  unveiled  the 
monument  of  Novgorod,  and  in  1874  the  statue  of  Catherine  II., 
at  St.  Petersburg,  surrounded  by  the  great  men  of  her  time.  At 
Moscow  the  magnificent  Church  of  the  Saviour,  projected  by 
Alexander  I.,  is  being  finished  after  the  plan  of  M.  Tonn. 

The  tradition  of  the  great  scientific  voyages  has  been  con- 
tinued by  Baer,  Middendorff,  Maximovitch,  Liitke,  Helmersen, 
Schrenk,  and  Schmidt.  Ethnography  and  philology  can  count 
some  illustrious  names  :  Castren,  Sjcegren,  Schiemer,  Beth- 
linjk,  Dorn,  Kunik,  Lerch,  Wiedmann,  Radlow,  Kanikof, 
Brosset,  Storch,  and  Kceppen.  In  natural  science  we  must  men- 
tion Brandt,  Gappert,  Borchtchof,  Ovsiannikof,  Kokcharof,  &c.; 
in  physics,  Jacobi,  Kuppfer,  Kaemtz,  and  Lenz  ;  in  chemistry, 
Engelhardt,  Fritzsche,  and  Chichkof ;  in  astronomy,  Savitch  and 
Strube  ;  in  mathematics,  Ostrogradski,  Bouniakovski,  Somof, 
Tchebychef,  Forsch,  and  Maievski.  The  Geographical  Society 
has  rendered  immense  services  ;  MM.  Sossnovski,  Kostenko, 
Fedchenzo,  and  PrjeValski  have  explored  Central  Asia. 

At  last  Russia  has  been  able  to  invite  learned  Europe  to  her 
international  gatherings — to  the  Ethnographical  Congress  of 
Moscow  in  1867,  the  Statistical  Congress  of  St.  Petersburg  in 
1872,  the  archaeological  meetings  of  St.  Petersburg,  Moscow, 
Kief,  and  Kazan  (1869-1877),  and  the  Congress  of  Orientalists 
of  St.  Petersburg  in  1876. 

The  novel  situation  in  which  Europe  has  been  placed  by  the 
development  of  the  Prussian  military  power  has  obliged  the 
empire  of  the  Tzars  to  reform  its  military  system  also.  This 
has  been  provided  for  by  the  law  of  1873,  which  orders  that  all 
Russian  subjects,  without  distinction  of  condition  or  nationality, 
shall  be  forced  to  submit  to  the  conscription.  Now  it  is  im- 
possible to  call  out  every  year  676,000  men,  reckoning  from  the 
class  of  1874;  hardly  a  third  of  tnis  number  march  under  the 


2  78  HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA. 

standards.  The  educated  conscript  can,  if  the  lot  falls  on  him, 
obtain  in  four  ways  a  reduction  of  his  six  years'  term  of  service. 
If  he  has  received  the  superior  education,  he  only  serves  six 
months  ;  if  he  has  received  the  secondary  course  of  instruction 
at  the  gymnasia,  eighteen  months ;  if  he  has  passed  through  the 
primary  superior  schools,  three  years ;  if  through  the  primary 
school,  four  years.  This  law  has,  therefore,  the  character  of  a 
law  of  social  equality,  and  offers,  besides,  a  premium  on  educa- 
tion. The  time  can  be  abridged  still  further  by  voluntarily 
forestalling  the  conscription.  The  Russian  army  is  divided  into 
the  regular  army,  the  reserve  troops,  and  the  irregular  corps. 
It  comprises  1,200,000  men,  a  number  which  Peter  the  Great 
had  never  dreamed  of.  In  1867  Russia  adhered  to  the  Conven- 
tion of  Geneva  for  the  relief  of  the  wounded. 


CONQUEST  IN  ASIA — EUROPEAN  POLICY. 

The  power  of  Russia  continues  to  extend  in  Asia.  The 
Crimean  war  had  lent  new  strength  to  the  Circassian  insurrection ; 
but  the  seizure  of  Vedeni,  the  fortified  residence  of  Schamyl, 
in  1858,  was  a  mortal  blow  to  his  rule.  In  1859,  he  was  be- 
seiged  in  his  castle  of  Gounib,  and  was  forced  to  surrender  to. 
Prince  Bariatinski,  the  pacifier  of  the  Caucasus.  The  emigra- 
tion of  the  mountaineers,  encouraged  by  England  from  hostile 
feelings  to  Russia,  rendered  the  latter  on  the  contrary  the  service 
of  relieving  the  country  of  the  most  turbulent  elements,  and  of 
making  room  for  colonization.  The  conquest  was  secured  by 
numerous  fortresses  and  strategic  routes,  like  that  from  Vladi- 
kavkaze  to  Tiflis.  The  Russian  element,  especially  in  the  north 
of  the  Caucasus  and  in  the  towns,  has  struck  deeper  roots. 

Turkestan  is  a  sandy  region  traversed  by  the  Syr  Daria  and 
the  Amou-Daria  (the  Jaxartes  and  Oxus  of  the  ancients)  on  their 
way  to  empty  themselves  into  the  Sea  of  Aral.  These  two  rivers 
take  their  rise  in  the  chain  of  the  Bolor  Mountains,  on  the  other 
slope  of  which  flow  the  Kashgar  and  the  Jarkent,  tributaries  of 
the  Tarim,  which  runs  in  its  turn  into  Lake  Lob. 

To  the  north  of  the  Jaxartes  are  the  encampments  of  tha 
Kirghiz ;  on  the  banks  of  the  Caspian  wander  tribes  of  Turko- 
mans. On  the  Upper  Jaxartes  the  khanate  of  Khokand  is  sit- 
uated, with  its  capital  Khokand,  and  the  principal  towns  of 
Turkestan,  containing  the  tomb  of  Achmet-Yasavi,  the  Mussul- 
man Apostle  of  Turkestan,  Tashkent,  Tchemkent,  Khodjend, 
Alexandria  Hfskata,  or  the  last  Alexandria  founded  by  Alexander 
the  Great ;  on  the  Upper  Oxus,  the  khanate  of  Balkh,  capital 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


279 


Balkh  (the  ancient  Bactria,  the  cradle  of  our  race),  the  khanate 
of  Samarcand  (residence  of  the  famous  Tamerlane),  and  the 
khanate  of  Bokhara ;  on  the  Lower  Oxus,  the  khanate  of  Khiva, 
situated  in  a  fertile  oasis,  in  the  midst  of  sandy  deserts  ;  on  the 
Kashgar,  the  khanate  of  Kashgar,  including  also  Yarkand  (40,000 
souls),  a  powerful  State  founded  in  1864  by  the  bold  and  able 
Yakoub  Khan.  All  these  States  lie  on  the  commercial  route  to 
India  and  China;  and  the  English  have  always  looked  uneasily 
on  the  progress  of  the  Russians  in  these  regions. 

The  Russian  rule  in  Turkestan  was  founded  by  the  submis- 
sion of  the  Kirghiz  under  Nicholas  I.,  and  the  fall  of  their  Khan 
Khazimof  in  1844.  To  protect  these  new  subjects,  it  has  been 
necessary  since  1853  to  enter  upon  a  war  with  the  khanate  of 
Khokand,  a  war  signalized  by  the  capture  of  Ak-Masjid  by  Colonel 
Perovski,  who  gave  it  his  name.  In  1860  Colonel  Kolpakovski, 
with  800  men,  defeated  a  Khokandian  army  of  15,000  men  in 
the  defile  of  Urzun-Agatch ;  in  1864,  Colonel  Verevkine  left 
Orenburg  and  seized  Turkestan,  whilst  Colonel  Tchernaief  left 
Siberia  and  subdued  Aulie-Ata.  The  two  columns  took  Tchem- 
kent  by  assault,  and  the  year  following  Tashkent,  a  town  with  a 
population  of  100,000  souls,  surrendered  to  2000  Russians. 

The  Bokharians  on  their  side  intervened  in  the  civil  wars  of 
Khokand,  and  ended  by  entering  into  conflict  with  the  Russians. 
Their  Emir,  whose  prestige  throughout  Central  Asia  was  great, 
was  vanquished  in  spite  of  the  frantic  attempts  of  the  Mollahs 
to  raise  a  holy  war,  in  two  battles — that  of  Irdjar  in  1866,  which 
brought  about  the  conquest  of  Samarcand,  and  that  of  Zera-Buleh 
in  1868,  which  led  to  the  treaty  of  the  5th  of  July.  By  this  treaty, 
the  Emir  of  Bokhara  ceded  to  the  Russians  the  khanate  of 
Samarcand,  and  paid  an  indemnity  of  two  millions.  Bokhara 
itself  would  have  been  annexed,  if  the  Russian  generals  had  not 
feared  to  weaken  their  conquests  by  extending  them.  Khokand, 
on  whose  throne  the  Russians  established  their/w^/Khudayar, 
became  a  vassal  State. 

In  the  interval  (1867)  Alexander  II.  had  created  the  govern- 
ment of  Turkestan,  at  whose  head  he  placed  a  governor-general, 
a  sort  of  vice-emperor,  whose  pomp  and  magnificence  are  likely 
to  give  to  the  natives  a  high  idea  of  his  sovereign  the  White 
Tzar. 

The  Khan  of  Khiva,  in  the  midst  of  the  deserts  which  girdled 
his  States,  braved  the  power  of  the  Russians,  who  had  been  re« 
pulsed  by  the  climate  in  1839.  He  reduced  their  merchants  to 
slavery,  and  in  1870  and  in  1871  sent  help  to  the  Kirghiz.  In 
1872  Colonel  Markozof  quitted  the  Caucasus  to  chastise  the 
Khan,  but  thirst  and  privations  decimated  his  little  troop,  a»d 


7g0  HISTORY  OF  KUSSJA. 

obliged  them  to  retreat.  In  1873,  three  columns  advanced  on 
Khiva,  from  three  different  sides :  Markozof  from  the  shores  of 
the  Caspian,  General  Verevkine  from  Orenburg,  and  Kaufmann, 
general-in-chief,  from  Tashkent.  The  first  was  obliged  to  re- 
treat ;  the  third  suffered  greatly,  but  ended  by  entering  Khiva, 
which  Verevkine,  however,  had  already  reached.  The  vanquished 
Khan  acknowledged  himself  vassal  of  the  White  Tzar ;  the 
portion  of  his  States  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Oxus  was  annexed  ; 
the  navigation  of  the  river  was  reserved  exclusively  to  the 
Russians  ;  extensive  commercial  privileges  were  secured  to  their 
merchants  ;  their  quarrels  with  the  natives  were  to  be  judged  by 
the  nearest  Russian  authority ;  a  council  of  government,  com- 
posed of  Khivian  dignitaries  and  Russian  officers,  was  to  assist 
the  Khan.  A  contribution  of  2,200,000  roubles  exhausted  his 
remaining  resources  :  it  was  a  disguised  annexation.  Only  the 
fear  of  a  conflict  with  England,  a  consequence  which  was  averted 
by  the  mission  of  Count  Schouvalof  to  London,  prevented  the 
reduction  of  Khiva  to  the  condition  of  a  Russian  province. 

The  Russian  policy,  like  that  of  the  English  in  Hindostan, 
avoided  public  annexations,  and  allowed  the  situations  created 
by  its  victories  to  ripen.  Khudayar,  Khan  of  Khokand,  had 
been  forced  in  1873  and  1874  to  fight  his  revolted  subjects,  who 
were  exasperated  by  his  submission  to  the  "  infidels."  In  1875 
another  and  more  general  revolt  took  place  ;  and  abandoned 
even  by  his  two  sons,  who  joined  the  insurgents,  he  quitted  his 
capital  with  his  harem  and  his  treasures,  and  established  him- 
self at  Orenburg.  Khokand  was  annexed.  It  is  a  State  sixty 
leagues  long  by  thirty  broad,  and  wonderfully  fertile.  The 
difficulties  of  the  Khan  of  Khiva  with  his  subjects,  who  despised 
him  for  his  submissiveness,  were  not  less.  Deprived  of  part  of 
the  tribute  that  he  collected  from  the  Turkomans  (declared 
Russian  subjects  in  1875),  he  entreated  the  following  year  to  be 
allowed  to  exchange  his  domains  for  a  pension ;  the  reply  was 
not  given  immediately,  but  it  is  only  a  question  of  time. 

The  Kirghiz  and  the  Turkomans  being  subdued,  Khokand 
and  Samarcand  annexed,  Khiva  and  Bokhara  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  vassals,  only  one  prince  of  these  nations  made  head 
against  the  Russians,  and  this  was  Yakoub  Khan  of  Kashgar, 
the  protege  of  the  English,  who  had  persuaded  the  Sultan  of 
Constantinople  to  grant  him  the  title  of  Emir.  With  his  army 
of  40,000  men,  disciplined  by  Polish  or  Anglo-Indian  officers, 
with  his  arsenals  and  his  foundries,  he  prepared  to  defend  the 
passes  of  the  mountains.  In  1870  the  Russians  had  anticipated 
him  by  occupying  the  Chinese  province  of  Khuldja,  whence  the 
rebellious  Mussulmans  had  expelled  the  troops  of  the  Celestial 
Empire,  and  which  Yakoub  coveted.  Russia  offered  to  hand  it 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R  USS1A.  28 1 

over  to  China,  which  did  not  care  about  it,  and  meanwhile  it  was 
administered  by  the  Russians.  Their  policy  created  last  year 
(1876)  an  unexpected  difficulty  for  Yakoub ;  an  invasion  of 
Kashgar  by  the  Chinese  troops  is  imminent  (1877,)  if  it  is  not 
already  accomplished.  Yakoub  Khan  died  this  year  (1877), 
leaving  to  his  successor  a  situation  which  is  gravely  comprom- 
ised. 

In  these  countries,  for  centuries  devastated  and  dishonored 
by  Mussulman  fanaticism,  by  wars  between  the  khans,  and  by 
traffic  in  slaves,  the  Russians  appear  as  the  soldiers  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  bring  with  them  a  more  humane  and  equitable  rule.* 
Following  on  the  banks  of  the  Ovus  and  Jaxartes  the  traces  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  they  complete  the  revenge  of  the  Iranian 
race  against  the  Touranian  peoples  who  invaded,  with  Genghis 
Khan,  semi-Greek  Bactria,  and  ruined  the  ancient  Macedonian 
colonies.  They  do  not  conquer ;  they  only  colonize.  "  All 
these  enterprises,"  says  M.  Cucheval-Clarigny,  "  will  profit 
civilization  at  the  same  time  that  they  consolidate  the  Russian 
power ;  but  the  chief  strength  of  the  latter  lies  in  the  qualities 
which  make  the  Russian  soldier  the  most  admirable  instrument 
of  conquest  and  colonization.  Docile  as  well  as  brave,  easily 
contented,  supporting  without  complaint  all  fatigues  and  priva- 
tions, and  ready  for  everything,  the  Russian  soldier  constructs 
roads,  clears  canals,  and  re-establishes  the  ancient  aqueducts. 
He  makes  the  bricks  with  which  he  builds  the  forts,  and  the 
barracks  which  he  inhabits ;  he  fabricates  his  own  cartridges 
and  projectiles  ;  he  is  a  mason,  a  metal-founder,  or  carpenter, 
according  to  the  need  of  the  hour,  and  the  day  after  he  is  dis- 
missed he  contentedly  follows  the  plough.  With  such  instru- 
ments at  her  disposal,  the  Russian  power  will  never  give  way  : 
a  few  years  will  suffice  to  render  final  the  conquest  of  any  land 
on  which  she  has  set  her  foot. 

At  the  other  extremity  of  Asia,  General  Mouravief  signed  in 
1858  with  the  Court  of  Pekin  the  Treaty  of  A'igoun,  which  se- 
cured to  Russia  all  the  right  bank  of  the  river  Amour,  a  territory 
of  1278  square  miles,  which  now  forms  the  province  of  the 
Amour  and  the  maritime  province.  Japan  had  already  ceded 
the  southern  part  of  the  island  of  Saghalian.  The  steamboats 
of  the  Amour  Company  already  plough  the  waters  of  the  river, 
and  place  Russia  in  direct  communication  with  San  Francisco 
and  the  Pacific  Isles. 

By  the  treaty  of  1867  Russia  sold  to  the  United  States  her 
American  possessions,  thus  drawing  closer  the  bonds  which 
unite  her  to  the  great  republic. 

*  The  kindly  character  of  Russian  colonization  "  in  the  Circassian  man- 
ner" has  been  described  by  Mr.  bchuyler. — TRANSLATOR. 


2g2  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  European  policy  of  Russia  during  this  period  offers  re- 
*ults  which  are  more  debatable  than  her  Asiatic  policy.  In  1856 
Prince  Alexander  Gortchakof  succeeded  old  Count  Nesselrode 
as  Chancellor  of  the  Empire.  In  one  of  his  earliest  circulars 
he  thus  characterized  the  attitude  imposed  on  Russia  by  the 
consequences  of  the  Eastern  war :  "  Russia  does  not  sulk,  she 
collects  her  forces."  At  the  Conferences  of  Paris  there  had 
been  a  visible  rapprochement  between  this  country  and  France, 
which  had  already  grown  cold  to  her  old  ally,  Austria.  Russia 
allowed  Italy  to  emancipate  herself,  while  drawing  her  own  con- 
clusions about  the  emancipation  of  the  Christians  in  the  East. 
After  having  protested  against  the  dispossession  of  the  Italian 
princes,  she  ended  by  recognizing  the  new  kingdom.  She  ap- 
plauded the  French  occupation  of  Syria,  which  she  would  have 
even  wished  to  be  more  important  and  more  prolonged.  France 
in  her  turn  favored  the  demands  of  the  Roumanians,  Servians, 
and  Montenegrins  against  Turkey,  and  received  graciously  the 
observations  of  Prince  Gortchakof  on  the  "  wretched  and  pre- 
carious situation  "  of  the  Christians  of  Bosnia,  the  Herzegovina 
and  Bulgaria. 

The  diplomatic  demonstrations  of  France  in  1863,  a-propos 
of  Polish  affairs,  destroyed  the  growing  intimacy  of  the  two 
States,  and  threw  Russia  into  the  Prussian  alliance.  To  main- 
tain this  the  Russian  Chancellor  made  irreparable  sacrifices  to 
Bismark.  In  1864  Russia  allowed  Denmark  to  be  crushed, 
when  she  lost  the  duchies  of  the  Elbe.  In  1866  she  permitted 
Prussia  not  only  to  expel  Austria  from  the  Germanic  Confeder- 
ation, but  to  dethrone  the  reigning  houses  of  Hanover,  Nassau, 
and  Cassel,  more  or  less  related  to  the  imperial  house  of  Russia. 
Those  of  Darmstadt,  Baden,  and  Wurtemberg,  which  had  given 
empresses  to  Russia,  were  subordinated,  so  as  to  constitute 
Germany,  formerly  inoffensive,  into  a  formidable  military 
Power,  which  holds  on  the  Baltic,  the  Vistula,  and  the  Danube 
interests  diametrically  opposed  to  those  of  Russia. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Bestoujef-Rioumine,  the  Chan- 
cellor of  Elizabeth,  rinding  the  Prussia  of  Frederick  II.  too 
powerful,  and  the  annexation  of  Silesia  disquieting  for  Russia, 
fought  the  Seven  Years'  War  to  "diminish  the  forces"  of  the 
ambitious  neighbor.  Did  not  Alexander  I.  dare  all  the  power 
of  Napoleon  for  the  sake  of  Oldenburg  and  the  Hanseatic  towns  ? 
Already  in  1867,  in  the  new  Germany,  an  agitation  was  begun 
about  the  so-called  German  provinces  of  Russia.  The  demands 
of  the  Baltic  writers  found  an  echo  in  the  public  meetings  and 
in  the  Berlin  press,  and  M.  Kattner  dedicated  to  the  German 
army  his  book  on  the  '  Mission  of  Prussia  in  the  East.'  Russia 
had  hoped  for  the  support  of  new  Germany  in  its  Eastern 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  383 

policy,  "but,"  wrote  M.  Benedetti,  "  any  conflict  in  the  East 
would  put  the  German  Chancellor  in  the  power  of  Russia,  and 
he  will  try  to  prevent  it.  This  was  proved  in  the  Graeco-Turkish 
difference  last  year.  Russia  is  a  card  in  his  game  for  events 
that  may  take  place  on  the  Rhine,  and  he  holds  it  to  be  neces- 
sary not  to  invert  the  roles,  not  to  become  himself  a  card  in  the 
game  of  St.  Petersburg." 

In  June  1870  the  sovereigns  of  Prussia  and  Russia  had  ai? 
interview  at  Ems  ;  on  the  gth  of  July  Prince  Gortchakof  said  to 
the  English  ambassador  "  that  Russia  did  not  feel  at  all  alarmed 
at  the  power  of  Prussia."  This  confidence  was  to  be  put  to  a 
new  proof.  In  July  1870  the  Franco-German  war  broke  out, 
which  was  to  end  by  overthrowing  the  European  equilibrium,  for 
the  benefit  of  Prussia.  The  menacing  attitude  of  Russia  forced 
Austria  to  maintain  her  neutrality,  and  this  neutrality  carried 
with  it  that  of  Italy.  Russian  diplomacy  weighed  in  the  same 
manner  upon  Denmark,  whose  royal  house  had  given  in  1866  a 
princess  in  marriage  to  the  Tzarevitch.  France  found  herself 
isolated  in  Europe.  Russia  not  only  prevented  the  formation 
of  "  the  league  of  neutrals,"  but  by  diplomatic  means  discour- 
aged the  collective  intervention  of  Europe.  On  the  3rd  of 
September  the  Emperor,  on  hearing  of  his  uncle's  victory  at 
Sedan,  drank  his  health,  and  broke  the  glass  to  give  his  toast 
more  solemnity.  No  doubt  he  counselled  his  uncle  to  be 
moderate,  "but,"  says  M.  Sorel,  "this  intimate  and  sympathetic 
exchange  of  private  letters  did  not  for  one  moment  alter  the 
friendship  of  the  two  sovereigns.  The  King  of  Prussia  received 
the  observations  of  his  nephew  without  impatience  ;  and  the 
Tzar,  although  his  observations  never  had  any  effect,  was  never 
affronted  by  the  refusals  of  his  uncle." 

The  nation  did  not  contemplate  the  fall  of  France  and  the 
overthrow  of  Europe  with  the  same  eyes  as  the  Government. 
"  The  public  sentiment  towards  France,"  writes  the  representa- 
tive of  the  United  States,  "  is  perhaps  still  more  friendly  since 
the  recent  successes  of  Prussia.  The  officers  of  the  army  are, 
it  is  said,  almost  unanimous  in  the  desire  for  a  war  against 
Prussia.  I  know  many  occasions  on  which  toasts  have  been 
drunk  to  the  ruin  of  the  Germans  and  of  fritz.  The  journals 
daily  publish  articles  showing  the  danger  which  will  result  to 
Europe  from  the  growth  and  consolidation  of  a  military  Power 
like  that  of  Northern  Germany.  The  last  victories  of  Prussia 
have  called  attention  to  the  vulnerable  points  of  Russia,  in  case 
of  a  complete  victory  of  Prussia  ;  these  are  two — Poland,  and 
the  Baltic  provinces."  Subscriptions  were  everywhere  made  foi 
the  benefit  of  the  wounded  French,  and  the  news  of  the  smallest 
successes  of  France  excited  public  joy. 


284  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  mission  of  M.  Thiers  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  September 
1870,  had  no  results;  and  this  check  caused  his  efforts  in 
Austria,  Italy,  and  England  to  remain  fruitless.  He  had  only 
received  soft  words  in  Russia,  amongst  others  the  remark  that 
"  the  former  enemy  of  France  would  do  more  for  her  than  her 
former  ally,  England."  In  reality,  the  Russian  policy,  while 
serving  Prussia,  intended  to  cajole  France,  so  as  to  attain  with 
more  certainty  the  end  of  its  efforts,  the  revision  of  the  Treaty 
of  1856.  On  the  29th  of  October  Prince  Gortchakof,  in  a 
circular  addressed  to  the  Powers  signing  the  treaty,  declared  that 
events  had  "  placed  the  imperial  cabinet  under  the  necessity  of 
examining  the  consequences  which  might  follow  for  the  political 
position  of  Russia."  He  demanded  the  revision  of  article  2, 
which  imposed  a  limitation  on  her  maritime  forces  in  the  Black 
Sea.  A  conference  was  held  in  London,  and  Russia  insisted 
that  the  French  Government  should  be  represented  there.  This 
was  an  indirect  opportunity  offered  to  the  new  republic  to  sub- 
mit her  quarrel  with  Prussia  to  the  examination  of  the  Powers. 
On  the  i3th  of  March,  1871,  the  French  ambassadors  in  London 
set  the  signature  of  France  to  the  revision  of  the  Treaty  of  1856, 
but  in  the  interval  his  country  had  been  forced  to  submit  to  the 
harsh  terms  of  the  Peace  of  Frankfort.  The  restoration  of  the 
German  empire  had  been  recognized  by  Russia  on  the  24th  of 
January,  1871,  and  the  Tzar  had  granted  to  the  generals  of  the 
victorious  army  the  highest  marks  of  distinction.  The  princes 
Frederick  William  and  Frederick  Charles  already  bore  the  title 
of  Russian  field-marshals. 

After  the  fall  of  France,  the  Emperors  of  Russia  and  Ger- 
many, dragging  with  them  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  undertook  to 
constitute  what  is  called  the  alliance  of  the  three  emperors,  for 
the  regulation  of  the  affairs  of  the  East  and  West.  The  Con- 
gress of  Berlin  in  1872,  the  journey  of  the  Emperor  William  to 
St.  Petersburg  in  1873,  and  frequent  interviews  between  the 
heads  of  the  otate,  made  the  good  understanding  between  them 
obvious  to  the  eyes  of  Europe. 

The  Russians  were  well  aware  of  all  that  Prussia  had  gained 
by  this  alliance  of  ten  years  with  Russia.  The  profits  secured 
to  the  latter  were  less  visible.  Prussia  had  acquired  provinces 
and  kingdoms,  fortified  harbors,  a  formidable  army,  and  was 
mistress  of  the  situation  ;  Russia  had  obtained  the  erasure  of 
the  article  which  limited  her  forces  on  the  Black  Sea. 

The  new  war  in  the  East  is  not  yet  a  matter  of  history.  We 
have  yet  to  wait  for  the  ucnofimetit.*  A  few  years  will  allow 

•1877. 


HISTOR  Y  OF  R USSIA.  285 

many  great  events  to  be  related  with  certainty:  the  rising  in  the 
Herzegovina,  the  massacres  of  Bulgaria,  the  taking  up  arms  and 
defeat  of  Servia,  the  rapid  dethronement  of  two  Sultans,  the 
first  attempt  at  an  Ottoman  constitution,  the  weakness  of  Euro- 
pean diplomacy  in  the  Conference  of  Constantinople,  the  en- 
trance of  the  Russians  into  the  ancient  Principalities  and  their 
alliance  with  Roumania  and  Montenegro,  the  passage  of  the 
Danube  by  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  the  brilliant  surprise  of 
the  defiles  of  the  Balkan  by  General  Gourko,  the  bloody  battles 
round  Plevna,  the  vicissitudes  of  the  war  in  Asia,  and,  lastly,  the 
victory  of  Shipka,  the  occupation  of  Adrianople,  and  the  march 
of  the  Russians,  with  Skobe'lef  at  their  head,  on  Gallipoli  and 
Constantinople. 

Russia,  sketched  out  by  Rurik,  dispersed  after  laroslaf  the 
Great,  re-united  by  the  dynasty  of  the  Ivans,  Europeanized  by 
Peter  the  Great  and  Catherine  II.,  delivered  from  serfage  by 
Alexander  II.,  now  enters  into  a  new  phase  of  her  history.  The 
wars  of  to-day  have  their  consequences,  not  only  upon  the  ex- 
ternal relations  of  peoples,  but  also  upon  their  internal  develop- 
ment. The  foreign  policy  of  Russia,  in  spite  of  all  changes, 
has  never  allowed  itself  to  be  turned  from  the  three  aims  which 
she  has  followed  since  Ivan  the  Great — the  conclusion  of  the 
duel  with  the  Polo-Lithuanian  State  for  the  hegemony  of  the 
Slav  world  ;  the  struggle  with  her  Western  neighbors  to  secure 
the  freedom  of  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea ;  and  the  revenge 
for  the  Tatar  yoke,  whether  taken  on  the  Turanians  of  Central 
Asia  or  those  of  Constantinople.  In  the  interior  a  new  path  has 
been  opened  to  her  by  the  civilizing  reforms  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  by  the  emancipating  reforms  of  the  present  reign. 
After  having  conquered  her  place  among  the  European  States, 
she  has  to  secure  her  rank  among  free  nations.  Here  is  a  tra- 
dition which  deserves  following.  May  Russia  in  her  liberal 
schemes  display  even  more  logic,  resolution,  and  prudence  than 
in  her  diplomacy !  We  have  related  the  history  of  the  Russian 
State  ;  the  history  of  the  Russian  people  is  now  beginning. 
With  the  Russian  State  France  has  been  often  at  strife ;  hei 
sympathies  with  Russia  are  growing  since  she  has  fbund  in  he* 
a  nation. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


OBSERVATIONS. 


In  spelling  the  Russian  names  I  have  adhered  to  the  rational 
orthography,  of  which  the  first  example  was  given  by  Schnitzler. 
Thus  the  Russian  k  (the  Greek  kappa)  has  been  rendered  by  X-, 
the  letter  x  (aspirated  k,  the  Greek  kht)  by  kh,  and  the  letter  la 
by  ch.  The  bi  or  dumb  /  has  been  rendered  by  the  French  7, 
and  the  other  Russian  /  by  I.  The  letters  tch  and  chtch  have 
been  kept  to  express  the  tcforpe  and  the  chtcha.  The  Russian 
vowel  y,  pronounced  on,  is  translated  by  the  French  diphthong 
ou,  not  by  the  German  it. 

I  have  sought  to  relieve  the  Russian  names  of  their  redun- 
dant s  (the  Germans  employ  seven  letters,  sc  h  t s  c h,  to  express 
the  single  Russian  chtcha),  and  of  the  fj  and  the  double  w, 
which  give  them  such  a  repulsive  appearance.  Only  in  a  few 
names,  sanctioned  by  usage,  I  have  conformed  to  the  usual  or- 
thography; instead  of  Chouvalof  and  Chakovskoi,  diplomacy 
and  literature  have  familiarized  Schouvalof  and  Schakovsko'i. 

In  the  same  way  I  write  Moscow  and  Moskou<a,  instead  of 
Moskva,  which  designates  both  the  river  and  the  town. 

I  have  tried  to  reproduce  the  orthography  of  the  Russian 
names,  though  not  their  pronunciation,  which  is  still  more  fan- 
tastic than  in  English.  We  print  Orel,  Potemkine,  but  they  must 
be  pronounced  Ariol,  Patiomkine. 

The  terminations  in  vitch  and  ima  indicate  filiation  :  Peter 
Alexitvitch,  Peter  son  of  Alexis  ;  Elizabeth  Pe'trovna,  Elizabeth 
daughter  of  Peter. 

The  Russian  calendar  has  not  adopted  the  Gregorian  reform  ; 
it  is,  therefore,  behind  it,  and  for  every  date  it  is  necessary  to 
indicate  whether  it  is  after  the  old  or  new  style.  For  important 
dates,  both  styles  are  generally  given.  In  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  Russian  style  is  eleven  days  behind  ours  :  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  it  is  twelve  days.  Thus  the  date  of  the  death  of 
Catherine  II.  has  been  given  as  6th-i7th  of  November,  a  differ- 
ence of  eleven  days,  since  the  event  happened  in  the  eighteenth 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  287 

century.     But  we  say  the  revolution  of  the  i4th-26th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1825,  as  we  are  speaking  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
*  *    '  *  * 

The  Translator  has  retained  the  orthography  of  M.  Rambaud 
where  it  appeared  to  her  to  convey  to  English  ears  the  correct 
pronunciation.  A  list  of  variations  in  the  spelling  of  ethno- 
graphic names  will  be  found  in  the  Preface. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES, 


AMONG  the  Russian  books  not  translated  into  French  which 
I  have  consulted  for  this  history,  I  will  cite  the  most  important. 

General  Histories. — '  History  of  Russia  from  the  most  ancient  Times,'  by 
M.  Serge  Solovief  (26  vols.  have  already  appeared,  up  to  Catherine  II.), 
Moscow,  1851-1878.  '  Russian  History,"  by  M.  Bestoujef-Rioumine  (only  I 
vol.,  up  to  Ivan  III.),  St.  Petersburg,  1872.  '  History  of  the  Russian  Na- 
tion,' by  Pole'vol.  '  Russian  History  contained  in  the  Biographies  of  the 
principal  Actors,'  by  M.  Kostomarof,  4  vols.,  St.  Petersburg,  1873-1877  ;  by 
the  same,  'Historical  Monographs  and  Researches,'  n  vols.,  St.  Petersburg, 
1868.  The  little  school  histories  of  M.  Solovief  and  M.  Ilovaiski  I  have 
found  most  useful. 

First  Period. — '  Chronicle'  (of  Nestor  and  his  continuators),  edited  by 
Miklosich,  Vienna,  ( 1860,  in  the '  Monumenta  historica  Poloniae  '  of  Bialovski, 
Lemberg,  1869,  and  by  the  Archaeological  Commission,  St.  Petersburg,  1872, 
after  the  Laurentian  MSS.  M.  Samokvassof,  'Ancient  Towns  and  Gorodi- 
chtche  of  Russia,'  Moscow,  1874.  Dorn,  '  The  Caspian,'  St  Petersburg, 

1875.  M.  Gedeonof,   'Varangians  and  Russians,' 2  vols.,  St.  Petersburg, 

1876.  M.  Ilovaiski, '  Researches  on  the  Origin  of  Russia,'  and  the  '  History 
of  Russia,'  Kievian  period,  Moscow,  1872  ;  both  contrary  to  the  Varangian- 
Norman  theory.     Pogodine,  '  Ancient  Russian  History  to  the  time  of  the 
Mongol   Yoke,'  Moscow,  1871,  2  vols.,  with  a  valuable  atlas  of  prints,  an- 
cient maps,  and  miniatures.      M.  Bitfaef,   'Accounts  of  Russian  History 
(Novgorod),'  Moscow,  1866.     M.  Zabieline,  '  History  of  Russian  Life  from 
the  earliest  Times,'  Moscow,  1876. 

Period  oj  Ivan  the  Terrible. — '  Narrative  of  Prince  Kourbski,'  published 
by  Oustrie'lof,  3rd  edition,  St.  Petersburg,  1868.  '  Life  and  Historic  Role  of 
Prince  Kourbski,'  by  Serge  Gorski,  Kazan,  1858.  '  Russia  and  England  ' 
(1553-1593),  by  M.  louri  Tolstoi,  St.  Petersburg,  1875.  '  Private  Life  of  the 
Tzarinas,'  and  '  Private  Life  of  the  Russian  Tzars,'  by  M.  Zabi&ine.  Mos- 
cow, 1869  and  1872.  The  *  Domostroi '  edited  by  M.  lakovlef,  St.  Peters- 
burg, 1867.  '  Essays  and  Historico-Literary  Researches  on  the  Domostroi,' 
by  M.  Nelcrassof,  Moscow,  1878.  The  'S'toglaf,'  edit.  Kojantchikof,  St. 
Petersburg,  1868.  '  Laws  of  the  Grand  Prince  Ivan  III.,  Vassilitfvitch,  and 
of  the  Tzar  Ivan  IV.,  VassilieVitch,'  edited  by  KalaYdovitch  and  Stroe'f, 
Moscow,  1819.  '  Songs'  collected  by  Kiritfevski,  Ivan  the  Terrible. 

Seventeenth  Century. — Bantych-Kamenski,  '  History  of  Little  Russia,'  M. 
Kostomarof,  'Bogdan,  Khmelnitski.'  M.  Koulich  'History  of  the  Reunion 
of  the  Rouss,'  3  vols.,  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow,  1874,  1877 ;  by  the  same. 
•Memoirs  on  Southern  Russia,'  St.  Petersburg,  1856-57.  M.  Zabieline 
'  Studies  of  Russian  Antiquaries,'  2  vols.,  Moscow,  1872-73.  '  The  Russian 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  289 

Empire  in  the  rr.'ddle  of  the  Seventeenth  Century,'  by  Krijanitch,  edited  by 
M.  Bezsonof,  Moscow,  1860.  M.  Aristof,  '  Troubles  in  Moscow  under  the 
Regency  of  Sophia  Alexievna,'  Warsaw,  1871.  M.  Lechkof,  'The  People 
and  the  Russian  State  ;  History  of  Russian  Public  Law  up  to  the  Eighteenth 
Century,'  Moscow,  1858.  M.  TchUcherine,  '  Provincial  Institutions  of 
Russia  up  to  the  Eighteenth  Century,'  Moscow,  1856.  M.  Zagoskine, 
History  of  Law  in  the  Russian  State,'  Kazan,  1877. 

Peter  the  Great. — Uustrie'lof,  'History  of  the  Reign  of  Peter  the  Great,'  6 
vols.,  St,  Petersburg,  1858-63.  M.  Grote,  '  Peter  the  Great,  Civilizer  of 
Russia,'  St.  Petersburg,  1872.  M.  Solovief,  'Public  Lectures  on  IV:  er 
the  Great,'  Moscow,  1872.  M.  Guerrier,  'The  Last  of  the  Varangians '  in 
'  Old  and  New  Russia.'  Bytchkof,  '  Letters  of  Peter  the  Great,'  St.  Peters- 
burg, 1872.  Pekarski,  '  Science  and  Literature  under  Peter  the  Great.' 

Successors  of  Peter  the  Great. — M.  Andreef,  '  Representatives  of  the  Sov- 
ereign Power  in  Russia  after  Peter  I.,'  St.  Petersburg,  1871.  Pekarski, 
'The  Marquis  de  la  Chetardie  in  Russia  '  (1740-42),  St.  Petersburg,  1862. 
Weidemayer,  '  Review  of  the  Principal  Events,"  &c.,  and  the  '  Reign  of 
Elizabeth  Petrovna,'  1835  and  1849.  Chtchebalski,  '  Political  System  of 
Peter  III.'  Moscow,  1870.  Bolotof,  'Memoirs,'  edited  by  the  Kousskai'a 
Starina,  4  vols.,  St.  Petersburg,  1871-75;  and  '  Recollections  of  Past  Times.' 
Moscow,  1875.  M-  Choubinski,  '  Historical  Sketches  and  Narratives,"  St. 
Petersburg,  1869.  M.  Bestoujef-Rioumine  on  Tatichtchef,  and  M.  Korsakof 
on  Biren,  in  '  Old  and  New  Russia.' 

Catherine  II. — M.  Tratchevski,  '  The  Fiirstenbund  and  the  German  Policy 
"of  Catherine  II.'  St.  Petersburg,  1877.  M.  Solovief,  '  History  of  the  Fall  of 
Poland,'  Moscow,  1863.  M.  Kostomarof,  '  Last  Years  of  the  Polish  Pos- 
polite,'  St.  Petersburg,  1870.  '  Journal  of  Khrapovitski,'  edited  by  M. 
Barsoukof,  St.  Petersburg,  1874.  '  Memoirs  of  G.  R.  Derjavine,'  edited  by 
the  Rousskai'a  Lesieda,  Moscow,  1860.  '  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Services  of 
Alexander  Bibikof,'  edited  by  his  son,  Moscow,  1865.  M.  Melnikof,  '  Prin- 
cess Tarakanof,'  St.  Petersburg,  1868.  Papers  relative  to  the  great  legis- 
lative commission,  published,  with  a  preface,  by  M.  Polie'nof,  in  the  Coll.  of 
the  Imp.  Soc.  of  Russian  History,  3  vols.,  St.  Petersburg,  1869,  and  following. 
Paul  I. — General  Milioutine,'  'History  of  the  Russian  War  with  France 
in  1799,' 5  vols.,  St.  Petersburg,  1852-53.  Polevoi,  '  History  of  Souvorof- 
Rymniski,  Prince  of  Italy,'  Moscow,  1811.  Accounts  of  Souvorof,  by  an 
Old  Soldier,'  published  by  the  Muscovite,  Moscow,  1847.  '  Memoirs  of  L. 
N.  Engelhardt,' published  by  the  Archive  Russe,  Moscow,  1868. 

Alexander  I. — M.  Bogdanovitch,  'History  of  the  War  of  Patriotism,' 3 
vols.,  and  '  History  of  the  Reign  of  Alexander  I.,'  6  vols.,  St.  Petersburg, 
1869-71.  Pypine,  '  Progress  of  Ideas  under  Alexander  I.'  Korff,  'Life  of 
Count  Speranski,'  Kief,  1873.  ^-  Ikonikof,  '  Count  Mordvinof,"  St.  Peters- 
burg, 1873.  Mikhailovski  Danilevski,  'Description  of  the  first  War  with 
Napoleon,'  St.  Petersburg,  1844,  and  all  the  wars  of  Alexander  I.  M.  Alex. 
Popof,  '  Moscow  in  1812;  the  French  at  Moscow,'  Moscow,  1875-76.  'Re- 
lations of  Russia  with  the  European  Governments  before  the  War  of  1812,' 
St.  Petersburg,  1876.  Madame  Tolytche'va,  '  Account  by  Eye-witnesses  of 
the  year  1872, '  Moscow,  1872-73. 

Nicholas  and  Alexander  12.— M.  Bogdanovitch,  '  History  of  the  Eastern 
War,'  5  vols.,  1876-77.  'Collection  of  MSS.  about  the  Defence  of  Sebas- 
topol,'  published  under  the  auspices  of  the  Tzarevitch,  3  vols.,  St.  Peters- 
burg. 1872-73.  Kovalevski.  '  War  with  Turkey  and  Rupture  with  the 
European  Governments  in  1853-54,'  St.  Petersburg,  1871. 

Berg,  '  Essays  on  the    Polish  Insurrections   and   Conspiracies,'  Moscow, 

1873.  M.  Kropotof,  '  Life    of   Count   M.  N.    Mourovief,'  St.    Petersburg, 

1874.  Likhoutine,  '  Memorials   of  th?  Hungarian   Campaign  in  1849,' MOB- 
COW.  1875.    M-  Nil  Popof,  '  Russia  r.ncl  Servia.'  2  vols./Moscow,  1869. 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA. 

M.  Golovatchef,  'Ten  Years  of  Reforms,  1861-1871,'  St.  Petersburg,  1872. 
M.  Mordovtsof,  '  Ten  Years  of  the  Russian  Z^:mstvo,'  St.  Petersburg,  1877. 

To  these  works  we  must  add  the  '  Archives  of  Prince  Voronzof,'  pub- 
lished by  M.  Barte'nief,  12  vols.,  Moscow,  1870-78.  The  Coll  of  the  Imp. 
Soc.  of  Russian  History,  20  vols.,  St.  Petersburg,  1867-78.  Numerous 
articles  in  the  'Russian  Archives'  of  M.  Barte'nief  (Moscow,  1862-77,  22 
vols.)  'The  Eighteenth  Century'  (14  vols.)  and  'The  Nineteenth  Century' 
(2  vols.),  by  the  same.  '  Russian  Antiquity,'  St.  Petersburg,  1870-77,  20 
vols.  '  Ancient  and  Modern  Russia,'  St.  Petersburg,  1875-77,  9  vols.  The 
immense  collection  of  the  '  Tche"nia,'  or  '  Lectures,'  &c.  The  Transactions 
of  archaeological  societies  and  archjeological  meetings. 

Bantych-Kamenski  has  left  a  bibliographical  dictionary  of  Russian  person- 
ages. 

The  archaeology,  ethnography,  geography,  and  separate  history  of  the 
Baltic  provinces,  of  Little  Russia,  and  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Kazan, 
popular  literature,  and  cultivated  literature,  would  require  a  far  more  exten- 
sive bibliography.  Polevoi  has  given  us  a  '  History  of  Russian  Literature  ;' 
likewise  M.  Porphyrief,  2  vols.,  Kazan,  1876. 

For  geography  consult  the  Geographical-Statistical  Dictionary  of  the 
Russian  Empire,  by  M.  Semenof,  St.  Petersburg,  1863-72  ;  the  '  Tentative 
Statistical  Atlas  of  Russia,'  by  Colonel  Iline;  the  small  school  atlas  of 
Russian  history,  by  M.  Dobriakof. 

II. 

It  will,  no  doubt,  be  more  useful  to  indicate  to  the  reader  the 
French  books,  or  books  translated  into  French,  that  help  to 
complete  the  former  list. 

General  History. — The  following  may  always  be  consulted  with  profit : — 
Karamsin,  'Histoire  de  1'Empire  de  Russie  (to  the  1710  century),  trans- 
lated by  Saint  Thomas  and  Jauffret,  n  vols.,  Paris,  1819-26.  Leveque, 
'Histoire  de  Russie  et  des  principales  nations  de  1'Empire  Russe,'  continued. 
br  Malte-Brun  and  Depping,  8  vols.,  Paris,  1812.  Esneaux  and  Chennechot, 
'  Histoire  philosophique  et  politique  de  Russie,'  5  vols.,  Paris,  1830.  Chop- 
pin,  'Russie,'  in  '  L'Univers  Pittoresque,'  2  vols.,  Paris,  1838-46.  M. 
Geffroy,  '  Histoire  des  etats  scandinaves,'  Collection  Duruy,  Paris,  1851. 
LdleVel,  '  Histoire  de  Pologne,'  2  vols.,  Paris,  1844. 

In  German  :  '  Geschichte  des  Russischen  Staates,' by  Strahl  and  M.  Her- 
mann. 7  vols.,  Hamburg  and  Gotha,  1832-66;  and ' Geschichte  Russlands,' 
by  M.  Bernhardi,  4  vols.,  Leipzig. 

General  Studies. — Baron  de  Haxthausen,  '  Etudes  sur  la  situation  int<5- 
rieure,  la  vie  nationale  et  les  institutions  nationales  de  la  Russit-,'  3  vis.. 
Hanover,  1847-53.  Schnitzler,  '  L'Empire  des  Tsars,'  4  vols.  Paris  and 
Strasburg,  1862-^69.  The  excellent  articles  of  M.  Anatole  Leroy  Beaulieu 
in  the  Revue  des  Deux  AfonJes,  since  1873.  Mackenzie  Wallace,  '  Russia, 
translated  into  French  by  M.  Henri  l!ellenger,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1877.  Herbert 
Barry,  'Contemporary  Russia,'  translated  into  French,  Paris.  ^73.  Dixon, 
'Free  Russia.'  translated  into  French,  Paris,  1872.  M.  Leouzon  le  Due, 
'Etudes  sur  la  Russie  et  le  Nord  de  PEurope,  la  Baltique,  la  Russie  con- 
temporaine.'  M.  X.  Marmier,  '  Lettres  sur  la  Russie,  la  Finlande  et  la 
Pologne.'  Madame  Hommaire  de  Hell,  '  Lcs  Steppes  de  la  Mer  Caspienne'. 
M.  Anatole  Demidof,  '  La  Crimee.'  Prince  Galitsyne.  '  La  Finlande.'  M. 
Louis  Leger,  '  Le  Monde  Slave,'  and  'Etudes  slaves,'  Paris,  1873  and  1^75. 
M.  Legrclle,  '  Lc  Volga,'  Paris,  i 

Ancient  Period. — M.  Bergmann,  '  Les  Scythes,  les  ancfitres  des  peuplff 


HISTOR  Y  OF  RUSSIA.  2g  j 

germnniques  et  slaves,'  Halle,  1860.  M.  Georges  Perrot,  '  Le  Commerce 
des  cereales  en  Attique  au  46  siecle  avant  notre  ere'  {Revue  Historiqiif, 
May  1877).  '  La  Chronique  de  Nestor,'  translated  into  French  by  Louis 
Paris,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1834.  M.  L.  Leger,  'De  Nestore  rerum  russicarum 
scriptore,'  Paris,  iS6S;  by  the  same,  '  Cyrille  et  Methode,'  historical  study  of 
the  conversion  of  the  Slavs  to  Christianity,  Paris,  1868.  M.  A.  Rambaud, 
'  L'Empire  Grec  au  ioe  siecle,'  Paris,  1870. 

In  English:  Mr.  Ralston,  '  Early  Russian  History,'  London,  1874. 

From  the  i6th  to  the  i8tA  century, — In  the  Russo-Polish  library  of  Franck: 
Meyerberg,  'Voyage  en  Moscovie.'  Giles  Fletcher,  '  Russia  in  the  Sixteenth 
Century.'  Korb,  'Recit  de  la  Revolte  des  Strelitz;  'Journal  du  boyard 
Che'renie'tief,  une  ambassade  Russe  a  la  cour  de  Louis  XIV.;'  'Memoires' 
of  Manstein,  Princess  Dachkof  and  Tchitchagof. 

Prince  Emmanuel  Galitsyne,  '  La  Russie  au  170  siecle,  recit  du 
voyage  du  prince  Potemkine,'  Paris,  1855.  Augustin  Galitsyne,  '  La  Rusaie 
au  i8e  siecle  ;  memoires  inedits  sur  la  regne  de  Pierre  I.'  Paris,  1865.  Pros- 
per Merime'e.  'Episodes  de  1'Histoire  de  Russie.  'Histoires  des  Guerres 
de  Moscovie  (1601-11),'  by  Isaac  Massa  of  Haarlem,  Brussels,  1876.  Serge 
Galitsyne,  '  La  Regence  de  la  Tzarine  Sophie,'  translated  from  the  Russian 
of  ChtchelDalski,  Carlsruhe,  1857.  '  Memoires  du  prince  Pierre  Dolgoroukof,' 
2  vols,  Geneva,  1867-71. 

Voltaire,  'L'Histoire  de  Charles  XII.,'  and  '  L'Histoire  de  Russie  sous 
Pierre  le  Grand.'  Johann  Gotthilf  Vockerodt  and  Otto  Pleyer, 'Russland 
unter  Peter  dem  Grossen,'  published  by  M.  Hermann,  Leipzig,  1872.  M. 
Mintzlof,  '  Pierre  le  Grand  dans  la  litterature  etrangere, '  St.  Petersburg, 
1872.  Posselt  '  Der  General  und  Admiral  Franz  Lefort,'  2  vols.,  Frankfort, 
1866.  Bachoutski,  'Panorama  de  Saint-Petersbourg,'  translated  from  the 
Russian,  St.  Petersburg,  1831-34.  M.  Saint-Rene  Taillandier,  'Maurice  de 
Saxe,'  Paris,  1870.  M.  Boutaric,  '  Correspondance  secrete  de  Louis  XV.' 
2  vols.,  Paris,  1866.  '  Memoires  of  Lady  Rondeau,  the  Chevalier  d'Eon, 
&c.  Rathery,  '  Le  Comte  de  Plelo,'  Paris,  1876.  Salvandy,  '  Histoire  de 
Jean  Sobieski  et  du  royaume  de  Pologne,'  2  vols.,  Paris,  1855. 

Catherine  II,  and  'Paul  I. — Rulhiere,  '  Histoire  et  anecdotes  sur  la  rev- 
olution de  Russie  en  1762,' Paris,  1797.  Tooke,  '  History  of  the  Empire  of 
Russia  under  the  Reign  of  Catherine  II.,'  translated  from  the  English,  6  vols., 
Paris,  1801.  Jauffret,  'Catherine  II.  et  son  regne,'  2  vols.,  Paris.  1860. 
Augustin  Galitsyne,  'Le  faux  Pierre  III.'  translated  from  Pouchkine,  Paris, 
1858.  '  Me'moires,'  by  the  Comte  de  Segur.  'Memoires  secrets,'  by  Major 
Masson.  '  Histoire  de  Catherine  II.'  Caste"ra,  &c.  'Memoires  de  1'impe'r- 
atrice  Catherine  II,'  published  by  Herzen,  London,  1857.  Sabathier  de 
Cabres,  '  Catherine  II.,  sa  Cour  et  la  Russie,'  Berlin,  1869.  '  La  Cour  de 
Russie,  il  y  a  cent  ans,  extraits  des  depeches  des  ambassadeurs  anglais  et 
fran9ais,'  Leipzig  and  Paris,  1860.  M.  A.  Rambaud,  'Catherine  II.  dans 
sa  FamiHe;'  '  Catherine  II.  et  ses  Correspondants  franfais,'  in  the  Revue  des 
Deux  Moitdes  of  the  ist  of  February,  1874,  and  the  ist  of  February  and  ist 
of  March,  1877.  M.  A.  Geffroy,  '  Gustave  III.  et  la  Cour  de  France,'  2  vols, 
Paris,  1867.,  'Memoires  '  or  '  Re'cits '  of  Smith,  Fuchs,  Laverne,  Anthing,  and 
Gillaumanches,  on  Souvorof. 

Epoch  of  Alexander  I. — Besides  the  '  Histoire  du  Consulat  et  de  1'Empire,' 
by  Thiers,  'L'Histoire  de  F*rance  depuis  le  18  Brumaire,' by  Bignon,  there 
exist  numerous  'Memoires'  of  the  campaigns,  and  especially  that  of  1812, 
the  most  important  of  which  I  have  indicated  in  vol.  ii.  p.  275.  Consult 

;  'Memcires  et 
1  Souvenirs  mili- 
Schnitzler, 

•La  Russie  en  1812,' Rostopchine  et  Koutouzof,  Paris,  1863  ;  A.  de  Bcgur, 
«  Viedu  Comte  Rostopchine,'  Paris,  187*;  M.  Albert  Sorel,  'His^Ve  du 
Trait^  de  Paris.'  Paris,  1873. 


29j  ffJSTOK  Y  OF  KVSSTA. 

Nicholas  and  Alexander  //. — '  Documents  servant  a  eclaircir  l*histoire  des 
provinces  occidentales  de  la  Russie  (in  French  and  Russian),  St.  Petersburg, 
1865.  Schnitzler,  '  Histoire  intime  de  la  Russie,'  2  vols.,  Paris,  1847.  Nich- 
olas Tourgue'nief,  '  La  Russie  et  les  Russes,'  3  vols.,  Paris  1847,  Baron  Korff 
'  Avfenement  au  trone  de  1'empereur  Nicholas,  translated  from  the  Russian, 
Paris,  1857.  Balleydier,  '  Histoire  de  1'empereur  Nicolas,'  2  vols.,  Paris, 
1857  ;  a  somewhat  second-rate  though  useful  book.  Peter  Dolgoroukof, 
'La  Ve'rit^  sur  la  Russie,'  Paris,  1860.  M.  Lacroix  (Bibliophile  Jacob), 
'  Histoire  de  la  vie  et  du  regne  de  Nicolas  I.,  Paris,  1864  and  following  years. 
Admiral  Jarien  de  la  Gravieie,  '  Les  missions  exteVieures  de  la  marine,' 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  of  1873. 

There  is  no  definite  history  of  these  two  reigns. 

To  the  writings  of  the  historiographer  M.  de  Bazancourt,  to  the  works  of 
Niel  and  Todleben,  and  to  the  accounts  of  eye-witnesses  or  tourists.  \vt  must 
now  add  'L'Histoire  de  la  Guerre  de  Crime'e,'  by  M.  Camille  Bousset,  2 
vols.,  Paris,  1877.  M.  J.  de  la  Graviere,  '  La  Marine  d'aujourd'hui,'  Paris, 
1872.  See  also  '  Fran9ais  et  Russes,  Moscou  et  Sevastopol,'  by  M.  Alfred 
Rambaud,  Paris,  1877. 

On  the  Russian  policy  in  the  Franco-German  war,  consult  the  excellent 
work  of  M.  Albert  Sorel,  'Histoire  diplomatique  de  la  guerre  Francc-Alle- 
mande,' 2  vols.,  Paris,  1875,  and  the  'Deux  Chanceliers,'  by  M.  Klaczko. 
On  the  progress  of  the  Russians  in  Asia,  M.  M.  Weil,  'L'Expedition  de 
Khiva;'  'Khiva,  rapports  de  Hugo  Stumm,'  translated  from  the  German, 
Paris,  1874;  some  articles  in  the  Ktvtudtt  Deux  MoiiJes,  especially  that  of 
M.  Cucheval-Clarigny  (i5th  May,  1877);  the  '  Annuaires '  of  the  same 
review,  &c. 

For  Literature. — M.  Courriere,  '  Hist,  de  la  litt.  contemporaineen  Ri. 
Paris,  1875:  M.  Rambaud,  '  La  Russie  e'pique,'  1876;  Mr.  Ralston's  'Tales 
of  the  Russian  People,'  translated  into  French,  Paris,  1876;  tolerably  nu- 
merous translations  of  Pouchkine,  and  of  M.  Ivan  Tourgue'nief,  by  M.  Louis 
Viardot;  of  Gogol,  by  M.  Ernest  Charriere;  of  Gontcharof  (oblomof)  by 
M.  Charles  Deulin;  and  of  Alexis  Tolstoi  ('  Le  prince  Se'rebrannyi,  ou  Ivan 
le  Terrible'),  by  Prince  Augustin  Galitsyne. 

Far  tk<  FintArts.—W..  Yiollet-le-Duc,  'L'Art  Russe,1  Paris,  1877. 


HISTORY  CF  RUSSIA. 


TABLE  OF  MEASURES,  WEIGHTS,  &c 

{Abridged from  Mr.  Murray's  'Handbook  of  RutsiaS) 


Length. 

i  dium  "»  i  inch. 

12  dium  -=  i  foot. 

i  vershok  •=  1.75  inch. 

16  vershoks  «=  i  arshin,  or  28  inches  English 

3  arshins  <=  i  sajen,  or  fathom. 

500  sajens  s-  i  verst  =  2-3  of  a  mile. 

2400  sajens  square  ,_  2.86  acres. 

Money. 

i  grivna  •»     10  kopeks. 

100  kopeks  «=»       i  rouble. 

i  rouble  =     32  pence,  or  from  25^. 

One  English  sovereign  is  worth  about  7.50  roubles. 

Capacity. 

8  shtofs  =  i  vedro    =     3.25  gallons  wine  measure. 
Dry  Measure. 

i  garnets  —     0.34  peck. 

8  garnets  —     i  chetverik  =  0.68  bushel. 

8  chetveriks  ••     i  chetvert    —  5.46  bushels 

Weight. 

96  zolotniks  «•     i  funt  ***  14.43  or. 

40  pounds  =     i  pud  ==  36.08  Ibs. 

10  puds  =      i  berkovets  =  360.80  Ibs. 


INDEX. 


Abo,  treaty  of,  ii.  72. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  ii.  37,  78. 
Adachef   Alexis,  favorite  of   Ivan  IV.,i.  187, 
191. 

Treachery  and  banishment,  i.  193. 
Apiculture  of  Slavs,  i.  43. 

National,  ii.  34. 

Aix-h-ChaneHe,   Treaty,  1818,  ii.  206. 
Akhmet,  Khan  of  Kazan,  i.  167. 
Akkerman,  fall  of,  ii.  116. 
Alexander  Nevski,  son  of  laroslaf,  L  119. 

Origin  of  surname,  i.  120. 

Counsels  tribute  to  Tatars,  i.  122. 

Death.i.  123. 
Alexander  son  of  Casiniir  IV.,  i.  169.  < 

Marries  daughter  of  Ivan  III.,  i.  170. 
Alexander  I.,  ii.  142. 

Treaty  with  France,  ii.  143. 

Interview  with  Prussian    Sovereigns, 
ii.  147. 

Czartoryski  counsels  peace,  it.  151- 

Hatred  of  the  English,  ii.  157. 

Interview  with   Napoleon  at  Tilsit,  ii. 

»57- 

Empowers  Bennigsen  to  treat,  u.  157. 

Changes  his  Cabinet,  ii.  159. 

His  foreign  policy  unpopular,  ii.  160. 

Differences  with  Napoleon,  causes,  ii. 
170. 

Rupture  with  Napoleon,  ii.  175. 

Military  resources,  ii.  177. 

Negotiates  with  Frederick  William  III. 
ii.  190. 

The  soul  of  the  Coalition,  ii.  133. 

Scorns  intrigues  of  Bourbons,  ii.  200. 

Influence  in  European  affairs,  it.  206. 

Radical  ch.inqc  of  character,  ii.  207. 

Review  of  his  reign,  ii.  no. 

Favorites  of,  ii.  210,  219. 

Later  bigotry,  ii.  217. 

Death,  1825,  ii.  225.     Sre  also  Russia. 
Alexander  II.  succeeds  Nichu.as  I.,  ii.  255. 

Emancipation  of  the  serfs,  ii.  260,  265, 

Judicial  reforms,  ii.  266. 

Polish  insurrection,  ii.  269. 

European  policy  ii.  282.  Seealso  Russia. 
Alexis  Mikhailovitch,  son  of  Michael  Roman- 
of,  i.  272. 

Take*  Little   Russia  under  protection, 
i.  276. 

Abandons  Livonia,  278. 

Turns  his  arms  against  Sweden,  L  278. 

Resents  execution  of  Charles  L,  i.  289. 
Alexis,  son  of  Peter  the  Great,  ii.  47. 

Marries  Charlotte  of  Brunswick,  ii;_  48. 

Compelled  to  renounce  the  crown,  ii.  48. 

Seeks  refuge  in  Vienna,  ii.  48. 

Centre  of   conspiracy  against  Peter,  ii. 
49- 

Punishment  and  death,  ii.  49- 


Ambassadors,  foreign,  i.  216. 

Ambrose,  Archbishop,  insurrection  against,  ii 

97-  . 

American  War,  ii.   HI. 
Amiens,  Peace  of,  ii.  145. 
Ancient  peoples,  customs  and  costumes,  i.  30, 
Aucona,  siege  of.  ii.  137. 
Andrew  Bogolioubski   (of  Souzdal),  i.  83. 

Takes  Kief  by  assault,  1169,  i.  83. 

Founds  Vladimir  on  the  Kliazma,  i.  86. 

Creates  autocracy,  i.  87. 

Superiority  and  despotism,  i.  87. 

Triumphs  over  the  Bulgarians,  5.  87. 

Assassinated  by  his  boyards,  1174,  i.  88. 
Anglo-Russian  Protocol,  1826,  ii.  234. 
Anne  Ivanovna  crowned  Empress,  ii.  60. 
Severity  of  her  reign,  ii.  61. 
Anne  Leopoldovna,  regency  of,  ii.  68. 
Anne  Petrovna,  ii.  58,  71. 
Appanaged  princes,  ijth  and  i6thcent.,i.  184 
Apraxine,  Russian  Generalissimo,  ii.  74,  75. 
Araktche'ef,  ii.  216. 

Archaeologists,  Russian,  discoveries,  i.  24. 
Architecture,  i.  226. 
Aristotele  Fioraventi,  Italian  architect,  work, 

i.,  172  228. 

Arkhangel,  i.,  203  ;  ii.  33. 
Army.    See  Russia. 
Art,  development,  L  226,  ii.  277. 

Grzco-Scythian,  i.  24. 
Aryan  family,  i.  28. 
Asia,  Russian  conquests,  ii.  278. 
Asiatic  character  of  Russian  society,  i.  219. 
Astrakhan  conquered  by  Ivan  IV.,  i.  190. 

Tzarate  of,  i.  166. 
Augustus  of  Poland  accepts  humiliating  terms 

from  Charles  XII.,  ii.  15. 
Austerlitz,  battle  of,  ii.  150. 
Austria  and  Russia,  relations,  i.  232. 

Fears  success  of  Russia,  ii.  66. 

Submits  to  Napoleon  terms  of  allies,  ii. 
192. 

Joins  the  coalition,  ii.  193. 

Seeks  only  weakening    of  Napoleon'* 

power,  ii.  195. 

Austrian  succession,  war  of,  ii.  72. 
Austro-Russian  alliance,  ii.  64. 
Azof  capitulates  to  Peter  the  Great,  i.  300. 

Surprised  by  Cossacks,  i.  261. 


Bachkirs,  the,  i.  30. 

Kagration,  Prince,  ii.  147,  153,  IJJ,  179, 

Balaclava,  battle  of,  ii.  251. 

Baltic,  navigation  of,  i.  14. 

A  Swedish  Mediterranean,  ii.  9. 
Banks  founded,  ii.  77. 
Barbaric  invasions  of  4th  cent.,  i.  26. 
Barclay  de  Tolly,  i.  157,  179,  199,  202. 
Uartenstein,  convention  of,  ii.  155. 


INDEX. 


395 


Bati,  Ichan  of  Mongols,  5.  93,  115. 

Reception  of  Daniel,  i.  93. 

Court  on  the  Volga,  i.  124. 

Death,  1255,1.  119. 
Batory,  Stephen,  king  of  Poland,  i.  201. 

Repels  Russians  at  Polotsk,  i.  201. 

Death,  1586,  i.  233. 
Battle  of  the  Ice,  1242,  i.  121. 
Bela,  King  of  Hungary,  i.  91. 

Enters  Galitch,  i.  91. 
Belskis,  leaders  of  faction,  i.  185. 
Bells,  i.  146,  238. 
Bennigsen,  Generalissimo  of  allies,  ii.  152. 

Claims  victory  of  Eylau,  ii.  154. 

At  Leipzig,  ii.  194. 
Berendians.     See  Black  Caps. 
Berezina,  passage  of,  ii.  189. 
Berlin  occupied  by  the  French,  ii.  151. 
Bernadotte,  French  General,  ii.  153, 

Elected  King  of  Sweden,  ii.  165. 

Treasonable  scheme,  ii.  195. 
Bestoujef,  Russian  Chancellor,  ii.  73. 

Fall  of,  ii.  75. 

Betski,  scheme  of  national  education,  ii.  106. 
Biarmaland,  country  of  Permians,  i.  30. 
Bibikof,  Alexander,  ii.  98. 
Bibliographical  notes,  ii.  288. 
Biren,  favorite  of  Anne  Ivanovna,  ii.  67. 

Named  Regent  by  Anne  Ivanovna,  ii. 
68. 

Arrest  and  banishment,  ii.  68. 
Ijiack  Caps,  Russian  barbarians,  i.  82. 

Land,  The,  i.  21. 

Russia,  i.  34. 
Black  Sea.   See  Russia. 
Blucher,  military  energy,  ii.  197. 
Bog,  Slavonic  name  for  God,  i.  38. 
Bogdan  Khanelnitski,  Cossack  leader,  i.  274. 

Offensive  operations  against  Russians, 

i.  274,  279. 
Bogolioubski,  Andrew,  son  of  George  Dolgo- 

rouki,  i.  83 .     See  Andrew  of  Souzdal. 
Bokhara  open  to  communication,  i.  206.     See 

also  ii.  236. 

Bolgary  destroyed  by  Tatars,  i.  115. 
Bolotnikof.     See  Second  false  Dmitri. 
Bonaparte  in  German  affairs,  ii.  144. 
Bonaparte.     See  Napoleon. 
Boris  Godounof,  i.  23 1.     See  also  Godounof. 
Borodino,  battle  of,  ii.  181. 
Boulgakof,  Russian  envoy  to  Turkey,  ii.  114. 
Bowes,   Jerome,  English  envoy  to  Russia,  i. 

205. 
Boyards  of  Ga'iitch,  i.  91. 

Surrounders  of  the  Prince,  5.  210. 
Brest,  council  of,  i.  267. 
"  Brigand  of  Touchino."     See  Touchino. 
Brigandage,  prevalence,  ii.  30. 
Bucharestj  congress  at,  1812,  ii.  169. 
Bulgaria,  i.,  53  ;  ii.  248. 
Bulgarian  war,  i.  53. 

Bulgars,  ancient,  mix  with  Mongols,  i.  166. 
Building-stone  in  Russia,  i.  17. 
Byzantine  forces  defeat  Igor,  i.  50. 

Literature,  i.  71. 

Monarchism,  influence,  5.  221. 
Byzantium  fears  extension  of  Russian  power, 
i.  54,  63.    See  Tzargrad. 

Campo  Formio,  treaty  of,  ii.  130. 
Cannon  in  Russian  army,  1389,  i.  153. 
Cardis,  peace  of,  i.  278. 


Carlsbzd,  congress  of,  1819,  ii.  206 
Casimir,  John,  King  of  Poland,  i.  275. 
Casimir  IV.,  King  of  Lithuania  and  Poland, 

i.  169. 

Castes,  i.  67. 
Catherine  I.  in  Russian  camp,  ii.  42. 

Declared  Empress,  ii.  51,  54. 

Marriage  to  Peter,  ii.  50. 

Humble  origin  and  character,  ii.  50. 
Catherine  II. 

Usurpation,  ii.  8^. 

Foreign  policy,  11.  87. 

Successes  over  the  Turks,  ii.  94. 

Difficulties  in  her  empire,  ii.  97. 

Extinguishes  the  Zaporogue  republic, 
ii.  99. 

Influence  of  the  Orlofs,  ii.  joo. 

The  new  code,  ii.  101. 

Extends  serfage,  ii.  102. 

Administration  and  justice,  ii-  103. 

Colonization,  ii.  104. 

Secularization  of  church  property,   ii. 
105. 

Interest  in  education,  ii.  106. 

Introduces  inoculation,  ii.  106. 

Influence  of  French  genius,  ii.  107. 

Place  in  literature,  ii.  108. 

Armed  neutrality,  1780,  ii.  in. 

Enemies  on  all  sides,  ii.  115. 

Signs  peace  of  lassy,  ii.  117. 

Receives  Polish  malcontents,  ii.  1 18. 

Treasonable   conduct  towards  France, 
ii.  126. 

Outlines  her  position,  ii.  127.    [ii.  127. 

Excites  jealousy  of  Prussia  and  Austria 

Death,  1796,  ii.  127. 
Caulaincourt,    French  ambassador,  ii.    196, 

198. 

Chancellor,  English  navigator,  i.  203,  204. 
Charles  I.  of  England,  mission  of  Russian  en« 

voy,  i.  287. 

Charles  II.  of  England,  i.  289. 
Charles  X.  of  Sweden  aids  Poland,  i.  378. 
Charles  X.  of  France,  ii.  235. 

Expelled  from  France,  ii.  238. 
Charles  XL  orders  restoration  of  crown  lands, 

ii.  9. 
Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  ii.  12. 

Success  at  Narva,  ii.  12. 

Receives  Marlborough  in  his   camp,  ii. 
14. 

Knight  rather  than  soldier,  ii.  15. 

Invades  Russia,  ii.  17. 

Breaks  Patkul  upon  wheel,  n.  17. 

Sufferings  of  army,  1709,  ii.  18. 

Defeated  and  wounded  at  Pultowa,  ii. 
19. 

A  fugitive  with  Mazeppa,  ii.  20. 

Killed,  1718,  ii.  46. 

Charlotte  of  Brunswick  marries  Alexis,  ii.  48, 
Chatillon-sur-  Seine,  congress  of,  ii.  198. 
Chemiaka,  treachery  and  death,  i.  158,  159. 
Cheremetief,  Russian  cavalry  commander,  ii. 

n,  24. 
China,  Russian  treaty,  ii.  57,  236. 

"  Opium  war  "  with  England,  ii.  236. 
Chinese  description  of  the  Ta-tzis,  i.  113. 
Choiseul,  minister  of  Louis  XV.,  ii.  92. 
Cholera,  outbreak,  ii.  238. 
Chouiskis,  leaders  of  faction,  5.  185. 
'  Chouiski,   Skopine,   popularity  and  death,  V 
1      245. 


296 


INDEX. 


Chouiski,  Vassili  heads  revolt  against  Dmitri, 
i.  243. 

Becomes  Tzar,  i.  244. 

Assailed  by  Tzar  of  Touchino,  i.  246. 

Alliance  with  Sweden,  i.  246. 

Dragged  prisoner  through  Warsaw,  i. 

250. 

Christianity,  progress  and  results,  i.  52,  67. 
Church,  combat  with  paganism,  i.  39. 
Church  of  Vassili  the  Blessed,  i.  230. 
Churches  of  Kief,  i.  64. 
Civil  wars,  i.  76,  78. 
Civilization  ot  the  Slavs,  i  43. 
Class  distinctions  in  Novgorod,  i.  101. 
Clergy,  Black,  i.,  213. 

White,  i.  213. 
Coalition  against  France,  strength,  fi.  193. 

Demands  regarding  France,  ii.  203. 
Coast-line  of  Western  Europe,  i.  13. 
Coins,  first  appearance,  i.  153 
Commerce  in  loth  cent.,  i.  102.  Seeako  i.  218. 
Commune  an  expansion  of  family,  i.  42. 
Congress  of  Princes  at  Loubetch,  i.  78. 
Conscription,  ii.  31. 
Constantine,  brother  of  Alexander  I,  ii.  204. 

Renounces  the  crown,  ii.  226 

Mistakes  in  Poland,  ii.  238. 
Constantinople  besieged  by  Varangians, !.  49. 

Gives  Christianity  to  Russia,  i.  67. 

Taken  by  Mahomet  II.,  i.  160. 

First  Russian  ambassador,  i.  175. 

Terrified  at  Russian  success,  ii.  94. 

Treaty  of  1783,  ii.    113. 

Mussulman  riot,  ii.  208. 
Contarini,  Venetian  ambassador,  L  173 
Convents  as  prisons,  i.  213. 
Copenhagen,  bombardment,  1807,  ii.  162. 
Cossack  life,  development,  i.  36. 

Take  Azof,  i.  261. 

Part  in  Russian  conflicts,  i.  261,  269, 

'75,  *7<J. 

Revolt,  1706,  i.  306. 
Make  war  upon  French,  ii.  187. 
Black  Sea,  ii.  99. 
Dnieper,  i,  178,  191. 
Don  declare  for  Moscow,!.    191.  Sfe 

also  i.  241. 
Cracow  expels  Russian  garrison,  ii.  122. 

Taken  by  Prussians,  ii.  123 
Crimea,  becomes  deadly  enemy  of  Russia,  i. 
179. 

Composite  character  of  population,  i. 

161. 

Khanate  of,  i.  166. 
Ceded  to  Russia,  ii.  MJ. 
Turkish  rule  ended,  ii.  94. 
Crimean  war,  ii.  250. 
Croi,  Due  de,  general  of  Peter  the  Great,  ii. 

10. 

Cronstadt  founded,  ii.  13 
Czartoryski,  Russian   minister,   ii.   147,  151, 
210. 

Daniel,  Prince  of  Galitch  seeks  alliance  with 

Rome,  i.  93. 

Daniel,  son  of  Roman,  \.  04. 
Daniel,  son  of  Alexander  Nevski,  i.  140. 
Danish  fleet,  seizure  by  English,  ii.  141. 

Question,  Nicholas  I.,  intervention,  ii. 

*47- 

DardmeBM,  treaty  concerning,  n.  136. 
David  disputes  Volhynia  with  his  nephews,  i. 


Deity  of  Russian  Slavs,  i.  j8. 
Debtors,  law  regarding,  i.  213. 
D'Engluen,  Due,  execution,  ii.  145. 
Denmark  forced  to  adhere  to  the  Coalition,  it 

193. 

Diderot,  n.  108. 
Diplomacy.     See  Russia. 
Directorate,  armies  of,  ii.  131. 
Dmitri,  son  of  Michael  of  Tver,  i.  142. 
Dmitri  Donskoi.i.  147,  152. 

Breaks  the  Tatar  power,  j.  151. 
Dmitri,  son  of  Ivan  IV.,  slain,  i.  235. 
Dmitri,  the  false,  i.  238. 

Heads  a  rebellion,  i.  239,  240. 
Proclaimed  Tzar,  i.  241. 
Character  and  death,  i.  243. 
Dmitri,  the  sec<<rd,false,  i.  245. 
Dmitri,  third  false,  i.  244- 
Dnieper,  importance  to  Russia,  i.  19. 
Doktourof,  Gerasimus,  in  England,  i.  287. 
Dolgorouki,  George,  son  of  Vladimir  Mon 

omachus,  i.  Si. 

Dolgoroukis  profit  by  the  revolution,  ii.  55. 
Dolgorouki,  Prince,  interview  with  Napoleon 

ii.  148. 

Domestic  manners  of  paean  Russia,  i.  41. 
"  Domostroi,"  i.  221,  222,  223. 
Don,  the  commercial  importance,  L  19,  20. 
Dorastol  (Silistria),  battle,  i.  55. 
D'Oubril,  sent  to  Paris,  ii.  14^,  151. 
Dra&ans,  guards  of  Charles  XII.,  ii.  16. 
Drevlians,  subjection  by  Olga,  i.  51. 
Droujina,  the  warriors  surrounding  the  prince, 

i.  65,  971  211. 
Drunkenness,  prevalence  in  Russia,  i.  221  ; 

ii.  27. 

Dualism  among  the  ancient  tribes,  i.  3 1. 
Duckworth,  Admiral,  burns  Turkish  vessels, 

ii.  168. 


Education  under  Peter  the  Great,  ii.  35.  Sit 

also,  ii.  101,  213,  230. 
Education,  primary,  ii.  275. 
Edward  VI.,  of  England,  expedition,  i.  203. 
Egypt  revolts  against  Turkey,  ii.  94. 
Elizabeth    Petrovna,   daughter  of    Peter  the 
Great,  ii.  55. 

Plans  for  French  marriage,  ii.  46. 

Declared  empress,  ii.  70. 

Names  her  nephew  heir,  ii.  71. 

Hatred  of  King  Frederic,  ii.  73. 

Lessens  power  of  Prussia,  ii.  75. 

Death,  ii.  75. 

Review  of  her  reign,  ii.  76. 

Elizabeth,    Queen,   signs    treaty    with 

Ivan  IV.,  i.  205. 
England  opens  White  Sea  to  Russia,  i.  203. 

Sends  envoys  to  Russia,  i.  205. 

Asks  free  passage  to  Persia,  i.  25^-,  257- 

Services  to  Russia,  i.  258. 

Compromise  with  KBMta,  ii.  1-12. 

Refuses  to  guarantee  Russian  loan,  ii. 

'55- 

Supports  Russian  policy  toward  France 
ii.  203. 

Opium  war  in  China,  ii.  236. 
English  fleet  repulsed  by  Turks,  ii.  155. 

In  the  Dardanelles,  ii.  168. 
Entail  abolished  by  Anne  Ivanovna.  ii.  63 
Erfurt,  terms  nf  convrtion,  i*^^,  ii.  163. 
Esthonia  fi^ii  fui.y  devastated,  ii.  13. 
Ethnography  of  Russia,  i.  24. 


INDEX. 


297 


Eupatoria,  battle  of,  ii.  251. 
Europe,  unequal  division,  i.  13. 

Terror-stricken  by  Tatar  conquests,  i. 
118. 

In  isth  and  i6th  cents.,  i.  161,  208- 

Watches  Sweden,  ii.  14. 

Equilibrium  of,  ii.  203. 
Eylau,  battle  oi,  ii.  153. 

Feodor  Ivanovitch,  son  of  Ivan  IV.,  i.  231. 
Two  important  actions  of  his  reign,  i. 

•S3- 

Death,  1598,  i.  235. 

Feodor  succeeds  Alexis,  i.  290. 
Finland,  population,  i.  29. 

Conquest  by  Peter  the  Great,  ii.  43, 

See  also,  ii.  273. 
Finns,  the,  i.  28,  30. 
France  opens  relations  with  Russia,  i.  206. 

Asks  trade  privileges  of  Russia,  i.  256. 

Fails  to  make  alliance  with  Russia,  ii. 
69. 

Diplomatic  success  in  Sweden,  11.  96. 

Internal  affairs,  1791,  ii.  126. 

Coalitions  against,  ii.  146,  151. 

Military  resources,  ii.   176. 

Return  of  Bourbon  princes,  ii.  199. 

Revolution  of  1830,  ii.  244. 

And    England   support  Turkey,    1854, 

ii.  250. 

Francis  II.,  interview  with  Napoleon,  ii.  150. 
Franco-German  war,  ii.  283. 

Franco-Russian  Treaty,  first,  5.  259. 
Frankfort,  Conditions  of,  ii.  195. 
Frederic  II.  of  Prussia  defeated  by  Russians, 
ii.  75. 

Saved  by  death  of  Elizabeth,  ii.  75. 

Influence  with  Peter  III.,  ii.  83. 

Responsible  for  dismemberment  of  Po- 
land, ii.  94. 

Frederic   William  III.,  vacillating  policy,  ii. 
147. 

Negotiations,  ii.  190. 
Freemasonry,  spread  of,  ii.  221. 
French  influence  in  Russia,  see  France. 
Frontier  defence,  i,  67. 

Galitch,  i.  91. 

Great  Mongol  invasion,  i.  93. 
Galitsyne,  ii.  93. 
Gallicia  or  Red  Russia,  i.  75. 

Introduction  of  Jewish  element,  i.  93. 

Austrian  uprising,  1846,  ii.  246. 
Gallicians  under  Hungarian  yoke,  i.  91. 

Throw  off  the  Hungarian  yoke,  i.  91. 
Gedimin,  Lithuanian  ruler,  1315-1340,  i.  131. 
Genghis-Khan,  tribes,  i.  113,  114- 
George  Dolgorouki  founds  Moscow,  i.  139. 
George  II.  founds  Nijni-Novgorod,  i.  90. 
George  Danielovitch,  i.  140. 

Struggle  with  the  house  of  Tver,  i.  140. 

Takes  a  Tatar  wife,  i.  141. 

Slain  by  Dmitri,  1325,  i.  142. 
.Grand  Prince  of  Kief,  i.  82. 
George  the  Black,  ii.  168. 
Georgian  princes  ask  Russian  protection,  i.  205. 
German  invasions   and   settlements,   i.    107, 
in. 

Rule  in  Livonia,  i.  108.     _  _      [64. 

Germans  effect  upon  Russian  civilization,  ii. 

Fear  growing   strength   of   Russia,   i. 
191. 

In  Novgorod,  i.  102. 


Germany,  Russian  armies  enter,  ii.  43. 

Constitution  overthrown,  ii,  246. 
Glinskis,  maternal  relatives  of  Ivan   IV.,   i. 

186. 
Godounof,  Boris,  regency,  i.  231. 

Events  of  his  reign,  i.  236,  23?. 

Death,  1605,  i.  241. 
Golden  Horde,  the,  i.  118. 
"Good  Companions,"  Novgorod  adventurers, 

i.  132,  158,  206. 
Gortchakof,    Russian  general,   ii.    155.    249, 

256,  282. 
Grand  Prince,  ruler  of  Kief,  i.  77. 

In  i2th  cent.,  i.'Si. 

Great  Britain,  maritime  tyranny,  ii.  137. 
Great  Mongol  Companies,  i.  159. 
Grea'  Russia,  i.  34. 
Greece,  independence  recognized  by  Turkey, 

ii.  235. 
Greek  art  and  barbaric  taste,  i.  25. 

Colonies,  i.  24. 

Greek  Church,  entrance  of  Russians,  i.  68. 
Greeks  check  advance  of  Russia,  i.  55. 
Grimm,  ii.  107. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  i.  257. 

Seeks  friendship  of  Russia,  i.  258. 
Gustavus  III.  re-establishes  royal  power  in 
Sweden,  ii.  96. 

Takes  up  arms  against  Russia,  ii.  115. 
Gustavus  IV.  of  Sweden,  ii.  164. 

Arrest  and  confinement,  ii.  165. 

Hamilton,  Seymour,  Sir,  ii.  248. 

Hanseatic  League,  i.  102. 

Hastings,  Lady  Mary,  cousin  of  Queen  Eliz- 
abeth, i.  206. 

Sought  in  marriage  by  Ivan  IV.,  i.  206. 

Helena  Ghnski,  i.  184,  185. 

Herat  besieged  by   Mohammed,  1837-38,  ii. 
237- 

Herodotus,  account  of  ancient  peoples,  i.  26. 

High  Council,  aims  to  govern  Russia,  ii.  58. 

Holland  united  to  French  empire,  ii.  173. 

Holy  Alliance,  act  of,  ii.  218, 

Horde,  the  Empire  dissolved,  i.  166. 

Horodlo,  congress  of,  1413,  i.  136. 

Hospitality  of  primitive  peoples,  i.  69. 

Human  sacrifices,  i.  31. 

Hungarians  in  Gallicia,  5.  91. 

Hydrographic  centre  of  Russia,  i.  18. 

laroslaf  the  Great,  son  of  Vladimir,  i.  61. 

Sole  master  of  Russia,  i.  62. 

Position  among  contemporary  princes, 
i.  63. 

Successors  of,  i.  77. 

Igelstrom,  Gen., Russian  officer,  ii.  122. 
Igor,  son  of  Rurik,  i.  49. 

Attacks  Kief,  50. 

Expedition  against  Tzargrad,  i.  50. 

Assassinated  "by  the  Drevlians,  i.  51. 
India,  English  rule  in,  ii.  138. 
Inkerman,  battle  of,  ii.  251. 
Innocent  III.    seeks   conversion  of  Roman, 

i.  92. 

Inoculation  introduced,  n.  106. 
Ionian  Isles,  ii.  13°,  '5'- 
Irmak  Timnfeevitch,  conquistador  of  Siberia, 

i.  206. 
Isiaslaf,  grandson  of  Monomachus,  i.  77,  81. 

Cp.'lc.l  to  throv-  -  f  Kief.  i.  St. 

Defeated  at  Pereiaslavi,  i.  82. 

Operations  in  Kief,  i.  82. 


298  ' 


IVDEX. 


Italians  in  Russia,!.  171. 
Italy  furnishes  artists  and  artizans,  i.  230. 
Jvan  Kaiita,  brother  of  George  Danielovttii,  i. 
142. 

Establishes  supremacy  of  Moscow,   i. 

MS- 

Ivan  II.,  ''the  Debonnaire,"  i.  146. 
Ivan  111.   the  Great,  character,  i.  162. 

Accomplishes  submission  of  Novgorod, 

i.  162,  164. 

Undertakes  conquest  of  Northern  Rus- 
sia, i.  165. 

Friendship  for  Mengli-Ghirei,  i.  167. 
Promotes  Tatar  rivalries,  i.  ibj. 
Refuses  tribute  to  the  Horde,  i.  167. 
As  Prince  of  Bulgaria,  i.  168. 
Reconquers  portion  of  Western  Russia, 

i.  171. 

Marries  a  Byzantine  princess,  i.  172. 
Compared  to  I.ouis  XI.,  i.  173. 
Exchanges    embassies    with     Eastern 

Europe,  i.  173. 
Review  of  his  career,  i.  173. 
Ivan  IV.,  (the  Terrible),  i.  182. 

Takes  title  of  Tzar,  i.  182,  186. 

Childhood  and  youth,  i.  185. 

Marries   into   family   of    Roraanof,    i. 

187. 

Besieges  and  conquers  Kazan,  i.  189. 
Conquers  Astrakhan,  i.  190. 
Seeks  direct   relations  with   Europe,  i. 

191. 
Treachery   revealed  during    illness,   i. 

'93- 

Banishes  Silvester  and  Adachef,  i.  193. 
Intrigues  of  the  boyards,  i.  193. 
Quits  Moscow,  i.   196. 
Resumes  the  crown  on  his   own  con- 
ditions, i.  196. 
His  reign  of  terror,  i.  197. 
Synodical  letter,  i.  198. 
Correspondence  with  Queen  Elizabeth, 

i.  .98 
Curious  memorial  of  his  vengeance,  i. 

198. 

Captures  Polotsk,  1563,  i.  199. 
Submits    Poland's    proposition    to    a 

States-general,  i.  199. 
Makes  ^fagnus  King  of  Livonia,  i.  199. 
Establishes  towns  on  Dnieper,  i.  200. 
Covets  the  crown  of  Poland,  i.  201. 
Cedes  Livonia  to  Poland,  i.  202. 
Implores  mediation   of  Pope   Gregory 

III.,  i.  202. 

Authorizes  trade  with  England,  i.  203. 
Treaty  with  Queen  Elizabeth,  i.  205. 
Desires  to  make  an  English  marriage, 

i.  206. 

Conquest  of  Siberia,  i.  206. 
Review  of  his  work  in  Russia,  i.  207. 
Slays  his  son  Ivan,  i.  208. 
Killed  by  his  warders,  ii.  86. 


Jagellon,  son  of  Olgerd,  i.  133- 

Receives  crown  of  Poland,  l.  134. 

Janissaries,  Servian,  ii.  167. 

Japan  cedes  Saijhalien,  ii.   281. 

JenkLson,  English  sailor  and  diplomat,  i.  204, 
205. 

Distrusted  by  Persia,  i.  205. 

Jesuits,  intrigues  in  Poland,  i.  265. 

Banished  by  Peter  the  Great,  ii.  J3- 


Jews  pillaged  at  Kief,  i.  79. 

Expulsion  during  reign  of  Elizabeth,  • 
76. 

Job,  favorite  of  Godounof,  i.  23^-  24°. 
oseph  II.,  Alliance  with  Russia,  ii.  113. 
Death  of,  ii.  116 

Joubert,  French  general,  ii.  133. 
udiciary  the,  i,  212. 


Kalevy-potg.  the,  i.  1 10. 
Kalisch,  Treaty  of,  ii.  191. 
Kalka,  the  battle  of,  i.  114. 
Kalmucks,  i.  33  ;  ii.  38. 
Kalmuck-Torgaouts  retire  to  China,  ii.  qt. 
Kavgadi,  Mongol  general,  i.  141. 
Kars,  ii.  2^7. 
Kashgar,  n.  280. 
Kaufman,  General,  ii.  280. 
Kazan,  Tzarate  of,  i.  166. 

Conquered  by  Ivan  IV.,  i.  188. 

Political  consequences  of  surrender,  L 

190. 
Keremet,  divinity  between  good  and  evii,  i. 

3'- 

Kestout,  son  of  Gedimin,  i.  132. 
Khazars,  ancient  Finnish  people,  i.  31. 

Empire  and  commerce,  i.  32. 

Religious  toleration,  \.  32. 

Civilization  of,  i.  79. 
Khiva,  ii.  237. 
Khylnof,  City  of,  i.  106. 
Kief,  city  of  Russia,  i.  19. 

Its  water  communications,  i.  19. 

After  death  of  laroslaf,  i.  64. 

Principality  of,  i.  73. 

Strife  for  throne,  1146-1154,  • 

Sacked  by  the  Polovtsi,  1203,  i.  £3. 

Sacked  by  Tatars,  i.  117. 

Under  the  Lithuanians,].  131. 
Kievans,  respect  for  Monomachus,  i.  82. 
Kiptchak,  gradual  decay,  i.  149. 
Knout,  punishment  by,  ii.  77. 
Kolomna,  battle  of,  i.  116. 
Korosthenes,  city  of  the  Drevlians,  i.  51. 
Kosciuszlco  wounded,  and  a  prisoner,  ii.  124. 

Thaddeus,  ii.   119.  121. 

Liberated  by  Paul  I.,ii.  130. 
Kossuth,  Hungarians  under,  ii.  247. 
Kotzebue,  Captain,  explorations,  1815,  ii.  274. 
Koulikovo,  battle  of,  i.  151. 
Kmirakine,  Russian  envoy  at  Paris,  i' 
Kourbski,  Andrew,   defection  to  Ivan  IV.,  i. 
'94 

Permits  defeat  of  Russians,  i.  194. 

Takes  refuge  in  Poland,  i.  195. 

Writings  in  exile,  L  225. 
Kourgans.     See  tumuli. 
Koutchouk-Kairnadji,  Peace  of  1774,  ii.  95- 
Koutouzof,  Russian,  Gen.,  ii.    147,    181    18% 

188. 
Kremlin,  the,  of  Moscow,  i.  228. 

Destroyed  by  French,  ii.  187. 
Krijanitch,  louri,  learned  Slav,  i.  285. 
Krudener,  Madame  de,  ii.  203 
Kunersdorff ,  defeat  of  Frederic  by  Russian* 

ii.  75. 
Kutaich,  treaty  of,  ii.  245. 

Ladoga  founded  by  Rurik,  i.  49. 
Ladoga,  Canal  of  the,  ii.  33. 
Landon.  Austrian  general,  ii.  116. 


INDEX. 


299 


Language,  dialectical  differences,  i.  34. 
Lapoukhine,  Eudoxia,  first  wife  of  Peter  the 
Great,  li.  47. 

Banished  and  divorced,  ii.  47. 
Whipped  and  confined  in  New  Ladoga, 

ii.  49. 

Laps  or  Laplanders,  i.  29. 
Latin  missionaries  on  the  Baltic,  i.  107. 
Leipzig,  battle  of,  ii.  194. 
Leopold  II.  of  Austria,  ii.  116. 

Abandons  war  against  Turkey,  ii.  1 16. 
jLestocq,  Prussian  general,  ii.  152. 
f  Lewenhaupt,  Swedish  general,  ii.  17. 
Lett;,  ii.  107. 
L'Hopital,  French  Ambassador  in  Russia,  ii. 

Library  of  St.  Petersburg,  ii.  224^. 
Literature,  Byzantine  in  Russia,  i.  71. 

Of  Novgorod,   5.  103. 

Development  under  Catherine   II.,  ii. 
109. 

Under  Alexander  I.,  ii.  222. 

Of  modern  Russia,  ii.  276. 
Lithuania  under  Olgerd  and  Kestoat,  i.  132. 

Ceases  to  be  formidable,  i.  137. 

Becomes  Polish,  i.  137. 

Defections,  i.  170. 
Lithuanian  tribes,  i.  107,  130. 

Wars,  effect  on  Europe,  i.  178. 
Lithuanians^  the,  i,  28. 

Religion,  {.130. 

Summary  conversion,  i.  134. 
Little  Russia,  i.  34. 
Little  Russia.     See  aho  Russia. 
Livonia,  frightful  devastation,  ii.  13. 

Ceded  to  Poland,  i.  202. 

Devastation,  ii.  13. 
Livonian  Knights,  i.  108. 
Livonian  order,  i.  161,  191. 

W_ar  with  Ivan  IV.,i.  192. 

Dissolved^  i.  199. 
Livonians,  the,  i,  29. 

Converted  to  Christianity,  i.  107. 

Revolt  against  missionaries,  i.  108. 
Lomonossof,  ii.  78. 
London,  treaty  of,  i827,_ii.  234. 

Treaty  of,  1852,  ii.  247. 
Loubetch,  town  on  the  Dnieper,  i.  78. 
Louis   XIV.   postpones  visit    of    Peter  the 

Great,  i.  302. 

Louis    XV.,    private     correspondence    with 
Elizabeth  of  Russia,  ii.  74. 

Projected   marriage  with   Elizabeth  of 

Russia,  ii.  4T3,  56. 

Louis  XVIII.  enters  the  Louvre,  ii.  200. 
Louis  Philippe,  ii.  244. 
Lublin,  union  of,   i.  200,  164. 
Lutzen,  battle  of,  ii.  191. 


Macdonald,  French  general,  ii.  133. 
Magistrates  of  Novgorod,  i.  100. 
Magnus,  Danish  prince,  i.  199. 
Magyars,  founders  of  Hungary,  i.  30. 
Manmoud,  Sultan,  ii.  234. 
Malta,  knights  of,  ii.  131. 

Reduction  by  Bonaparte,  ii.  131. 
Mamai,  Tatar  ruler,  i.  149. 
Manufactures,  ii.  34,  274. 
Marfa,  widow  of  possadnik  Boretski,  i.    163. 

Heads  anti-Muscovite  party,  i.  163. 


Marina,  wife  pt  false  Dmitri,  i.  239,  254,  255. 
Markof,  Russian  representative  at   Paris,  ii. 

145. 

Marriage,  i.  31. 

Massena,  French  general,  ii.  134. 
Maurice  de  Saxe,  son  of  Augustus,  ii.  56. 

Fruitless  defence  of  Duchy  of  Cour- 

land,  ii.  56. 

Maximus  the  Greek,  5.  180. 
Mazeppa,  i.  306. 

Goes  over  to  the  Swedes,  i.  308. 
Intrigues  with  King  of  Poland,  i.  308. 
Opinion  of  Charles  XII.,  ii.  16. 
Menchikof,  Russian  leader,  ii.  17,  24,  54. 

Arrested  and  banished,  ii.  55. 
Mengli-Ghirei,  Tatar  leader,  i.  167. 

Declares  against  Vassili,  i.  178. 
Merrick,  John,   ambassador  of  James  I.,  i. 
256. 

Seeks    commercial    concessions    from 

Russia,  i.  256,  259. 
Metternich,   negotiations  with   Napoleon,  ii. 

196.     See  also  ii.  198,  207,  217. 
Michael  of  Tver,  i-  140. 

Assassinated,  1319,  i.  142. 
Michael  Romanof  assembles  the   Estates,  i. 

?57- 

Migrations  of  the  husbandmen,  i.  36. 
Mikouline,  Gregory,  i.  237. 
Military  organization  of  Slavs,  i.  44. 

System  of  Russia,  ii.  277. 
Militia  of  Novgorod,  i.  99. 
Miloradovitch,  ii.  147,  227. 
Minine,  i.  251,  253. 
Mirovitch,  conspiracy,  ii.  86. 
Missionaries,  Byzantine,  i.  58. 
Moldavia,  ii.  234,  247. 
Mongol  invasion  of  Galitch,  i.  93. 

Influence  upon  Russian  development, 

i.  127.     Set  also  Tatars. 
Monomarhus  leaves  paper  of  instructions,  i. 

80.     See  also  Vladimir. 
Monomachivitches  descendants  of  Vladimir 

Monomachus,  i.  81. 
Monuments  of  ancient  tribes,  5.  29,  42. 
Mordvians,  the,  i.  30. 
Morea,  French  in  the,  ii.  256.  ^ 
Morozof,  counsellor  of  Alexis,  i.  272. 
Moscow,  origin,  i.  139. 

Besieged  by  Tatars,  i.  152. 

First   coronation  of   Grand   Prince,  5. 
156. 

Becomes  capital  of  Russia,  i.  156. 

Evacuated  and  burned  by  the  Frenchi 
ii.  187. 

Entry  of  French  army,  ii.  186. 

Terrible  fire,  1547,  i.  187. 

Burned  by  the  Tatars,  i.  200. 

During  the  Renaissance,  i.  227. 

Foreign  ambassadors,  i.  216. 

December  insurrection,  ii.  227. 

Revolts  against  Sigismond,  i.  249. 

Burned  by  the  Poles,  i.  250. 

Terrible  revolt,  1648,  i.  273. 

An  academy  established,  i.  262. 

Return  of  the  court,  ii.  56. 

Insurrection,  ii.  97. 

Plague  of,  1771,  ii.  97- 
Moskowa,  battle  of.    See  Borodino,  ii.  181. 
Mountain  systems  of  Europe,  i.  14. 
Mstislaf  the  Brave,  prince  of  Smolansk,  i.  86, 
.     -     .   , 


3  oo 


INDEX. 


Mftislaf  the  Brave  defeats  Andrew  of  Souzdal 

at  Vychegorod,  i.  86. 
Mstislaf  the  Bold,  i.  98. 
Munich,  Austrian  marshal,  ii.  65,  68. 
Murat,  French  general,  ii.  148. 
Muscovite  Empire,  the,  i.  34. 
Muscovites,  i.  34.      Set  also  Russians. 
Muscovy,  how  formed,  i.  34. 

Extent  in  1472,  i.  165. 

Extends  her  frontier,  i.   170* 

Lower  classes,  i.  217. 
Muscovy.  See  also  Russia. 
Mythology  of  Russia,  i.  38. 


Naples,  French  expelled  from.Ji.   133. 
Napoleon  crowned  Emperor,  ii.  146. 

Diplomatic  activity,  ii.  155. 

And   Alexander   I.  at  Tilsit,  1807,    ii. 

'57- 

War  with  Austria,  ii.  166. 

Creates  parliamentary  Poland,  ii.  171. 

Question  of  Russian  marriage,  ii.  172. 

Consummates  the   Austrian   marriage, 
ii.  172. 

Invasion  of  Russia,  ii.  178. 

Enters  Moscow,  ii.  186. 

Evacuates  Moscow,  ii.  187. 

Crosses  the  Berezina,  ii.  189. 

Reorganizeshisarmy,  ii.  191. 

Destruction  of  the  rear  guard,  ii.  194. 

Battle  of  Leipzig,  ii.  194. 

Defection  of  German  allies,  ii.  195. 

Defeats  army  of  Silesia,  ii.  197. 

Dethronement  proclaimed,  ii.  200. 

Abdication  at  Fontainebleau,  ii.  200. 

Exile  to  Elba,  ii.  200. 

Return  to  Paris,  ii.  202. 
Narva,  siege  of,  ii.  10. 
Navanno,  battle,  1827,  ii.  234. 
Navy,  Russian.     See  Russia. 
Nepei,   Chip,   first   Russian    ambassador    to 

England,  i.  204. 
Nesselrode,  Count,  ii.  234. 
Nestor's  list  of  Russian  Slavs,  i.  27. 
Neva,  importance  as  a  river,  i.  21. 

The,  battie  of,  i.  120. 
Newspaper,  first,  ii.  36.     See  also  ii.  276. 
Ney,  French  marshal,  ii.  153,  187. 

Covers  retreat  of  the  French,  ii.  189. 
N-cholas  I.,  accession,  ii.  226. 

Character,  ii.  228. 

Codification  of  the  laws,  ii.  229. 

Builds  the   first   Russian    railways,  ii. 
230. 

Schools  established,  ii.  230. 

Advance  of  literature,  ii.  23*. 

Ultimatum  to  the  Divan,  ii.  233. 

Declares  war  on  Turkey,  ii.  235. 

Declares  war  against  Khiva,  ii.  236. 

Relations  with  Louis    Philippe,  ii.  244. 

Intervention  in  European  affairs,  1848, 
ii.  247. 

Schemes  recording  Turkey,  ii.  248. 

Death,  ii.  254. 

Nicon,  ecclesiastical  reforms,  i.  283. 
Nijni-Nov^ororl  founded,  1220  ;.  90. 
Nobility,  Russian,  ii.  25. 
Nogais,  Horde  of,  i.  166. 
Nomad  r.iccs  i  :\t  83. 

Normans  of  Russia,  i.  47. 


Novgorod,  city  of  Russiaj  i.  18. 

Geographical  position,  i.  18. 

Siege,  1170,  i.  85. 

Reduced  to   starvation    by    laroslaf. 
89.. 

Description,  i.  95. 

A  political  centre,  i.  95. 

Commercial  interests,  i.  98. 

Institutions,  i.  99. 

Frequent  change  of  rulers,  i.  99. 

Reduced  by  famine  and  fire,  i.  99. 

Magistrates,  i.    100. 

Letter  of  Justice,  1471,  i-   101. 

Constitution  considered  socially,  i.  101 

Commerce  of,  i.  101. 

Religion  and  literature,  i.  102. 

Pays  tribute  to  Dmitri  Donskoi,  i.  152, 

The  Republic  diesj  1478,  i.  164. 
Nystad,  peace  of,  1721,  ii.  46. 

Odessa,  bombardment  of,  ii.  250. 
Office  under  the  Tzar,  i.  211. 
Oldenburg,  ii.  157. 
Oleg  succeeds  Rurik,  i.  49. 

Invasion  of  Tzargrad,  907,  i.  50. 
Oleg  Sviatoslavitch,  prince  of  i  ith  cent.,  i.  78, 
Oleg  of  Riazan,  i.  149. 
Olga,  widow  of  Igor,  i.  51. 

Assumes  the  regency.  1.51. 

Converted  to  Christianity,  i.  51. 

Besieges  Korosthenes,  i.  51. 
Olgerd,  son  of  Gedinim,  i.  132. 
Olgovitches,  decendants  of  Oleg  of  Tchernigc  f, 

i.  81. 

Oktai,  second  Emperor  of  Tatars,  i.  118. 
Orenburg,  ii.  138. 
Oreof,   Alexis,   annihilates  Turkish  fleet  at 

Tchesme,  ii.  94. 
Orlof,  Gregory,  favorite  of  Catherine  II.,  ii. 

100. 

Orthography,  ii.  286. 
Osterrnann,  ii.  154,  183. 
Otrepief,  Gregory.    See  Dmitri,  false,  i.  238. 
Oural,  Tatar  signification,  i.  14. 

Pagan  districts  of  the  Volga,  i.  31. 

Ceremonies,  i.  60. 
Painting,  i.  226. 
Palmerston,  Lord,  ii.  257. 
Paper  replaces  parchment,  i.  146. 
Paris,  entrance  of  the  allies,  ii.  199. 
Treaty  of,  ii.  200. 
Senate    proclaims     dethronement     of 

Napoleon,  ii.  200. 
Treaty  of,  1856,  ii.  257. 
Patkul,  John  Reinhold,  ii.  9. 

Plans  attack  upon  Sweden,  ii.  10. 
Death  upon  the  wheel,  ii.  17. 
Patriarchal  principle  among  Slavs,  i.  41. 

Organization  of  family,  i.  220. 
Patriarchate  ts!.. Wished,  i.  235. 
Patzinnks,  a  barbarian  people,  i.  53.     Seeatif 

Black. 
Paul,  Grand  Duke,  tour  of,  1784,  11.  113- 

.$<•<•  also  Paul  I. 
Paul  I.  peace  policy,  ii.  128. 

Craze  for  Prussian  methods,  ii.  129. 
Peculiar  foreign  policy,  ii.   130. 
Difficulties  with  France,  ii.  130. 
Offers  a«ylrm  t"  Louis  XVIII.,  ii.  130, 
Alliance  wi;h  'I'uikt-y,  ii.  jji. 


INDEX. 


301 


54- 


Alliance  with  Bonaparte,  ii.  138. 

Expedition   against  English  India,   iu 
138. 

Orders  Louis  XVIII.  to  quitMittau,  ii. 
138. 

Death,  1801,  11.  141. 
Peasant  population,   i.   217,  233.      See  also 

Serfs. 

Penal  legislation,  i.  213. 
Pereiaslaf,  Bulgarian  .Capital,  i. 
Permia,  i.  30. 
Permian  branch  of  Finnish  nation,  i.  30. 
Permians,  civilization  of,  i.  30. 
Persia,  mistress  of  the  Caspian,  ii.  47. 

Seeks  to  regain   Georgia  and  the  Cau- 
casus, ii.  169. 

Under  Russian  influence,  ii.  237. 
Peter  the  Great,  i.  293. 

Youth  and  education,  i.  296. 

Intrigues  of  his  sister  Sophia,  i.  292. 

Democratic  conduct,  i.  298. 

Goes  to  Arkhangel,  i.  299. 

Creates  a  navy,  i.  300. 

Departs  for  Western  Europe,  i.  301. 

At  the  German  courts,  i.  301. 

As  a  ship  carpenter,  i.  302. 

Goes  to  London,  i.  302. 

Tastes  offend  the  Russians,  i.  303. 

Revolt  and  destruction  of  the   Streltsi, 

i-  3°3- 

Revolt  of  the  Cossacks,  i.  306. 

Confidence  in  Mazeppa,  i.  307. 

Convinced  of  Mazeppa's  treason,  i.  308. 

Declares  war  against  Sweden,  ii.  10. 

Profits  by  the  lesson  of  Narva,  ii.    12. 

Seeks  possession  of  Neva,  ii.  13. 

Internal  factions,  ii.  131  17. 

Victory  over  Swedes,  ii.  13. 

Tries  to  negotiate  with   Charles  XII., 
ii.  17. 

Reception  of  Swedish  Generals,  ii.  20. 

Reforms  of,  ii.  22. 

Chosen  companions  of,  ii.  24. 

War  against  seclusion  of  women,  ii.  26. 

Provincial  governments,  ii.  28. 

Creates  State  inquisition,  ii.  30. 

Creates  the  Russian  alphabet,  ii.  36. 

Education  of  the  people,  ii.  35. 

Founds  St.  Petersburg,  ii.  37. 

War  with  Turks,  ii.  41. 

Completes  conquest  of    Livonia    and 
Esthonia,  ii.  41. 

Goes  to  Versailles,  ii.  43. 

His  allies  fear  his  ambition,  ii.   43. 

Expels  Swedes  from  Pomerania,  ii.  43. 

Compels  Sweden  to  treat,  ii.  46. 

Domestic  tragedies,  ii.  47. 

Desires  a  port  on  the  Caspian,  ii.  47. 

Marries  a  Lutheran  slave,  ii.  50. 

Children  by  second  marriage,  ii.  51. 

Will  of,  ii.  51. 

Claims  right  to  name  successor,  ii.  51. 

Deaih,  ii.  51. 
Peter  II.,  grandson  of  Peter  the  Great,  ii.  54. 

Treaty  of  commerce  with  Chinese  Em- 
pire, ii.  57. 

Dies  of  small-pox,  ii.  56. 
Peter  III.,  first  measures,  ii.  81. 

Private  life.  ii.  85. 

Foreign  policy,  ii.  85. 

Deposition  and  death,  ii.  85. 

The  false,  ii.  98. 


Philarete,  father  of  Michael  Romanof,  i.  253, 

258,  262. 
Piracy,  ii.  77. 
Plateaus  of  Russia,  i.  15.  • 
Pleswitz,  armistice  of,  h.  192. 
Poetry.     See  Literature, 
Poland,  formation  of,  i.  27. 

Absorbs  Galitch,  i.  94. 

Unites  with  Lithuania,  i.  133. 

Alliance  with  Livonian  Order,  i.  192. 

Contest  for  the  throne,  i.  200. 

Henry   de   Valois  proclaimed  king,  i. 
201. 

Under  Batory,  i.  202. 

Cession  of  Livonia,  1582,  i.  202. 

National   and    religious  prejudices,   i. 
232. 

Rupture  with  Sweden,  i.  233. 

Perfidious  policy,  i.  246. 

Renders   assistance  to  false  Tzars,  i. 
244,  247. 

Truce  with  Russia,  i.  257. 

Influence  of  the  Jesuits,  i.  265. 

Reduced  by  Russian  conquests,  i.  278. 

Dismemberment  considered,  ii.  57. 

Question  of  succession,  1733,  ii.  64. 

Thrice  dismembered,  ii.  88. 

Causes  of  her  ruin,  ii.  88,  89. 

System  of  agriculture,  ii.  90. 

Religious  dissensions,  ii.go. 

The  Confederation,  ii.  91. 

Dismemberment,  ii.  94. 

Needful  reforms,  1773-1791,11.  117. 

Constitution  abolished,  ii.  119. 

Deserted  by  her  allies,  ii.  1 19. 

Second  partition,  ii.  117. 

Compelled  to  legalize  partition,  ii.  120. 

Tribunal  punishes  the  traitors,  ii.  123. 

Third  partition,  ii.  124. 

Under  King  of  Saxony,  ii.  170. 

Constitution  of,  1807,  ii.  170. 

Kingdom  re-established,  ii.  177. 

Fourth  partition,  ii.  201. 

Restoration,  1815,  ii.  205. 

Insurrection  of,  1831,  ii.  239. 

Intervention  of  the  western  powers,  ii. 

272. 

les,  the,  of  Slav  origin,  i.  28. 
i-olice,  ii.  29. 

Poliessa  or  Russian  forest,  i.  21. 
Polish  succession,  war  of,  ii.  65. 

Renaissance,  ii.  117. 

Slavs,  i.  28. 

Political  effect  of  battle  of  Eylau,  ii.  154. 
Polotsk  taken  by  Ivan  IV.,  i.  199. 

Recapture  by  Batory,  i.  201. 
Polovtsi  invasions,  i.  72. 
Polovtsi,  a  barbarian  tribe,  i.  78. 
Polygamy,  i.  41. 
Pope  Eugenius  IV.,  i.  160. 

Vainly  seeks  union  of  the  two  churches, 

i.  160. 

Pope  Gregory  III.  as  mediator,  i.  202. 
Possevino,   Antonio,  account  of  Ivan  IV.,  i. 

202. 
Potemkine,  favorite  of  Catherine  II.,  99,  100, 

114,  116. 

Potsdam,  treaty  of,  ii.  147. 
Pougatchef,  Emilian,  Cossack,    revolt,  ii.  QJ, 

98. 

PraTO.  taken  by  assault,  ii.  124 
PIP.IZSI;,  battle  of,  ii.  149. 


302 


INDEX. 


Preobrajenskoe,  treaty  of,  ii.  10. 
Presburg,  treaty  of,  ii.  150. 
Press,  censorship  of,  ii.  231. 
Printing  protected  by  Ivan  IV.,  i.  225. 
Printing,  ii.  36. 
Property,  division  of,  ii.  26. 
Prussia  neutral  on  the  Polish   succession,  ii. 
64. 

Dangerous  to  Russia,  ii.  73. 

Alliance  with  Russia,  ii.  83. 

Insatiable  greed,  ii.  89. 

Position  on  Polish  question,  ii.  94. 

Fall  consummated  at  Ti.sit,  ii.  157. 

Value  of  the  Russian  alliance,  ii.  284. 
Prussians  take  Cracow,  ii.   123. 

Defeated  by  French,  1806,  ii.  151 
Pruth,  treaty  of,  1711,  ii.  42. 
Pskof,  the  old  town  of,  i.  104. 
Pultown,  siege  of,  ii.  18. 

Political  result  of  Russian  victory,  ii.  jo. 
Puritans,  Russian,  i.  35. 


Railways,  ii.  230,  274. 

Rainfall  in  Russia,  i.  17. 

Raskolniks,  the,  ii.  212. 

Red  Russia,  i-  34. 

Reforms  of  Peter  the  Great,  ii.  22. 

Religion  of  ancient  tribes,  i.  31. 

Revenues  of  the  State,  i.  211. 

Revolution  of  1848,  ii.  246. 

Riazan,  battle  of.  i.  115. 

Richelieu,  Due  de,   succeeds   Talleyrand,  ii. 

203,  204. 

Riga,  foundation  laid,  1200,  i.  108. 
Roman,  prince  of  Volhynia,  conquers   Ga- 

litch,  i.  91. 

Romanof.  Michael,  elected  Tzar,  i.  253. 
Romanof ,  Anastasia,  wife  of  Ivan  IV.,  i.  187. 
Romanofs,  opposition  of  the  boyards,  i.  193. 
Rome,  relations  with  Russia,  i.  68,  108,  132, 

160,  202. 
Rostopchine,  Count,   Governor  of   Moscow, 

ii.  258. 

Roumania,  ii.  258. 
Rousskaia.  Pravda,  or  Code  of  legislation,  i. 

63- 

Rurik,  reign  of,  i.  49. 
Russia,  geographical  extent,  i.  13. 

Coast  waters,  i.  13. 

Inequalities  of  soil,  i.  15. 

Clurme,  i.  16. 

Rivers,  i.  18. 

Its  four  zones,  i.  21. 

Barbarism  of  inland  tribes,  i.  25. 

Primitive  peoples,  i.  30. 

Still  pagan  in  parts,  i.  31. 

Its  real  aborigines,  i.  32. 

How  it  was  colonized,  i.  33. 

Beginning  of  true  history,  i.  48. 

Byzantine  influence,  i.  58. 

Receives  Christianity  from   Constanti- 
nople, i.  67. 

Has  no  alliance  with  Rome,  i.  68. 

Divided  into  principalities,  i.  72. 

Natural  elements  of  cohesion,  i.  76. 

Civil  wars,  i.  76. 

Ecclesiastical  constitution,  i.  103. 

Subjugated   by  Mongols,  i3th  cent.,  i. 
112. 

Under  the   Mongol   yoke,  5.    117,123, 


Relations  with  Rome,  i.  132. 
Establishes  relations  with   the  West,  i . 

'53- 

End  of  the  Tatar  yoke,  i.  166. 
New  armorial  bearings,  i.  172. 
Relations  with  Western  Europe,  i.  173. 

178. 
Growing    importance    as    a     political 

power,  i.  180 

Unity  accomplished,  i.  183. 
Commercial  treaty  with  Sweden,  i.  191. 
Excites  jealousy  of  Germany,  i.  191. 
Aims  at  control  of  the  Baltic,  i.  191. 
Frontier  war  with  Sw  den,  1554,  i-  191. 
Commercial  relations  with    England,  i. 

204. 

Sends  ambassador  to  England,  i.  204. 
Receives  envoys  from  Holland,   Spain, 

and  Italy,  i.  206. 
The  power  of  family,  i.  207 
In  i6th  and  i;th  centuries,  i.  209. 
Civilization  retarded  by  her  neighbors, 

i.  209. 

State  revenues,  i.  211. 
Courts  of  civil  justice,  i.  212. 
Penal  legislation,  i.  213. 
Legislation  in  matter  of  debts,  i.  213. 
The  national  army,  i.  214. 
Seeks  regular  relations    with    foreign 

Powers,  i.  215. 
Ambassadors  to    European   Courts,   i. 

216. 
Treatment  of  foreign  Ambassadors,  L 

216. 

Rural  classes,  i.  217. 
Commerce,  i.  218. 
Towns,  i.  218. 
Domestic  Slavery,  i.  219. 
Seclusion  of  women,  i.  219. 
Superstitions,  i.  222. 
Literature,  i.  223. 
Literature  of  oral  tradition,  i.  225. 
General  prevalence  of  drunkenness,  i. 

221. 

Renaissance  151!!  to  i;th  cent  ,  i.  226. 

Resume's  war  with  Sweden,  i.  233. 

Famine,  1601-1604,  i,  238. 

And  Austria,  i.  232. 

Elements  of  disorder,  i.  239. 

Torn  by  civil  war,  i.  250. 

National   uprising  against    Poland,   i. 

251- 

At  accession  of  the  Romanofs,  i.  254. 
Concentrates  forces  against   Poland,  i. 

257- 
Asks  help  f i om   Holland  and  England, 

i.  255. 
Concludes  peace  with  Sweden,  1617,  i. 

257- 

Relations  with  Europe,  i.  258. 
Asks  aid  of  Louis  XIII.  1615,  i.  259. 
Renews  war  against  Poland,  i.  260. 
Parliamentary  history,  i.  261. 
Privilege  gr.n  .JILTS,  i.  261. 

Desires  control  of  Black  Sea,  i.  ?<Si. 
Forbids  use  of  tobacco,  i.  262. 
The  bishops  struggle  with  Catholicism, 

i.  266. 

Makes  successful  war  on  Poland,  i.  277. 
Revolution  under  Steiiko  Ratine,  i.2X2. 
Writers  of  the  i;th  cent.,  i.  284. 
Accession  of  Peter  tlio  Great,  i.  243. 


INDEX. 


Declares  herself  a  European  Power,  ii. 

20. 

Rural  population,  ii.  ±4. 
Rights  pi  foreigners,  ii.  25. 
Obligations  of  nobility,  ii.  25. 
Seeks  Alliance  with  France,  ii.  46. 
Under  Catherine,  ii.  54. 
War  of  quadruple  alliance,  ii.  56. 
Aristocratic  constitution   attempted,  ii. 

59- 

War  with  Turks,  ii.  66. 
Significance   of  revolution   of   1741,  ii. 

?'• 

On  the  Austrian  succession,  ii.  72. 
Army  crosses  Prussian  frontier,  ii .  74. 
Direct  relations  with  France,  ii.  79. 
Diplomatic  complications,  ii.  74. 
Restoration    of  religious  tolerance,   ii. 

105. 

Annexes  the  Crimea,  ii.  112. 
During  American  war,  1780,  ii.  in. 
Plans  dismemberment  of  Turkey,  ii. 

"3- 

Quadruple  alliance,  ii.  126. 

Rupture  with  France,  ii.  126. 

Joins  coalition,  ii.  131. 

First  war  with  Napoleon,  ii.  142. 

Popular  feeling  against  Napoleon,  ii. 

160. 

War  against  Austria  a  comedy,  ii.  166. 
Invasion  of  Moldavia,  ii.  168. 
Suffers  from   continental   blockade,  ii. 

174. 

Propagation  of  liberal  ideas,  ii.  220. 
Establishment  of  secret  societies,   ii. 

221. 

Voyage  around  the  world,  1803,  ii.  224. 

Secures     commercial     access    to    the 
Black  Sea,  ii.  236. 

Relations  with  China,  ii.  236. 

Possessions  in  Asia,  ii.  236. 

Polish  insurrection,  1831,  ii.  238. 

Influence  checked  by  France  and  Aus- 
tria, ii.  248. 

Attacked  in  all  her  seas,  ii.  250. 

Progress  during  reign  of  Alexander  II. 
ii.  274. 

Military  system,  ii.  277. 

Conquest  in  Asia,  ii.  278. 

Foreign  policy,  ii.  285. 
Russian  race,  extent  of,  i.  33. _ 

Instinct  of  emigration,  i.   35. 

Faculty  of  absorption,  i.  36. 

And  Anglo-Saxon  compared,  i.  35. 

Academy,  ii.  109. 

Army,  foreign  mercenaries,  i.  215. 

Calendar,  ii.  286. 

Russian  Church,  i.  213. 
Russians  of  Slav  origin,  i.  28. 

Patriarchal  principle,  i.  41. 

Tribute  and    subjection   to  Tatars,  i. 
124. 

Intermarry  with  Tatars,  i.  126. 

Averse  to  innovation,  ii.  22. 

Enter  Berlin,  ii.  75. 

Dislike  to  Polish  allies,  ii.  166. 
Russification,  stages  of,  i.  37. 

St.  Petersburg,  relative  location,  i.  17. 

Foundation, .1703,  ii.  37. 

Imperial  library,  ii.  224. 
Saltydof,  Dana,  trial  of,  ii.  1*2. 


Samoyedes,  the,  i.  29. 

Savary,  French  ambassador  to  Russia,  ii.  160. 
Saxo-Polish  conflict,  ii.  201. 
Saxony,  Augustus  of,  ii.  10. 
Scandinavian  armies,  decline  of,  ii.  72. 
Schamyl,  soldier  priest  of  Moslems,  ii.  337. 
Schonbrunn,  treaty  of,  ii.  151. 
Schouvalof,  Count  Ivan,  ii.  77. 
Science,  ii.  277. 

Scythia  of  Herodotus,  the,  i.  24. 
Scythian  worship  and  customs,  i.  35. 
Idiom  identified,  i.  25. 


Scythians,  the,  i.  25. 
Sevastopol,  siege  of,  ii. 


250,  256. 

Secret  societies,  ii.  221. 
Segur,  Comte  de,  ii.  113. 
SeTim  III.,  ii.  167. 
Senate  established,  ii.  27. 
Serfs,  ii.  23,  260. 

Servia,  revolt  of  Janissaries,  ii.  167. 
Severia,  defection  to  Gpdounof,  i.  240. 
Severians,  country  of,  i.  43. 
Siberia  added  to  Russia,  i.  206. 

Begins  to  be  peopled,  ii.  77. 

Russian  survey  of  the  coast,  ii.  224. 
Sigismond  I.  reunites  crowns  of   Wilna  and 
Poland,  i.  177. 

Asks  truce  of  Ivan  IV.,  i.  199. 
Sigismond   Augustus   II.,   King  of   Poland, 

death,  1572,  i.  200. 

Sigismond  of   Sweden  elected  King  of   Po- 
land, i.  233. 

Designs  upon  throne  of  Russia,  i.  247, 
250. 

Demands  Russia  for  Vladislas,  i.  254. 

Dies,  163 2,   i.  260. 
Silvester,  favorite  of  Ivan  IV.,  i.  187,  192. 

Treachery  and  banishment,  i.  193. 
Simeon  the  Proud,  sou  of  Kalita,  i.  146. 
Sit,  the  battle  of,  i.   116. 
Slavery,  domestic,  i.  219. 
Slaves,  sale  of,  ii.  25. 
Slavs,  appearance  in  history,  i.  27. 

Towns  and  tribes,  i.  27. 

Geographical  distribution,  i.  27. 

Russian  and  Polish,  i.  28. 

Religion,  i.  38. 

Civilization,  i.  43. 

Race  extent,  i.  54. 

Tribes,  distribution,  i.  54. 

Tribes,  disappearance  of  ancient  names, 
i.  72. 

Law  of  succession,  i.  77. 
Smolensk,  principality  of,  i.  73. 

Political  importance,  i.  73. 

Taken  by  Poles,  i.  250. 

Social  conditions  from  gth  to  loth  cent.,  i.  67. 
Society  in  time  of  laroslaf,  i.  65. 
Society  of  Virtue,  ii.  221. 
Sophia  Palaeologus  marries  Ivan  III.,  i.  17* 
Sophia,  sister  of  Peter  the  Great,  i.  291. 

Regency  of,  i.  2^1. 

Foreign  policy,  \.  295. 

Plots  against  Peter,  i.  198. 

Conspiracy  for  her  deliverance,  L  304. 

Confined  in  a  monastery,  i.  305. 
Sophia  of  Anhalt.  See  Catherine  II. 
Souvorof,  Russian  general,  ii.  116. 

Before  Praga,  ii.  123. 

Exiled,  ii.  129. 

Recalled  from  exile,  ii.  131. 

Heroic  retreat,  ii.  136. 


INDEX. 


Souzdal,  principalities  of,  5.  74. 

Becomes  centre  of  Russia,  L  83. 

Resists  Tatar  impost,  i.  122. 
Souzdalian  army  defeated  by  Tatars,  i.  116. 
Sovereignty  of 'Russian  princes,  i.  69. 
Spanish  succession,  war  of,  1712-1713,  ii.  42. 
Speranski,  ii.  213. 

Stanislas  Leszczinski   declared  King  of   Po- 
land, ii.  64,  65. 

Stanislas   Poniatovski,    King  of   Poland,   ii. 
117. 

King,  captivity,  ii.  130. 

States-General  convoked  by  Ivan  IV.,  i.  199. 
Statues,  ii.  225. 

Stenko   Razine,  a  Cossack  leader,  i.  281. 
Steppes,  arable,  zone  of,  i.  21. 

Barren,  zone  of,  i.  22. 
Stolboyo,  peace  of,  1617,  i.  257. 
Streitsi  founded  by  Ivan  IV.,  i.  208. 

Mutiny  in  reign  of   Peter  the  Great,  i. 

303. 
Strogonofs  explore    mineral    wealth   of    the 

Ourals,  i.  206. 

Sublime  Porte.     See  Turkey. 
Superstition,  i.  222. 
Suomen-maa.     See  Finland. 
Suomi,  the  three  tribes  of,  i.  29. 
Sriatopolk,  nephew  of  Vladimir,  i.  61. 

Usurps  throne  of  Kief,  i.  62. 
Sviatoslaf,  son  of  Igor,  i.  51. 

Assumes  the  government,  i.  52. 

Defeats  the  Khazars,  i.  53. 

Death  of,  i.  56. 
Sweden,  frontier  war  with  Russia,  i.  191. 

Rupture  with  Poland,  i.  233. 

Renewed  war  with  Russia,  i.  233. 

Terms  of  peace  with   Russia,  1617,  i. 
257. 

Struggle     between      aristocracy     and 
crown,  ii.  9. 

Relations  to  France,  ji-  14. 

Becomes  Power  of  third  rank,  ii.  to. 

Deserted  by  her  allies,  ii.  43. 
Swedes  invade  Russia,  i.  202. 
Swedish  army  destroyed,  ii.  20. 
Synod,  Holy,  ii.  31. 


Talleyrand,  ii.  109,  201. 
Tamerlane,  head  of  Mongols,  i.  151. 

Invades  Russia,  i.  154. 

Pillages  the  Golden  Horde,  i.  154. 
Targovitsa,  Confederates  of,  ii.  1 19. 
Ta-ta.     See  Tatar. 
Tatars,  the,  i.  35. 

First  appearance,  1724,  i.  72. 

Invasion,  i.  93. 

A  Mongol  tribe,  i.  1 12. 

Second  invasion,  i.  115. 

Success,  cause  of,  i.  117. 

Embrace  the  Islam  faith,  i.  119. 

Religious  toleration,  i.  129. 

Allies  under  Mamai,  i.  149. 

Of  Crimea,  i.  167. 

Allies  of  Sigismond  and  Vassili,  i.  178. 

Dissensions,  i.  179. 

Crimea,  i.  179. 

Of  Crimea,  raids,  i.  199. 

Burn  Moscow,  i.  200. 

Message  to  Ivan  IV.,  i.  200. 
Tatirian  invasion  of  Russia,  i.  179. 


35- 


Taxes,  ii.  30. 
Tcheremisses,  the,  i.  30. 
Tcherinchef,  mission  to  Napoleon,  ii.  174. 
Tchoud  or  Lett  tribes  of  Baltic,  i.  107. 
Tchouvaches,  the,  i.  30. 
Telegraphs,  ii.  274. 
Teheran,  ii.  254. 

Teutonic  Knights,  power  crushed,  i.  136. 
Theatres,  ii.  63.  79. 
Thugut,  ii.  132. 

Tilsel,   Conference    between    Napoleon    an4 
Alexander  I.,  ii.  157. 

Treaty  of,  1807,  ii.  158. 
Tobacco,  use  forbidden,  i.  262. 
Torques.     See  Black  Caps. 
Touchino,  Tzar  of,  i.  246. 
Towns,  i.  43. 

Trees  of  Northern  Russia,  i.  21. 
Tribes,  i.  24. 

Tributes  in  time  of  laroslof,  i.  66. 
Troppan,  Congress  of  ,  ii.  217. 
Tumuli,  See  monuments, 
Turkestan,  Russian  rule,  ii.  279. 
Turkey  declares  war  on  Russia,  ii.  93. 

Ultimatum  rejected  declares  war  against 
Russia,  ii.  114. 

Serious  internal  troubles,  ii.  208. 

Demands   European    non-interference, 
"•  234. 

Concludes  two  treaties,  ii.  235. 

Russian  protectorate,  ii.  245. 
Turkish  races  in  Russia,  i.  33. 

Fleet,  destruction  at  Navarino,  ii.  2__ 
Turks  and  Tatars  besiege  Astrakhan,  i.  200. 
Tzar,  relations  with  his  people,  i.  209. 
Tzar,  mode  of  selecting  wives,  i.  211. 
Tzargrad  (Byzantium),  expedition  against,  i. 

49- 
Tzars,  the  empire  of,  i.  15. 


Ukraine,  rebels,  i.  241,  270. 

Undermined  by  factions,  i.  307. 
Ulm,  Capitulation  of,  ii.  147. 
Uniate  Church,  i.  270, 

United  States,  Russia  opens  relations,  ii.  224. 
Unity  of  Russian  States,  i.  76. 

ValdaT,  the  plateau  of,  i.  18. 
Valleys  of  Russia,  i.  15. 
Varangians,  origin  of,  i.  45. 

As  soldiers  and  sailors,  i.  46. 

Princes,  administration  of,  i.  66. 
Vassili  Dmitrievitch,  i.  153. 

Accession  to  throne,  i.  154. 
Vassili  the  Blind,  i.   156. 
Vassili  the  Squinting,  i.  157. 
Vassili  Ivanovitch  son  of  Ivan  III.,  i.  17$. 

Wars  with  Lithuania,  i.  177. 

Acquires  Smolensk,  i.  177. 
Varojevski  succeeds  Kpsciuszko,  ii.  124. 

Accept  convention   at   Radochitse,    ft. 

125. 

Verona,  Congress  of,  ii.  208. 
Vetche,  assembly  of  the  citizens,  i.  96. 

Extensive  powers,  i.  100. 
Victoria,    Queen,   visits   Louis   Napoleon,  it 

256. 
Vienna,  Congress  of,  ii.  200. 

Conference  of  the  five  powers,  ii  144. 


INDEX. 


305 


Vttleneuve,  French  ambassador,  ii.  66. 
Vistula,  legions  of,  ii.  171. 
Vititchevo,  town  on  the  Dnieper,  i-  79. 
Vitovt,  career  of,  i.  124,  137. 

Crusade  of  the  Vorskla,  1399,  i.  155. 
Vladimir,  son  of  Sviatoslaf,  i.  58. 

The  Russian  Clovis,  i.  38. 

Religious  aspirations,  i.  39. 

Is  baptized,  i.  60. 

Destroys  the  idols,  i.  60. 

Builds  churches,  i.  60. 

Mames  sister  of  Greek  Emperors,  i.  60. 

Dies,  1015,  i.  61. 

Successors  of,  i.  62. 
Vladimir  Monomachus,  son  of  Vsevolod,  i.  78. 

Becomes  Grand  Prince,  i.  79. 

Successes  against  the  nomads,  i.  79. 
Vladislas,  son  of  Sigismond,  i.  248.  257. 

Becomes  King  of  Poland,  i.  260. 

Death,  i.  2^5. 
Volga,  principal  river  of  Russia, !.  20, 

Basin  and  tributaries,  i.  20. 
Volhynia,  division  of  South-east  Russia.  L  74. 


Volost.     See  Commune,  i.  42. 

Voltaire, relations  with  Schouvaloi,  ii.  So. 

Correspondence  with  Catherine  II.,  ii. 

1 08. 

Vsevolod,  brother  of  Isiaslaf,  i.  78. 
Wallachia,  ii.  234,  247. 

Warsaw,  plan  to  make  Ivan  IV.  King  of  P» 
land,  i.  200. 

Diet  of,  ii.  117. 

Expels  Russians,  ii.  122. 
Water-system  of  Russia,  i.  19. 
Waterloo,  battle  of,  ii.  202. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  ii.  234. 
White  Russia,  i.  33. 
White  Sea,  English  expedition,  i.  203. 

Natural  obstructions   to  commerce,  ii. 

33- 

Wife  capture,  custom  of,  i.  31. 
Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh,  expedition,  i.  203. 
Wilna  revolts  against   Russian  authority,  ii 
123. 

Recaptured  by  Russians,  ii.  114. 
Zaporogues,  i.  269,  300. 


N 


